Since pandoc 2.0.5, you can also use --print-highlight-style to output a theme file and edit it.

To me, the best way to use this option is to

1. Pick a pleasant available style

2. Output its theme file

3. Edit the theme file

4. Use it!

1. Available Styles

Pick your style, among the one already existing:

2. Output its theme file

Once you decided which style was the closest to your needs, you can output its theme file, using (for instance for pygments, the default style):

pandoc --print-highlight-style pygments

so that you can store this style in a file, using, e.g.,

pandoc --print-highlight-style pygments > my_style.theme

With some shells, especially on Windows, using redirected output can lead to encoding problems. If that happens, use this instead:

pandoc -o my_style.theme --print-highlight-style pygments

3. Edit the file

Using the Skylighting JSON Themes guide, edit the file according to your need / taste.

4. Use the file

In the right folder, just use

pandoc my_file.md --highlight-style my_style.theme -o doc.html