Question
I'm disappointed because of the vim behaviour under Ubuntu 13.04 and the issues I'm having the color reproduction.
I have problems when setting a colorscheme and I also tried to fix this issue with set t_Co=256 but I can do anything and nothing changes. I also tried different terminal emulators a and different settings but really nothing changes.
I tried Gvim and apparently it handles the colors correctly nd I have a much more consistent behaviour, now my question is: what am I missing when using gvim instead of vim?
I'm a new vim user so I don't know the potential of these two applications.
EDIT:
For example this is how the darkblue theme looks like under vim running in gnome-terminal 
Solution
Assuming your Ubuntu environment is correctly set up (and judging from the screenshot, it is), you're probably just disappointed that most colorschemes don't come with high color support in the terminal.
You can use the CSApprox plugin (or one of its alternatives) to translate a GUI colorscheme to a high-color (i.e. 88-256 color) terminal. That will get you a closer approximation.
OTHER TIPS
Terminal Vim, especially when you want to use high-color colorschemes, is indeed more work to set up. However, you'll find a plethora of articles and tips on the Web. Since you didn't tell your precise problems, just two tips:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16711226
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Russiangnome-terminal, and properly set the TERM variable (i.e. gnome-256color); this avoids messing with :set t_Co, which is a hack.Visually, you gain some additional highlighting capabilities like the undercurl for spelling errors, and the full 24-bit RGB spectrum of colors.
You also have more keys available for mapping (or at least, more keys are straightforward to map without having to delve into key code and terminal issues).
If your Vim workflow heavily interacts with the shell, i.e. if you execute lots of external :!shell-command, or :make, or launch a :shell from within Vim, only the terminal offers full capabilities; GVIM only has a primitive terminal emulation built-in, so some output may be wrong or is missing highlighting.
I personally do most of my editing in GVIM, but occasionally start Vim in a terminal (e.g. to edit Linux config files or through SSH).
The vanilla colorschemes can't make assumptions about the number of colors, so they are conservative and expect only the 16 basic colors of the PC era.
Setting up color for vim in 256 color XTerm is a bit more involved, but the result is pleasing. Here's what I use. Be sure that your XTerm is actually a 256 color version (it is by default on Ubuntu). This setup will make both vim and gvim use the same colors.
As a bonus, if you have configured your XTerm to use TrueType fonts, it can render highlight as italic--see the white comments (if the font supports it; I use *faceName: Droid Sans Mono).
" If the xterm supports 256 colors, make sure TERM=xterm-256color.
" If it supports 256 colors but sets TERM=xterm, edit the appropriate
" resource file (~/.Xdefaults or $XAPPLRESDIR/XTerm) and add
" *termName: xterm-256color
" For mintty, select the xterm-256color TERM value in the options menu.
if &term == "xterm-256color"
" Also for Cygwin's mintty.
set t_Co=256
elseif $PROFILE_OS == "Solaris"
set t_Co=256
elseif (&term == "xterm" || &term =~ "cons") && $TTY =~ "/dev/ttyv"
" Adjust for FreeBSD syscons with ANSI colors.
set t_Co=16
map <Esc>[2~ i
map <Esc>[3~ x
map <Esc>[5~ <C-B>
map <Esc>[6~ <C-F>
colorscheme delek
elseif &term == "cygwin"
" Adjust for Cygwin in a cmd.exe window.
set t_Co=16
colorscheme koehler
endif
"
" The cterm color numbers refer to XTerm colors in 256 color mode.
" Map rgb to cterm colors using <URL:https://gist.github.com/719710>.
" cterm=underline is rendered as italic with xterm +ulit
" gui=NONE turns off bold, italic.
