Who's Still Using Sublime Text to Write Code in 2026?

Preface

My history with Sublime goes back to college ten years ago (it went by so fast—ten years already 😂)

Back then, editors of every kind were competing with one another—nothing like now, when it's all VSCode and all kinds of AI IDE editors built on VSCode.

In an era overrun by Electron (Chromium) wrapper editors, Sublime Text, with the silky feel of being natively driven by C++, is still my first choice as a Notepad replacement.

That said, I never really configured Sublime before—I just used the defaults, out of the box.

Recently, while working on some scripts and notes, I suddenly felt like tinkering with it again, and only then realized Sublime is far more fun to customize than I'd imagined.

This post is a brief record of that tinkering process.

Here's a screenshot first

Package Manager (Plugins)

Before we get started, Package Control is a must-install.

It's the gateway to the entire Sublime ecosystem.

Similar to VSCode, you can bring up the command palette with Ctrl + Shift + P, and most operations can be done via commands.

Type Install Package Control and a new world opens up.

Themes and Color Schemes

For developers who believe “looks are justice,” color is the soul of an editor.

Similar to IDEA, Sublime Text lets you customize the theme and color scheme, and the two have different scopes:

• Color Scheme: its scope only affects the code editing area
• Theme: affects the entire UI of the app—the sidebar background, the shape of the tabs, the status bar style, and the command palette colors.

A lot of people finish configuring and find that only the code changed color, while the sidebar is still the stock look. At that point you need to search for two things in the command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P):

1. UI: Select Color Scheme: change the colors of the code area.
2. UI: Select Theme: change the skin of the sidebar and tabs.

Strongly recommended: turn on the official built-in Adaptive theme. It automatically extracts the dominant colors from your code color scheme and applies them to the sidebar, unifying the look of the whole app!

Theme Recommendations

I think the built-in Adaptive already looks great, so I didn't bother installing other themes. If you want to tinker, feel free to explore on your own.

Adaptive (built into Sublime)

If you don't want a heavy third-party theme, Sublime's built-in Adaptive theme is actually extremely clever.

• Look: it automatically recolors based on the Color Scheme you pick.
• Effect: if you pick a purple code color scheme, the sidebar automatically turns deep purple too.
• How to set it: UI: Select Theme -> select Adaptive.sublime-theme.

Material Theme (the classic all-in-one)

It's one of the most famous themes in Sublime's history.

• Look: follows Google's Material Design guidelines.
• Effect: after installing, the sidebar, search box, and even the context menu become very modern and flat.
• Highlight: it comes with a matching Color Scheme, so the whole editor is highly consistent from the inside out.

Color Scheme Recommendations

If you're tired of the default mediocre gray-black look, try these high-saturation color schemes:

Tip: pair it with the A File Icon plugin so the sidebar fills up with matching colorful icons by file type (Python, Rust, PowerShell, etc.)—looks maxed out.

Switching themes: bring up the command palette with Ctrl + Shift + P, type Select Color Scheme to switch

You can also set it to automatically switch between dark/light themes based on system settings

Programming Language Support

Sublime Text can add support for different languages via plugins

I mostly use Sublime Text to edit PowerShell scripts and occasionally tweak markdown notes, so I installed the following plugins.

PowerShell

As a staple for sysadmins and script enthusiasts, Sublime's PowerShell support can be very fine-grained. After installing the PowerShell plugin, even complex script logic becomes clearly structured.

LSP

If you want IntelliSense-like features similar to VSCode, the LSP plugin is the core. It lets Sublime talk to external language servers:

Install the LSP plugin as the base framework.

Install plugins for each language (such as LSP-PowerShellEditorServices or LSP-pyright). You can enjoy native editor speed while still having go-to-definition, real-time error checking, and more.

The LSP I use for PowerShell: https://github.com/sublimelsp/LSP-PowerShellEditorServices

Markdown Support

Sublime is also my favorite lightweight note-taking tool. To make Markdown nicer to use, I set up the following combo:

MarkdownEditing: improves syntax highlighting and also provides typewriter mode, keeping your gaze centered on the screen.

Markdown Extended: Sublime's built-in Markdown highlighting has weak support for fenced code blocks. This plugin can recognize languages inside Markdown code blocks (such as Rust, Python, Go, etc.) and apply the corresponding syntax highlighting.

Table Editor: auto-aligns Markdown tables, so you can say goodbye to the pain of manually lining up | characters.

MarkdownPreview: follows an on-demand principle—preview in the browser with one click, without wasting system memory on live rendering.

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The result after configuring it is pretty nice

Other Settings

The essence of Sublime is low-level fine-tuning via JSON files. Open Preferences -> Settings and add the following to the User file:

{
    "highlight_line": true,       // 高亮当前行
    "caret_style": "smooth",      // 开启丝滑呼吸灯光标
    "scroll_speed": 2.0,          // 加速滚动
    "draw_white_space": "all",    // 显式细节控制
    "font_size": 12,              // 建议开启连字字体
    "translate_tabs_to_spaces": true
}

Wrap-up

Who's still using Sublime Text in 2026?

Me.

In an era when every editor wants to become an operating system, and even Notepad is stuffing in AI models, staying light, staying native, and keeping that instant-launch thrill is itself a kind of geek obstinacy.

From a fleeting glimpse ten years ago to picking up the tinkering again a decade later, Sublime Text proves that a good tool doesn't fade with time—it only grows sharper through focus.

In an age that chases all-in-one suites and AI automation, staying light and keeping a sense of control over every line of code—that's the attitude a programmer should have.

PS: I've also been tinkering with Zed lately, a native IDE written in Rust—very light and very fast. Paired with a large model you can build your own AI Code Agent. I'll write a post about it when I have time.