How can I activate Vim color schemes in OS X's Terminal?

Question

I'm working with the Vim 7.2 that comes with Mac OS 10.6.1 (Leopard), using the Mac's "Terminal" app. I'd like to use a fancy color scheme. I did this...

:syntax on

Then this...

:colorscheme slate

:colorscheme elflord

:colorscheme desert

etc...

Syntax highlighting is working, but I'm finding that regardless of the scheme I choose, the only colors displayed are the basic Red, Blue, Cyan, Gray, etc.

Is there a way to get the Terminal app to display a larger collection of colors to allow some more subtle schemes?

Answer 1

You might want to consider using a version of Vim that is a native Mac app (that runs in a window).

MacVim has great color schemes and you can still launch it from Terminal like so:

$ mvim file.txt

That will open your file in a new Vim window.

Answer 2

The Terminal.app supports AFAIK only 16 colors; iTerm supports more colors or you use mvim (as suggested by Daniel).

Answer 3

@ashcatch - Can't leave a comment, but wanted to add that iTerm has other advantages over Terminal.app such as sensible copy and paste (configurable 'word' regex for easy double click selection of paths/urls, middle click paste) and terminal mouse support (:se mouse=a in vi to get mouse text selection, moving of window borders etc.)

I'd be lost without it.