How to improve listings display of JSON files?

Here's one possibility for the colon, comma, braces, square brackets, and numbers, using the literate key:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{bera}% optional: just to have a nice mono-spaced font
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\colorlet{punct}{red!60!black}
\definecolor{background}{HTML}{EEEEEE}
\definecolor{delim}{RGB}{20,105,176}
\colorlet{numb}{magenta!60!black}

\lstdefinelanguage{json}{
    basicstyle=\normalfont\ttfamily,
    numbers=left,
    numberstyle=\scriptsize,
    stepnumber=1,
    numbersep=8pt,
    showstringspaces=false,
    breaklines=true,
    frame=lines,
    backgroundcolor=\color{background},
    literate=
     *{0}{{{\color{numb}0}}}{1}
      {1}{{{\color{numb}1}}}{1}
      {2}{{{\color{numb}2}}}{1}
      {3}{{{\color{numb}3}}}{1}
      {4}{{{\color{numb}4}}}{1}
      {5}{{{\color{numb}5}}}{1}
      {6}{{{\color{numb}6}}}{1}
      {7}{{{\color{numb}7}}}{1}
      {8}{{{\color{numb}8}}}{1}
      {9}{{{\color{numb}9}}}{1}
      {:}{{{\color{punct}{:}}}}{1}
      {,}{{{\color{punct}{,}}}}{1}
      {\{}{{{\color{delim}{\{}}}}{1}
      {\}}{{{\color{delim}{\}}}}}{1}
      {[}{{{\color{delim}{[}}}}{1}
      {]}{{{\color{delim}{]}}}}{1},
}

\begin{document}

\begin{lstlisting}[language=json,firstnumber=1]
{"menu": {
  "id": "file",
  "value": "File",
  "popup": {
    "menuitem": [
      {"value": "New", "onclick": "CreateNewDoc()"},
      {"value": "Open", "onclick": "OpenDoc()"},
      {"value": "Close", "onclick": "CloseDoc()"}
    ]
  }
}}
0123456789
\end{lstlisting}

\end{document}

enter image description here


Here is an alternate solution which isn't always accurate but if your JSON is formatted "the usual way" it gives quite nice results and colors attributes different from values.

\usepackage{bera}% optional: just to have a nice mono-spaced font
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{xcolor}

\definecolor{eclipseStrings}{RGB}{42,0.0,255}
\definecolor{eclipseKeywords}{RGB}{127,0,85}
\colorlet{numb}{magenta!60!black}

\lstdefinelanguage{json}{
    basicstyle=\normalfont\ttfamily,
    commentstyle=\color{eclipseStrings}, % style of comment
    stringstyle=\color{eclipseKeywords}, % style of strings
    numbers=left,
    numberstyle=\scriptsize,
    stepnumber=1,
    numbersep=8pt,
    showstringspaces=false,
    breaklines=true,
    frame=lines,
    backgroundcolor=\color{gray}, %only if you like
    string=[s]{"}{"},
    comment=[l]{:\ "},
    morecomment=[l]{:"},
    literate=
        *{0}{{{\color{numb}0}}}{1}
         {1}{{{\color{numb}1}}}{1}
         {2}{{{\color{numb}2}}}{1}
         {3}{{{\color{numb}3}}}{1}
         {4}{{{\color{numb}4}}}{1}
         {5}{{{\color{numb}5}}}{1}
         {6}{{{\color{numb}6}}}{1}
         {7}{{{\color{numb}7}}}{1}
         {8}{{{\color{numb}8}}}{1}
         {9}{{{\color{numb}9}}}{1}
}