The default installation of vim simply displays its text in monochrome, but by adding commands to (one of) vim's "startup files", it will add colours to code keywords, comments, .... To download and add the necessary commands to vim's startup file: prompt> curl -o xxxxxx [CITS2002]⬈ prompt> cat xxxxxx >> ~/.vimrc prompt> rm -f xxxxxx Now, the next time you edit a, say, C file with vim if should provide coloured syntax-highlighting. If you're brave enough, you can manually change the colour-scheme by editing the ~/.vimrc file itself (using vim). And if you search the web for phrases such as "vim color scheme", you'll find many other pre-built schemes that you can download and install (usually in other vim startup files).