Color Highlighting documentation

[Printoiid]

This isn't well documented, I've already viewed multiple issues regarding this with the responses being not so helpful, to not helpful at all.

Documentation states there are highlight groups available for configuration
But where should this be defined in a configuration? An updated example in this section would be helpful, but as I've seen so far, each individual asking about this has had their issue answered and then immediately closed - none of these answers have been helpful thus far.

First issue searched, Again, where does DashboardDesc reside?
Second issue, I shouldn't need to change themes.
Third issue, yeah, the highlight groups are in the readme, but where should those reside in the configuration, should it be an autocommand, or a property in the lua file where this is loaded?

The highlight groups documented have zero context around them and does not speak to where they should exist.

Some information here, or an updated example would be helpful. Maybe I'm just being a moron, but I'll gladly admit to it and update the example if concrete advice is given.

return {
    'nvimdev/dashboard-nvim',
    event = 'VimEnter',
    config = function()
        require('dashboard').setup {
            theme = 'doom',
            config = {
                header = {
                    -- Some ASCII image
                },
                center = {
                    {
                        icon = ' ',
                        icon_hl = 'Group',
                        desc = 'Configure NeoVim [C]onfiguration files',
                        desc_hl = 'String',
                        key = 'c',
                        keymap = '<leader>sn',
                        key_hl = 'Number',
                        key_format = ' [%s]',
                        action = 'Telescope find_files',
                    },
                },
                footer = {
                    -- Some ASCII image
                },
                vertical_center = true,
            },
        }
    end,
    dependencies = { 'nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons' },
}

[x07a4]

Technically, highlights can go right into the config. Not always ideal, but it does the job.

      local function set_hl(group, opts)
        vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, group, opts)
      end

      set_hl("DashboardHeader", { fg = "#880000", bg = "none" })
      set_hl("DashboardDesc", { fg = "#008800", bg = "none" })
      set_hl("DashboardKey", { fg = "#000088", bg = "none" })
      set_hl("DashboardIcon", { fg = "#008888", bg = "none" })

    end, --config
    dependencies = { 'nvim-tree/nvim-web-devicons' },

[polirritmico]

The thing is, this is highly dependent on your own configuration. Beyond providing the list of highlight groups —as already shown in the README— I agree that could be improved by adding more details, but in the end, that information is all you need. In nvim v0.11, you can right-click and use Inspect, which will show the highlight group name or if you have Telescope you could use :Telescope highlights and search for Dashboard.

As for applying it, some colorschemes provide specific helper functions to customize highlight groups. For example, in Tokyonight or Monokai NighTasty, there’s on_highlights:

require("tokyonight").setup({
  on_highlights = function(highlights, colors)
    highlights.DashboardHeader = {
      fg = colors.orange,
    }
  end,
})

Beyond each plugin’s own approach, as already mentioned, you can always use the manual method:

vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, "DashboardHeader", { fg = "#ff00ff" })

Test it like this in normal mode with the Dashboard open: :lua vim.api.nvim_set_hl(0, "DashboardHeader", { fg = "#ff00ff" }).

There’s a lot of documentation about this. Check :h nvim_set_hl, :h hi, or the documentation provided by your theme plugin (if it has any).

If that doesn’t work for you or you need more details, feel free to ask 👍.