Color & Typography Themes
Choose a color palette and font pairing independently. Set both in the first YAML block of slides.md:
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
colorTheme: oxford-burgundy
fontTheme: traditional
---The default is classic-blue with classic. Names such as Oxford and Cambridge identify presets in this theme; they are not official university templates.
Color Themes
colorTheme | Primary | Accent | Light background |
|---|---|---|---|
classic-blue | #1e3a5f | #b8860b | #fdfbf7 |
oxford-burgundy | #862633 | #c5a572 | #faf8f5 |
cambridge-green | #00543c | #d4af37 | #f8faf7 |
yale-blue | #0f4d92 | #d4af37 | #f7f9fc |
princeton-orange | #e87722 | #1c1c1c | #fffbf5 |
nordic-blue | #2e5266 | #d4a762 | #f5f8fa |
warm-sepia | #5d4037 | #d4a574 | #faf6f1 |
monochrome | #2d3748 | #718096 | #ffffff |
high-contrast | #000000 | #0066cc | #ffffff |
These are palette values. Content and navigation modes also affect the colors used on a rendered slide. Check figures, links, and text against the final background, including when using high-contrast.
Typography Themes
Each preset defines font stacks. The browser uses the first available font, so output may differ between machines. Choosing a preset does not install every font in its stack; ensure any required fonts are available before exporting.
fontTheme | Body style | Serif stack starts with | Sans-serif stack starts with |
|---|---|---|---|
classic | Serif | Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua, Palatino | Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial |
modern | Sans-serif | Georgia, Cambria | Source Sans Pro, Segoe UI, Roboto |
traditional | Serif | Garamond, Baskerville | Gill Sans, Optima, Helvetica |
contemporary | Sans-serif | Charter, Georgia, Cambria | Inter, SF Pro Display, Segoe UI |
humanist | Sans-serif | Crimson Text, Libre Baskerville, Georgia | Open Sans, Noto Sans |
technical | Sans-serif | Computer Modern, Latin Modern | IBM Plex Sans, Roboto |
elegant | Serif | Cormorant Garamond, EB Garamond | Montserrat, Lato |
sans-default | Sans-serif | Georgia, Cambria | Inter, SF Pro Display, system fonts |
Combining Themes
The CLI also provides four combined presets: classic, oxford, cambridge, and modern.
pnpm exec sch theme preset list
pnpm exec sch theme preset apply oxford --file slides.mdTo choose colors and fonts separately, edit themeConfig as shown above or use pnpm exec sch theme apply oxford-burgundy --font traditional --file slides.md.
Surface modes
colorTheme selects the palette. contentMode, chromeMode, and sectionMode control the slide body, headers and controls, and section dividers. See Theme Mode and Contrast for combinations and per-slide section overrides.
Custom Colors
Place themeColors at the top level, beside themeConfig:
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
colorTheme: classic-blue
themeColors:
primary: '#254b64'
accent: '#875d20'
---Supported keys are primary, primaryLight, accent, bgWarm, textPrimary, headerBg, footerLeftBg, footerCenterBg, and footerRightBg. These override palette CSS variables on the document root and body. Check the resulting foreground/background combinations in the modes you use.
Theme Gallery
Each row shows a cover, section, content, and quote slide using the named palette. These previews show one configuration; your content mode and installed fonts also affect the result.
Classic Blue (Default)
Oxford Burgundy
Cambridge Green
Yale Blue
Princeton Orange
Nordic Blue
Monochrome
Warm Sepia
High Contrast
Live Examples
After cloning and installing the repository, run a palette example from the repository root:
| Theme | Command |
|---|---|
| Classic Blue | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-classic-blue.md |
| Oxford Burgundy | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-oxford.md |
| Cambridge Green | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-cambridge.md |
| Yale Blue | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-yale.md |
| Princeton Orange | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-princeton.md |
| Nordic Blue | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-nordic.md |
| Monochrome | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-monochrome.md |
| Warm Sepia | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-sepia.md |
| High Contrast | pnpm run dev -- examples/example-high-contrast.md |
The decks in examples/ use theme: ../ so they work when running Slidev from this repository. If you installed the theme from npm, change it to theme: scholarly.
Theme implementation and preview regeneration are documented in Contributing.