"
" Normal must be set before colors "fg" and "bg" can be used.
highlight Normal ctermfg=216 ctermbg=233 guifg=#ffaf87 guibg=#121212
" pink C 'c'
highlight Character
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=211 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#ff87af guibg=bg
" gray This comment.
highlight Comment
\ cterm=underline ctermfg=250 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=italic guifg=#bcbcbc guibg=bg
highlight ColorColumn cterm=NONE ctermfg=7 ctermbg=99 gui=NONE guifg=#c0c0c0 guibg=#875fff
" blue if/then/else/fi.
highlight Conditional
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=27 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#005fff guibg=bg
" lightgreen Numbers and quoted strings.
highlight Constant
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=82 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#5fff00 guibg=bg
highlight Cursor
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=black ctermbg=red
\ gui=NONE guifg=black guibg=red
highlight CursorColumn cterm=NONE ctermfg=7 ctermbg=97 gui=NONE guifg=#c0c0c0 guibg=#875faf
highlight DiffAdd cterm=NONE ctermfg=8 ctermbg=24 gui=NONE guifg=#808080 guibg=#005f5f
highlight DiffChange cterm=NONE ctermfg=8 ctermbg=56 gui=NONE guifg=#808080 guibg=#5f00d7
highlight DiffDelete cterm=NONE ctermfg=8 ctermbg=88 gui=NONE guifg=#808080 guibg=#870000
highlight DiffText cterm=NONE ctermfg=8 ctermbg=90 gui=NONE guifg=#808080 guibg=#870087
" Status line.
highlight Error
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=196 ctermbg=234
\ gui=NONE guifg=#ff0000 guibg=black
highlight ErrorMsg
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=172 ctermbg=black
\ gui=NONE guifg=orange guibg=black
highlight Folded
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=112 ctermbg=235
\ gui=NONE guifg=#87d700 guibg=#262626
highlight FoldColumn
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=112 ctermbg=235
\ gui=NONE guifg=#87d700 guibg=#262626
" green Function names (has()).
highlight Function
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=46 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#00ff00 guibg=bg
" lightyellow Names.
highlight Identifier
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=139 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#af87af guibg=bg
highlight Include
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=50 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#00ffd7 guibg=bg
highlight LineNr
\ cterm=underline ctermfg=244 ctermbg=237
\ gui=italic guifg=#808080 guibg=#3a3a3a
highlight Macro
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=203 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#ff5f5f guibg=bg
" --More--
highlight MoreMsg
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=123 ctermbg=238
\ gui=NONE guifg=#87ffff guibg=#444444
" --INSERT--
highlight ModeMsg
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=123 ctermbg=238
\ gui=NONE guifg=#87ffff guibg=#444444
" Tilde and @ at the end of the window.
highlight NonText
\ cterm=bold ctermfg=cyan ctermbg=bg
\ gui=bold guifg=cyan guibg=bg
highlight Operator
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=129 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#af00ff guibg=bg
highlight PmenuSbar cterm=NONE ctermfg=fg ctermbg=32 gui=NONE guifg=fg guibg=#0087d7
" medium blue #if/#else/#endif ${foo}
highlight PreProc
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=75 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#5fafff guibg=bg
" Hit-enter and yes/no questions.
highlight Question
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=green ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=green guibg=bg
highlight Search
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=153 ctermbg=237
\ gui=NONE guifg=cyan guibg=gray10
" violett <F11>, printf %s, `cmd`
highlight Special
\ cterm=bold ctermfg=125 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=bold guifg=#af005f guibg=bg
" violett <F11> in map
highlight SpecialKey
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=135 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#af5fff guibg=bg
highlight SpellBad
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=88 ctermbg=140
\ gui=NONE guifg=#870000 guibg=#af87d7
highlight SpellCap
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=88 ctermbg=138
\ gui=NONE guifg=#870000 guibg=#af8787
highlight SpellLocal
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=118 ctermbg=236
\ gui=NONE guifg=#87ff00 guibg=#303030
highlight SpellRare
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=19 ctermbg=75
\ gui=NONE guifg=#0000af guibg=#5fafff
" lightblue Keywords (highlight).
