Your vimrc should contain something like this: if has("gui_running") colorscheme peachpuff else set t_Co=256 "set background=dark " dark/light if useful " The ctermbg option has been chosen using vim_bg_color_test.vim script highlight Normal ctermfg=black ctermbg=222 endif Vim documentation gives only one example, for Vim users: :highlight Normal ctermfg=grey ctermbg=darkblue and Vim gives access to "colortest.vim" script which seems to me too difficult to tweak.