I really like the Monokai Pro theme. I’m using it in Helix as I write this post. Specifically, I really like the “Ristretto” sub theme, which hits a really nice note with its browns, oranges, and cyans. (Green figures heavily in it, too, and it’s one of those things where it can be used well or used too much, so I won’t use kitty’s version of Ristretto because I’d need to go in and figure out how to swap out the green in my shell color scheme and haven’t yet.)
So today I made Monokai Pro Ristretto themes for mutt and Taskwarrior, and in the process discovered that there’s a business entity that licenses an icon pack and themes for a few editors. It grants an endless demo license or you can pay a few Euro to license it for your editor, so there’s not exactly a heinous money grab involved. If Monokai has been involved in cease and desists against terminal theme authors, feel free to inform me.
But I’ve been seeing Monokai, Monokai Pro, and the assorted variants around forever, everywhere, and never realized anyone was selling licenses. I’d be gobsmacked if any of the people shipping Monokai Pro themes (as opposed to plain old Monokai) licensed them for distribution. I get the impression the designer is happy to get a few euro for his efforts and more pleased to have made a thing that is literally everywhere.
Anyhow, I guess there’s sort of an applied ethics thing here, which is “now I know,” so I’ll keep what I came up with to myself and slide a few bucks to the designer, because Monokai and/or Monokai Pro has been a goto for me on every terminal app and editor I’ve used that supports it for a while, and the creator has signaled that he’d like some money for his work.
You can read about Monokai Pro’s history from back in TextMate days to today if you’re curious. I think if my theme had screen time on an episode of Silicon Valley I’d be jazzed, too.