highlight Statement
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=44 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#00d7d7 guibg=bg
highlight StatusLine
\ cterm=bold ctermfg=41 ctermbg=239
\ gui=bold guifg=#00d75f guibg=#4e4e4e
highlight StatusLineNC
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=245 ctermbg=239
\ gui=NONE guifg=#8a8a8a guibg=#4e4e4e
" olive static, const, volatile
highlight StorageClass
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=98 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#875fd7 guibg=bg
" green ''foo''
highlight String
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=35 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#00af5f guibg=bg
" titles for output from ":set all", ":autocmd" etc.
highlight Title
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=123 ctermbg=238
\ gui=NONE guifg=#87ffff guibg=#444444
" TODO XXX
highlight Todo
\ cterm=bold ctermfg=161 ctermbg=181
\ gui=bold guifg=#d7005f guibg=#d7afaf
" lightbeige int, long, ... ctermfg
highlight Type
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=170 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#d75fd7 guibg=bg
" gray Visual selection
highlight Visual
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=215 ctermbg=238
\ gui=NONE guifg=burlywood guibg=gray30
" gray Visual selection
highlight VisualNOS
\ ctermfg=215 ctermbg=238 ctermbg=bg
\ gui=NONE guifg=#5090c0 guibg=gray30
highlight WarningMsg
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=green ctermbg=black
\ gui=NONE guifg=green guibg=black
highlight WildMenu
\ cterm=NONE ctermfg=23 ctermbg=148
\ gui=NONE guifg=#005f5f guibg=#afd700
if &term == "xterm-256color" && $DISPLAY == ""
" Cygwin mintty doesn't do italic.
highlight Comment cterm=NONE
highlight LineNr cterm=NONE
endif
The 6x6x6 colorcube to chose the cterm color numbers from:
GVim is not much more than Vim with a GUI and better color support: there shouldn't be any deep difference between how you use both.
set t_Co=256 is not a proper solution to any colorscheme issue. If you want colorful colorschemes in Vim the only thing to do is to setup your terminal emulator to advertise itself as "capable of displaying 256 colors". How you do it depends on your terminal emulator but it generally boils down to setting the TERM environment variable to xterm-256color or similar value. You don't need to do anything else.
There are thousands of Vim colorschemes to choose from, some are GUI-only, some are terminal-only… make sure you choose a colorscheme that suits your usage. GUI colorscheme can use thousands of colors but CLI colorschemes are limited to the Xterm 256 colors palette; this tends to make GUI colorschemes "prettier" but not necessarily more useful.
If there's no hint in the name of the colorscheme or its README/description, you can open it and look for guibg and ctermbg. If you have ctermbg (or ctermfg…) the colorscheme is mostly guaranteed to work in a 256 colors-capable terminal emulator. If you have guibg the colorscheme will work in GVim. If you have both, you can have the same colorscheme for Vim and GVim.
Of course, YMMV.
I used to be a Vim user, and switch to GVim because of the same kind of issue, namely color scheme incompatibility.
Initially I did not like the visual clutter added by all the buttons, scroll bar and menus of the Gvim window.
Fortunately, you can hide all that and get something really close to a Vim console by using the following code in your .vimrc :
if has("gui_running")
" GUI is running or is about to start.
" Maximize gvim window.
set lines=120 columns=140
" Display or hide menu when using gVim
function! ToggleGUICruft()
if &guioptions=='i'
exec('set guioptions=imTrL')
else
exec('set guioptions=i')
endif
endfunction
map <F11> <Esc>:call ToggleGUICruft()<cr>
" by default, hide gui menus
set guioptions=i
endif
You can now use F11 to toggle menus & scroll bars.
I have not found any downside to GVim so far. If you are a new user, the menu can actually be helpful to discover new commands.
Ok, apparently any terminal emulator that I have tried ( xterm, gnome-terminal, ... ) is capable of managing 8 or 256 colors depending on both X11 settings, VGA drivers and the value of the environment variable TERM. So the top choice is 256 color and if you are looking for something better you have no other choice than picking gvim as your editor.
