[Tip] Create and Apply Your Own Colorful Themes in Google Chrome

There are many 3rd party themes available for Google Chrome web browser on official Chrome Web Store and Chrome users can apply them in their web browser to customize its look-n-feel. You can change colors of toolbar, tabs and menus by downloading and applying these themes in Chrome browser.

Now Chrome team has implemented a built-in feature in Google Chrome newer versions which allows users to create their own customized themes and apply the theme in Chrome to personalize its UI (User Interface).

Now you can quickly change Chrome toolbars and menus colors with the help of this new functionality. You no longer need to download 3rd party themes to just change Chrome colors.

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Following screenshots show Google Chrome browser in different colors:

Google Chrome Colorized UI 1:

Black_Color_Theme_UI_Google_Chrome.png

Google Chrome Colorized UI 2:

Yellow_Color_Theme_UI_Google_Chrome.png

Google Chrome Colorized UI 3:

Blue_Color_Theme_UI_Google_Chrome.png

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We told you about this secret tip in UPDATE 116 and 117 in our exclusive Google Chrome Canary Updates topic when this feature was under development and testing.

We also posted following tutorial when this feature was first introduced to public in a stable version of Chrome browser:

[Tip] Enable Redesigned “New Tab Page Customization Menu” in Google Chrome

At that time the Color and Theme section was available in the customization window but was not working. Now in newer versions of Chrome such as version 77 and later, the new feature is fully functional and can be used to customize and change Chrome UI.

If you also want to try the new feature to change Chrome UI colors, following steps will help you:

PS: The feature is not enabled by default and users need to manually activate and enable the feature to use it.

1. Open Google Chrome web browser and type chrome://flags/ in addressbar and press Enter. It’ll open the advanced configuration page.

2. Now type NTP customization in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll directly go to following options:

Chrome Colors menu
Show Chrome Colors menu in the NTP customization menu. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
#chrome-colors

NTP customization menu version 2
Use the second version of the NTP customization menu. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
#ntp-customization-menu-v2

3. Select Enabled from the drop-down box for both options.

4. Now type Colors in the “Search flags” box.

It’ll show following option:

Custom color picker for Chrome Colors menu
Show custom color picker in Chrome Colors menu. – Mac, Windows, Linux, Chrome OS
#chrome-colors-custom-color-picker

5. Select Enabled from the drop-down box for this option as well.

Enable_New_Colors_Menu_NTP_Customization_Menu_Google_Chrome.png

6. Google Chrome will ask you to restart the browser. Click on “Relaunch now” button to restart Google Chrome.

That’s it. You have successfully activated and enabled New Tab Page customization menu version 2.0 and Color and Theme features in Google Chrome.

7. Now open a new tab page and click on “Customize” button and you’ll get the new redesigned customization window showing Background, Shortcuts and Color and theme tabs.

8. Click on Color and theme tab and now you can select any desired color to immediately apply the color on Chrome toolbar, tabs and menus.

You can also select your own custom color by clicking on the color picker tool icon present on the top of the colors list.

To restore default theme and color, click on the Default color icon present at the second place in colors list.

Restore_Default_Light_Color_Theme_UI_Google_Chrome.png

You can also use the method given in following tutorial to restore default theme and color in Chrome browser:

[Tip] How to Restore Default Theme in Google Chrome

PS: If you decide to disable the new Color and Theme and NTP customization menu feature in future, select “Default” option from the drop-down box for all above mentioned options and restart the browser.

FUN FACT:

Long time back when initial versions of Google Chrome were released, there were no themes available for download on Chrome Web Store or anywhere else. We shared a tutorial to manually create themes in Chrome. You can check out the old tutorial containing the classic method at following link:

How to Create and Install Your Own Custom Themes in Google Chrome?

Published in: Google Chrome

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

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