Because Álvaro Ramírez has been building so many useful packages and applications lately, I’ve been writing about him a lot. I’ve always thought his Emacs theme looked nice despite the fact that it’s a dark theme. The minions, of course, are tut tutting about this and demanding that the heathens be cast out but I’m more sanguine.
Although I still much prefer a light theme, it’s nonetheless true that his theme has good contrast and is readable unlike many dark themes. Now you can see this for yourself. Ramírez has posted My Emacs eye candy, which describes his Emacs theme and its configuration.
He uses the Material theme but has made many custom tweaks to it. If you must use a dark theme and don’t mind constant hectoring from the minions, his example is a good one to follow. He uses the JetBrains Mono typeface. It’s nice looking and distinguishes between zero and oh; ell, one, and eye; and comma and period. I’ve been using the inconsolata font for at least 15 years and have been very happy with it but either is a good choice.
He has many other small customizations including the execrable (sorry) Nyan Cat, tweaks to the minibuffer, the Welcome screen, and a few others. Again, if you’re looking for a nice Emacs configuration using a dark theme, Ramírez’s is a good place to start. Or you could abandon the dark side and come back to truth, light, and goodness.