Getting started with embedding — applying custom themes
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You can use custom themes to customize the appearance of your embedded Looker dashboards and Explores. Use custom themes to customize font family, text color, background color, button color, tile color, and other visual elements.
Custom themes are not supported on embedded Looks. Custom themes are available only for embedded dashboards and embedded Explores.
For example, you can select a dark theme to change the appearance of your embedded dashboard.
Setting a default theme for embedded dashboards and Explores
To specify the default theme for the embedded dashboards and Explores on your instance, navigate to the Themes page in the Platform section of the Admin panel, and click on a theme's three-dot menu and select Set as Default.
Applying a theme to specific embedded dashboards and Explores
If you want a dashboard or an Explore to use a theme other than the default theme, you can specify a different theme in the URL of the embedded dashboard or Explore. To do this, add the parameter theme= with the name of the theme to the end of the embed URL. For example, if you have a theme called "Red," you would add theme=Red at the end of your embed dashboard URL:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-14 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Getting started with embedding — applying custom themes\n\nYou can use [custom themes](/looker/docs/2512/themes-for-embedded-dashboards-and-explores#creating_a_custom_theme) to customize the appearance of your embedded Looker dashboards and Explores. Use custom themes to customize font family, text color, background color, button color, tile color, and other visual elements.\n\u003e Custom themes are not supported on embedded Looks. Custom themes are available only for embedded dashboards and embedded Explores.\n\nFor example, you can select a **dark** theme to change the appearance of your embedded dashboard.\n\n\nSetting a default theme for embedded dashboards and Explores\n------------------------------------------------------------\n\nTo specify the default theme for the embedded dashboards and Explores on your instance, navigate to the **Themes** page in the **Platform** section of the **Admin** panel, and click on a theme's three-dot menu and select **Set as Default**.\n\nThe default theme is used for embedded dashboards and Explores on your Looker instance, unless you [specify different settings for an individual dashboard or Explore](#specify_theme).\n\nApplying a theme to specific embedded dashboards and Explores\n-------------------------------------------------------------\n\nIf you want a dashboard or an Explore to use a theme other than the default theme, you can specify a different theme in the URL of the embedded dashboard or Explore. To do this, add the parameter `theme=` with the name of the theme to the end of the embed URL. For example, if you have a theme called \"Red,\" you would add `theme=Red` at the end of your embed dashboard URL: \n\n https://example.looker.com/embed/dashboards/246?theme=Red\n\nFor Explores, you would add `theme=Red` at the end of your embed Explore URL: \n\n https://example.looker.com/embed/explore/model_name/explore_name?theme=Red\n\nThe theme element in the URL is not case-sensitive, so you can use either `theme=Red` or `theme=red`.\n\nFor more information\n--------------------\n\n- For information about creating a custom theme, see the [Admin settings - Themes](/looker/docs/2512/themes-for-embedded-dashboards-and-explores) documentation page.\n- For information about applying custom elements of a theme, see the [\"Using the _theme URL argument to apply individual dashboard theme elements\"](/looker/docs/2512/themes-for-embedded-dashboards-and-explores#using_the_theme_url_argument_to_apply_individual_dashboard_theme_elements) section of the Admin settings - Themes documentation page.\n- For information about applying and managing custom themes using the API, see the [Theme method documentation](/looker/docs/reference/looker-api/latest)."]]
