How to Change Your Gmail Theme

Have a little fun by customizing your Gmail screen

Picture of the Gmail logo on a red background

FixtheFocus/Flickr.com

by Marziah Karch
Excels at serious game design and develops online help systems and manuals.
Updated September 23, 2018

A Gmail theme lets you quickly change the way Gmail appears when you're logged in from a computer. There are lots of themes built-in that you can pick from, or you can use your own picture as the Gmail background.

Beyond the background image are a few other settings you can tweak to customize Gmail's appearance, like an option to add blur to the picture or to darken the edges of the background.

Change the Theme on Gmail

Gmail's theme gallery is just a few clicks away in the settings menu.

Use this link to the theme gallery to jump right to Step 4.

  1. Open Gmail and login if asked.

  2. Click the settings icon on the upper right-hand side of the page.

    The icon looks like a gear and is located just above your messages and under the search bar.

  3. Click Themes.

  4. Click a theme to instantly preview it.

    To see more themes than what's currently visible, click More Images at the end of the short list of themes. If you find one there, click Select to choose it.

    Another option is to click My Photos to select a custom Gmail background image from your Google Photos account.

    If you'd rather use a solid color for your Gmail theme, you can do that instead by scrolling below the picture themes and clicking a color.

    Depending on the theme you choose, a few more options will show up at the bottom of the theme window that you can customize: Text Background, Vignette, and Blur.

  5. Click Save.

Tips on Changing the Gmail Theme

  • You can go back and change your theme as often as you'd like.
  • You can't change your Gmail theme on a mobile device, only on a computer.
  • Some of the images you can choose from Gmail's theme gallery include options for additional adjustments. You can select any of them to personalize your theme further.
    • Text Background: Pick a light or dark theme to apply to the text background, which is the background behind your list of emails.
    • Vignette: Adjust the slider to make the corners of your Gmail theme darker.
    • Blur: Add blur to the theme with this slider option.