DevExtreme Angular - Predefined Themes

DevExtreme provides Generic, Generic Compact, and Material Design themes. These themes are available in the following colors:

Generic Themes

Light

Light Compact

Dark

Dark Compact

Carmine

Carmine Compact

Soft Blue

Soft Blue Compact

Dark Moon

Dark Moon Compact

Dark Violet

Dark Violet Compact

Green Mist

Green Mist Compact

Contrast

Contrast Compact

Material Design Themes

Blue Light

Blue Light Compact

Blue Dark

Blue Dark Compact

Lime Light

Lime Light Compact

Lime Dark

Lime Dark Compact

Orange Light

Orange Light Compact

Orange Dark

Orange Dark Compact

Purple Light

Purple Light Compact

Purple Dark

Purple Dark Compact

Teal Light

Teal Light Compact

Teal Dark

Teal Dark Compact

Each theme is a stylesheet that contains a collection of CSS classes. The following stylesheets are available out of the box:

dx.light.css
dx.dark.css
dx.carmine.css
dx.softblue.css
dx.darkmoon.css
dx.darkviolet.css
dx.greenmist.css
dx.contrast.css

dx.light.compact.css
dx.dark.compact.css
dx.carmine.compact.css
dx.softblue.compact.css
dx.darkmoon.compact.css
dx.darkviolet.compact.css
dx.greenmist.compact.css
dx.contrast.compact.css

dx.material.blue.light.css
dx.material.blue.dark.css
dx.material.lime.light.css
dx.material.lime.dark.css
dx.material.orange.light.css
dx.material.orange.dark.css
dx.material.purple.light.css
dx.material.purple.dark.css
dx.material.teal.light.css
dx.material.teal.dark.css

dx.material.blue.light.compact.css
dx.material.blue.dark.compact.css
dx.material.lime.light.compact.css
dx.material.lime.dark.compact.css
dx.material.orange.light.compact.css
dx.material.orange.dark.compact.css
dx.material.purple.light.compact.css
dx.material.purple.dark.compact.css
dx.material.teal.light.compact.css
dx.material.teal.dark.compact.css

CSS themes are designed to customize HTML-based UI components. However, SVG-based UI components use their own themes to assume an appearance that matches a particular CSS theme. Refer to the Themes article for more information on themes in SVG-based UI components.

Apply a Theme

jQuery

To apply a theme, include a theme stylesheet in the index page's <head> tag. You can use local files or get the stylesheets from CDN.

Angular

To apply a theme, configure the module bundler you use and import a theme stylesheet. Refer to the following article for detailed instructions: Configure Stylesheets.

Vue

To apply a theme, configure the module bundler you use and import a theme stylesheet. Refer to the following article for detailed instructions: Import Stylesheets.

React

To apply a theme, configure the module bundler you use and import a theme stylesheet. Refer to the following article for detailed instructions: Import Stylesheets.

If you use SCSS, include a common module in your project.

Switch Between Themes at Runtime

Without Page Reload

You can use this approach only if the themes belong to the same group. For instance, you can switch from Generic Light to any other Generic theme, but not to a Generic Compact or Material Design theme (see Predefined Themes).

Include theme stylesheets on your index.html page as shown below. A theme with the data-active attribute set to true is applied. In the following code snippet, the light theme is used:

<head>
    <!-- Generic themes -->
    <link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.light" href="css/dx.light.css" data-active="true">
    <link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.dark" href="css/dx.dark.css" data-active="false">
    <link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.contrast" href="css/dx.contrast.css" data-active="false">
    <!-- ... -->
    <!-- or Generic Compact themes-->
    <!-- link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.light.compact" href="css/dx.light.compact.css" data-active="true" -->
    <!-- link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.dark.compact" href="css/dx.dark.compact.css" data-active="false" -->
    <!-- link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.contrast.compact" href="css/dx.contrast.compact.css" data-active="false" -->
    <!-- ... -->
    <!-- or Material Design themes-->
    <!-- link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="material.blue.light" href="css/dx.material.blue.light.css" data-active="true" -->
    <!-- link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="material.blue.dark" href="css/dx.material.blue.dark.css" data-active="false" -->
    <!-- link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="material.teal.light" href="css/dx.material.teal.light.css" data-active="false" -->
    <!-- ... -->
</head>

Angular

If you want your themes to update automatically with the DevExtreme package, reference them in angular.json, and after, use the themes in index.html.

angular.json

"assets": [
    "src/favicon.ico",
    "src/assets",
    {
        "glob": "**/*",
        "input": "./node_modules/devextreme/dist/css/",
        "output": "assets"
    }
],

Use the DevExpress.ui.themes.current(themeName) method to switch to another theme.

