# libgedit-gtksourceview :: Style schemes

## Introduction

In libgedit-gtksourceview, a style scheme (or also called color scheme) is used for the syntax highlighting.

A style scheme is defined in an XML file.

## File format

See the style scheme file format documentation.

## Directories

To find style scheme files, libgedit-gtksourceview looks by default at several directories, relying on the XDG Base Directory Specification:

`${XDG_DATA_HOME}/libgedit-gtksourceview-300/styles/`
  Used in priority.
`${data_dir}/libgedit-gtksourceview-300/styles/`
  For each `data_dir` of `${XDG_DATA_DIRS}`.

On a typical GNU system, this usually includes:

- `~/.local/share/libgedit-gtksourceview-300/styles/`
- `/usr/local/share/libgedit-gtksourceview-300/styles/`
- `/usr/share/libgedit-gtksourceview-300/styles/`

## Default style schemes

The libgedit-gtksourceview team prefers to just keep a small number of style schemes distributed with the library. To add a new style scheme in libgedit-gtksourceview itself, the style scheme must be very popular, and ideally a libgedit-gtksourceview-based application must use it by default.