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Color & Typography Themes

Slidev Theme Scholarly v2.0 introduces customizable color and typography themes to match your institution's branding or personal preferences.

Color Themes

Choose from 9 professionally designed color palettes:

Classic Academic Blue (Default)

The default theme inspired by traditional academic institutions.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
# Classic Blue is the default, no additional configuration needed
---

Colors:

  • Primary: #1e3a5f (Deep Academic Blue)
  • Accent: #b8860b (Academic Gold)
  • Background: #fdfbf7 (Warm Ivory)

Oxford Burgundy

Rich burgundy inspired by Oxford University.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: oxford-burgundy
---

Colors:

  • Primary: #862633 (Oxford Burgundy)
  • Accent: #c5a572 (Antique Gold)
  • Background: #faf8f5 (Off-white)

Cambridge Green

Classic green reminiscent of Cambridge University.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: cambridge-green
---

Colors:

  • Primary: #00543c (Cambridge Green)
  • Accent: #d4af37 (Gold)

Yale Blue

Traditional Yale blue for a distinguished look.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: yale-blue
---

Colors:

  • Primary: #0f4d92 (Yale Blue)
  • Accent: #d4af37 (Gold)

Princeton Orange

Vibrant orange for energetic presentations.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: princeton-orange
---

Colors:

  • Primary: #e87722 (Princeton Orange)
  • Accent: #1c1c1c (Black)

Monochrome Professional

Clean, professional grayscale theme.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: monochrome
---

Warm Sepia

Warm, vintage-inspired sepia tones.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: warm-sepia
---

Nordic Blue

Cool, Scandinavian-inspired blue palette.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: nordic-blue
---

High Contrast (Accessibility)

Maximum contrast theme for accessibility needs. WCAG AAA compliant.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: high-contrast
---

Colors:

  • Primary: #000000 (Black)
  • Accent: #0066cc (Blue)
  • Background: #ffffff (White)

Typography Themes

Choose from 8 carefully curated font combinations:

Classic Palatino (Default)

Traditional academic typography with Palatino serif and Helvetica sans.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
# Classic is the default
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Palatino Linotype, Book Antiqua, Palatino
  • Sans: Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, Arial

Modern Academica

Contemporary academic styling with Georgia and Source Sans Pro.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: modern
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Georgia, Cambria
  • Sans: Source Sans Pro, Segoe UI, Roboto

Traditional Garamond

Classic book typography with Garamond.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: traditional
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Garamond, Baskerville
  • Sans: Gill Sans, Optima, Helvetica

Contemporary Sans

Clean, modern sans-serif focused design.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: contemporary
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Charter, Georgia, Cambria
  • Sans: Inter, SF Pro Display, Segoe UI

Humanist

Warm, readable humanist typefaces.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: humanist
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Crimson Text, Libre Baskerville, Georgia
  • Sans: Open Sans, Noto Sans

Technical

LaTeX-inspired technical typography.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: technical
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Computer Modern, Latin Modern
  • Sans: IBM Plex Sans, Roboto

Elegant Serif

Refined, elegant serif typography.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: elegant
---

Fonts:

  • Serif: Cormorant Garamond, EB Garamond
  • Sans: Montserrat, Lato

Sans Default

Sans-serif focused typography for modern presentations.

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  fontTheme: sans-default
---

Fonts:

  • Sans: Inter, SF Pro Display, system-ui
  • Serif: Georgia, Cambria (for fallback)

Combining Themes

You can combine color and typography themes:

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorTheme: oxford-burgundy
  fontTheme: traditional
  colorMode: dark    # Optional: header/footer style ('dark' default)
  sectionMode: light  # Optional: set default section appearance
---

Color Mode

Control the appearance of the theme “chrome” (header/footer background + text color) independently from Slidev’s dark mode.

Global Default

Set it in headmatter:

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  colorMode: light # or 'dark' (default)
---

Priority Chain

Global themeConfig.colorMode > 'dark' (default)
ValueDescription
darkDark gradient chrome with light text (default)
lightLight chrome background with dark text

Section Mode

Control the appearance of section layout slides independently:

Global Default

Set a default for all section slides in your headmatter:

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeConfig:
  sectionMode: light  # or 'dark' (default)
---

Per-Slide Override

Override the global setting on individual section slides:

yaml
---
layout: section
sectionMode: dark  # Override global 'light' setting
---

# This Section Uses Dark Mode

Priority Chain

Per-slide sectionMode > Global themeConfig.sectionMode > 'dark' (default)
ValueDescription
darkDark gradient background with light text (default)
lightLight background with dark text

Custom Colors

Override specific colors while using a theme:

yaml
---
theme: scholarly
themeColors:
  primary: '#your-custom-color'
  accent: '#your-accent-color'
---

Note: avoid setting themeConfig.primary if you want themeConfig.colorTheme presets to take effect, as Slidev maps it to --slidev-theme-primary on <body> and it will override the preset.

Live Examples

Each color theme has a dedicated example file demonstrating the theme in action:

ThemeCommand
Classic Bluepnpm run dev -- examples/example-classic-blue.md
Oxford Burgundypnpm run dev -- examples/example-oxford.md
Cambridge Greenpnpm run dev -- examples/example-cambridge.md
Yale Bluepnpm run dev -- examples/example-yale.md
Princeton Orangepnpm run dev -- examples/example-princeton.md
Nordic Bluepnpm run dev -- examples/example-nordic.md
Monochromepnpm run dev -- examples/example-monochrome.md
Warm Sepiapnpm run dev -- examples/example-sepia.md
High Contrastpnpm 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.

Implementation Details

Themes are applied using CSS custom properties and data attributes:

  • Color themes use [data-color-theme="theme-name"]
  • Font themes use [data-font-theme="theme-name"]
  • Color mode uses [data-color-mode="dark/light"] (controls header/footer “chrome”)

This allows for seamless theme switching without reloading the presentation.

Regenerate Theme Screenshots

To export the first 4 slides of every theme example into images/themes/* (and sync to docs/public/images/themes/*), run:

bash
pnpm run export:theme-images