Formosa Theme: From a Limited Edition Porsche to Editor Themes

One day while browsing the internet, I stumbled upon a special car — the Porsche 911 Carrera T "Formosa".

This is a one-of-one creation built for Taiwan through Porsche's Sonderwunsch (special wishes) program, named "Formosa" as a tribute to this beautiful island.

The exterior features Ipanema Blue, while the interior combines Night Green checkered fabric, Truffle Brown leather, and Paldao Wood trim. This color combination immediately caught my eye — elegant yet distinctive.

And so, an idea was born:

Turn these colors into a code editor theme — my way of paying tribute to the land I call home.

Disclaimer: This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Porsche AG. "Porsche", "911 Carrera T", and related marks are trademarks of Porsche AG. This theme is an independent fan creation inspired by publicly available images.

Extracting Color Codes ​

I extracted color codes from the Porsche website and vehicle images, capturing the HEX values one by one:

These colors became the foundation of the theme.

Design Philosophy ​

With the color codes in hand, I started thinking about how to apply them to editor themes:

• Light themes: Imagine sitting in the cream leather interior, gazing at Taiwan's coastline or mountains
• Dark themes: Imagine standing on Taiwan's coast or in its forests at night, with Porsche colors glowing softly under starlight

I decided to create four variants:

• Formosa Light - Ipanema Blue
• Formosa Light - Night Green
• Formosa Dark - Ipanema Blue
• Formosa Dark - Night Green

Building the Zed Theme ​

My primary editor is Zed, so I started there. After repeatedly adjusting contrast and readability, I submitted my first PR to zed-industries/extensions.

The theme was successfully merged. It has now surpassed 100 downloads! Quite unexpected, and I'm grateful for the community's support.

Zed version: github.com/takeshiyu/formosa-zed-theme

Porting to VS Code ​

After completing the Zed version, I wanted to try porting it to VS Code — after all, it's one of the most widely used editors.

During the porting process, I encountered an interesting issue: VS Code's Bracket Pair Colorization feature overrides theme bracket color settings. The solution was to explicitly set colors for editorBracketHighlight.foreground1 through foreground6 in the theme.

VS Code version: github.com/takeshiyu/formosa-vscode-theme

Porting to Ghostty ​

Apart from Zed, Ghostty is my other daily driver.

Ghostty version: github.com/takeshiyu/formosa-ghostty-theme

About the Name ​

Formosa is what 16th-century Portuguese sailors called Taiwan, meaning Beautiful Island.

Using this name for the theme not only echoes the Porsche's naming, but is also a small tribute to Taiwan.

Final Thoughts ​

From discovering a car to completing two editor themes, this little project took me a few evenings. As a starting point for 2026, it's been a pretty good beginning.

If you like this color scheme, feel free to try it out:

• Zed: Search "Formosa" in Extensions
• VS Code: Search "Formosa Theme" in Marketplace