So I ran into some weird issues with background color bleed when using iTerm2 & vim on OSX. So I thought I’d write my solution up since I found a lot of incorrect information out there.

Step 1: Open iTerm2’s preferences:

  • Preferences -> Terminal -> ‘Report Terminal Type’ = xterm-256color

Step 2: Open up your .vimrc and add these lines.

set background=dark
" solarized options 
let g:solarized_termcolors = 256
let g:solarized_visibility = "high"
let g:solarized_contrast = "high"
colorscheme solarized

It’s just that easy!