diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index d075921..fb424ae 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -26,13 +26,14 @@ See [HowItWorks.md](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/HowItWorks.m
 
 Every .jsf file from the original repository is under GPL as [JOE](http://sourceforge.net/projects/joe-editor/). There are efforts to move JOE to GPL v2 or any later version.
 
-Every .jsf file created and modified exclusively by [me](https://github.com/cmur2) is under GPL v2 or any later version.
+Every .jsf file created and modified exclusively by [me (Christian Nicolai)](https://github.com/cmur2) is under GPL v2 or any later version.
 
 Files with contributions (or unclear license info):
 
 * [elixir.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/elixir.jsf) which is created by [Andrew Lisin](https://github.com/avli) under GPL v2 or any later version ([comment](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/pull/18#issuecomment-78036115))
 * [erlang.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/erlang.jsf) which is created by [Christian Nicolai](https://github.com/cmur2) and then modified by Jonas Rosling and enhanced with a small tweak from [raev](https://github.com/raev)
 * [go.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/go.jsf) which is entirely contributed by [Daniel Vargas](https://github.com/danielvargas)
+* [ini.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/ini.jsf) which is created by [Christian Nicolai](https://github.com/cmur2) with contributions from [Todd Lewis](https://github.com/utoddl)
 * [js.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/js.jsf) which is created by [Christian Nicolai](https://github.com/cmur2) and then modified by [Rebecca Turner](https://github.com/iarna) under GPL v2 or any later version and compatible ISC license ([comment](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/pull/13#issuecomment-78058267))
 * [json.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/json.jsf) which is entirely contributed by [Rebecca Turner](https://github.com/iarna) under GPL v2 or any later version and compatible ISC license ([comment](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/pull/14#issuecomment-78058037))
 * [lsl.jsf](https://github.com/cmur2/joe-syntax/blob/master/lsl.jsf) which is from [Zai Lynch](https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Zai_Lynch) under GPL v1 (delivered by [Rebecca Turner](https://github.com/iarna))
diff --git a/ini.jsf b/ini.jsf
index bf4aa83..1927c36 100644
--- a/ini.jsf
+++ b/ini.jsf
@@ -1,76 +1,104 @@
 # JOE syntax highlight file for INI files
+# License: GPL
+# by Christian Nicolai (http://mycrobase.de)
+# contributions by Todd Lewis (https://github.com/utoddl)
 
 =Idle
 =Comment	green
-=Constant	cyan
-=Escape		bold cyan
-=Bad		bold red
-
+=Constant	cyan    dim
+=Escape		cyan    bold
+=Bad		red     bold
 =Key
-=Separator	bold
-=Section	bold magenta
+=Separator	        bold
+=Section	white   bold bg_MAGENTA
+=SectionBracket	white        bg_MAGENTA
 
 :line_start Idle
-	*		key		noeat
+	*		key		noeat mark
 	"\n"		line_start
 	" \t\r"		line_start # leading spaces
 	";#"		line_comment	recolor=-1
-	"["		section		recolor=-1
+	"["		section_start	noeat
 	"="		missing_key	recolor=-1
 
 :line_comment Comment
 	*		line_comment
 	"\n"		line_start
 
+:section_start SectionBracket
+	*		section		mark noeat
+	"["		section_start
+
 :section Section
 	*		section
-	"]"		section_end
-	"\n"		section_unexp_end	recolor=-2
+	"]"		section_end	noeat
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
 
-:section_end Bad
-	*		section_end
+:section_end SectionBracket
+	*		unexpected_end  noeat
+	"]"		section_end	mark
 	"\n"		line_start
 
-:section_unexp_end Bad
-	*		line_start	noeat
+:unexpected_end Bad
+	*		unexpected_end
+	"\n"		line_start
 
 :missing_key Bad
 	*		value_pre	noeat
 
 :key Key
 	*		key
-	" \t\r"		key_post	noeat
-	"="		sep		recolor=-1
-	"\n"		key_error	recolor=-2
-
-:key_post Idle
-	*		value_pre	noeat
-	" \t\r"		key_post
-	"="		sep		recolor=-1
-
-:key_error Bad
-	*		key		noeat
+	"=:"		sep		noeat mark
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
 
