Typesetting LaTeX tables is time consuming and can get very complicated. It is, however, very easy to use the Perl LaTeX::Table module from within Vim. Install the module with:
$ cpan LaTeX::Table
Then for example, enter the following into a buffer:
theme=NYC;caption_top=1;caption=Bla Animal & Description & Price Gnat & per gram & 13.65 & each & 0.02 Gnu & stuffed & 92.59
Now visually select the lines (for example, ggVG), and enter the command !ltpretty to filter the text through the ltpretty script. The lines are replaced with the following LaTeX code:
% theme=NYC;caption_top=1;caption=Bla
% Animal & Description & Price
% Gnat & per gram & 13.65
% & each & 0.02
% Gnu & stuffed & 92.59
\definecolor{latextbl}{RGB}{78,130,190}
\begin{table}
\centering
\caption{Bla}
\setlength{\extrarowheight}{1pt}
\begin{tabular}{|llr|}
\hline
\rowcolor{latextbl}\multicolumn{1}{|>{\columncolor{latextbl}}c}{\color{white}\textbf{Animal }} & \multicolumn{1}{>{\columncolor{latextbl}}c}{\color{white}\textbf{ Description }} & \multicolumn{1}{>{\columncolor{latextbl}}c|}{\color{white}\textbf{ Price}} \\
\hline
\rowcolor{latextbl!25}Gnat & per gram & 13.65 \\
\rowcolor{latextbl!10} & each & 0.02 \\
\rowcolor{latextbl!25}Gnu & stuffed & 92.59 \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
Comments[]
A similar alternative is the ViLaTaC script that can be downloaded from https://github.com/tannhuber/vilatac. It provides individual column formatting with a very simple syntax. However, it is intended for publishing. Thus, colorful themes are not supported.