Theme Mode and Contrast

colorTheme selects the palette. Use contentMode for content slides, chromeMode for headers, footers, navigation, and toolbars, and sectionMode for section dividers.

Setting	Values
contentMode	light, dark
chromeMode	light, dark, match, inverse
sectionMode	light, dark, match, inverse

Recommended defaults

Starter templates leave contentMode unset, so the deck follows Slidev's current light or dark state. If the display conditions are uncertain, fix the modes explicitly:

themeConfig:
  colorTheme: classic-blue
  fontTheme: classic
  contentMode: light
  chromeMode: dark
  sectionMode: dark

• Use contentMode: light for citation-heavy, text-heavy, or figure-heavy slides.
• Use chromeMode: dark for clearer navigation and footers.
• Use sectionMode: dark for chapter breaks where large text dominates.
• Use sectionMode: match for all-light or all-dark decks, and sectionMode: inverse for contrast against the content surface.
• Use high-contrast when the deck will be projected in bright rooms.
• Use monochrome when screenshots, charts, or code should dominate the palette.

Legacy decks and precedence

colorMode is a deprecated alias for contentMode. Migrate it by setting the content and chrome surfaces explicitly:

# Before
themeConfig:
  colorMode: dark

# After
themeConfig:
  contentMode: dark
  chromeMode: match

Modes are resolved in this order:

contentMode > legacy colorMode > Slidev light/dark state
chromeMode > legacy colorMode when contentMode is absent > dark
per-slide sectionMode > global sectionMode > dark

match follows contentMode; inverse uses its opposite. Override a single section slide in that slide's frontmatter:

---
layout: section
sectionMode: inverse
---

Avoid low contrast

The easiest way to lose contrast is to place dark body text on a dark quote, Highlight, or content-block background. The theme handles common combinations, but long dark highlights can still be hard to read on light slides.

Prefer:

• Short inline Highlight spans over full paragraph highlights.
• Block or EvidenceBlock when the content needs a title and body.
• type="warning" only for actual warnings; use type="info" for a neutral Block, or type="primary" for a neutral Highlight.
• high-contrast for a final readability check before export.

Quick check

Run these commands from your presentation project after setting up PDF export:

pnpm exec sch doctor
pnpm run export

Inspect the exported slides at presentation size. Check quote slides, inline Highlight text, figures, tables, and footnotes in the mode you will use. A high-contrast preset cannot compensate for text that is too small or a chart with indistinguishable series.

Maintainers can check all theme combinations with the repository's theme:matrix script; see Contributing.