 :sep Separator
 	*		value_pre	noeat
+	"=:"		value_pre
 
 :value_pre Idle
-	*		value		noeat
+	*		value		noeat mark
 	" \t\r"		value_pre
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
 
 :value Constant
 	*		value
-	"\\"		value_esc
+	"\\"		value_esc	mark
 	"\n"		line_start
-	" \t\r"		maybe_comment	recolor=-1
+	" "		value_maybe_comment	recolor=-1
 
-:value_esc Escape
-	*		value
-	"\n"		value_error	recolor=-2
-
-:value_error Bad
-	*		value		noeat
-
-:maybe_comment Idle
+:value_maybe_comment Idle
 	*		value		noeat
 	";#"		line_comment	recolor=-1
+
+:value_esc Escape
+	*		value_esc_bad	noeat recolormark
+	"0abtrn;#=:\\"	value_esc_end	recolormark
+	"x"		value_esc_unicode1
+	"\n"		value		mark
+
+:value_esc_bad Bad
+	*		value		noeat mark
+
+:value_esc_end Escape
+	*		value		noeat mark
+
+:value_esc_unicode1 Escape
+	*		value_esc_bad	noeat recolormark
+	"0-9a-fA-F"	value_esc_unicode2
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
+
+:value_esc_unicode2 Escape
+	*		value_esc_bad	noeat recolormark
+	"0-9a-fA-F"	value_esc_unicode3
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
+
+:value_esc_unicode3 Escape
+	*		value_esc_bad	noeat recolormark
+	"0-9a-fA-F"	value_esc_unicode4
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
+
+:value_esc_unicode4 Escape
+	*		value_esc_bad	noeat recolormark
+	"0-9a-fA-F"	value_esc_end	      recolormark
+	"\n"		unexpected_end	noeat recolormark
+
diff --git a/test/README.md b/test/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..214d367
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+# Test Files for JOE Syntax Highlighting
+
+This directory contains files for testing and validating .jsf files.
+Select features and problematic cases should be added to these files
+to ensure that new features and bug fixes don't break existing
+functionality. 
diff --git a/test/ini-test.ini b/test/ini-test.ini
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60d95d2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/ini-test.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+; ini-test.ini -- file for testing ini.jsf
+; License: GPL
+; by Todd Lewis (https://github.com/utoddl)
+;
+; See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file for .ini specs
+; Normal (;) line comment
+# Alternative (#) line comment
+[broken_section_head)
+bsh1=normal_value_with_equals_sign_as_separator
+bsh2:normal_value_with_colon_as_separator
+
+[escape_char_section] with evil trailing chars
+; Valid esc chars: \ 0 a b t r n ; # :
+; and unicode "Basic Multilingual Plane" (4 hex digits) after "\x"
+alphas=\a\b\c\d\e\f\g\h\i\j\k\l\m\n\o\p\q\r\s\t\u\v\w\x\y\z
+valid_esc=~\\~\0~\a~\b~\t~\r~\n~\;~\#~
+unicodes=~~\x~~\x1~~\x12~~\x123\a~~\x1234~~\x12345~~
+# another comment
+ecs1_missing_value ; Not a trailing comment b/c no equal sign!
+ecs2 =   # value w/ leading whitespace!
+ecs3=value with continuation \
+      on the next line.
+
+[quotes_and_trailing_comments]
+; The following quotes should be insignificant according
+; to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file, but some
+; implementations allow it. Likewise, trailing comments are
+; not spec, but often honored.
+qatc3="quoted value" # not technically a comment, but lovely green.
+qatc4="quoted value \# w/o comment"
+qatc5="quoted value # w/ comment?" ; No right answer!
+qatc6_missing_value
+
+[second_borken_section
+sbs1='val \x \'' ; These single quotes aren't spec either.
+
+differently_borken_section]
+dbs1_no_val_but_with_equals=
+dbs2 = good_value_with_whitespace_around_equals
+