The method accepts the data-theme attribute value. For example, if you want to switch to dx.generic.dark, pass generic.dark (without the 'dx' prefix) as an argument in the method. For a custom theme, specify the theme you used as a base. If both of your themes are derived from the same base, get the data-theme value from the font-family value of the dx-theme-marker CSS class, which is located in each theme's CSS file.

If you use SVG components, you should also call the refreshTheme() method to update their theme. The following example shows how to apply the Generic Contrast theme:

jQuery

DevExpress.ui.themes.current("generic.contrast");
// When using SVG components
// DevExpress.viz.refreshTheme();

Angular

import { themes } from "devextreme/ui/themes";
themes.current("generic.contrast");

// When using SVG components
// import { refreshTheme } from "devextreme/viz/themes";
// refreshTheme();

Vue

import { themes } from "devextreme/ui/themes";
themes.current("generic.contrast");

// When using SVG components
// import { refreshTheme } from "devextreme/viz/themes";
// refreshTheme();

React

import { themes } from "devextreme/ui/themes";
themes.current("generic.contrast");

// When using SVG components
// import { refreshTheme } from "devextreme/viz/themes";
// refreshTheme();

IMPORTANT

If you notice any issues with theme appearance, move your initialization routine to the initialized(callback) method. Refer to the method's description for a code sample.

With Page Reload

This approach is suitable for switching between any themes, but it involves page reload:

Include theme stylesheets on your index page as shown below. The syntax is the same as in the step 1 of the previous instructions, but the data-active attributes are set to false for all themes.

<head>
    <!-- ... -->
    <link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.light" href="css/dx.light.css" data-active="false">
    <link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="generic.light.compact" href="css/dx.light.compact.css" data-active="false">
    <link rel="dx-theme" data-theme="material.blue.light" href="css/dx.material.blue.light.css" data-active="false">
    <!-- ... -->
</head>

Save the target theme's name in the window.localStorage and reload the page:

var switchTheme = function(themeName) {
    window.localStorage.setItem("dx-theme", themeName);
    window.location.reload();
}

On page loading, restore the theme name and pass it to the DevExpress.ui.themes.current(themeName) method. You can also specify the theme to be applied in case no theme name is found in the window.localStorage. In the following code, it is the Material Blue Light theme.
```
DevExpress.ui.themes.current(window.localStorage.getItem("dx-theme") || "material.blue.light");
// ===== or when using modules =====
import themes from "devextreme/ui/themes";

themes.current(window.localStorage.getItem("dx-theme") || "material.blue.light");
```

IMPORTANT

If you notice any issues with theme appearance, move your initialization routine to the initialized(callback) method. Refer to the method's description for a code sample.

Color Swatches

Color swatches are secondary color schemes used alongside a primary color scheme. You can use them to stylize parts of your application differently, for instance, when the navigation sidebar should be dark and the content area light.

A color swatch is defined by scoped CSS rules that are prefixed with a specific selector: dx-swatch-xxx (for instance, dx-swatch-green). To apply a color swatch to a part of an HTML document, wrap this part as follows:

HTML

<div>
    This content applies the primary color scheme

    <div class="dx-swatch-dark">
        This content applies the "dark" color scheme
    </div>
</div>

IMPORTANT

Color swatches should belong to the same theme as the main application theme (Generic, Generic Compact, or Material). For example, if the main application theme is Material, you can use only the color swatches that are based on the Material theme.

You can generate color swatches with the DevExtreme CLI or ThemeBuilder UI:

DevExtreme CLI

The following command generates a new custom color swatch that uses Generic Dark as a base theme:
```
> devextreme build-theme –-base-theme="generic.dark" --make-swatch --output-color-scheme="dark"
// ===== or without installing DevExtreme CLI globally =====
> npx -p devextreme-cli devextreme build-theme –-base-theme="generic.dark" --make-swatch --output-color-scheme="dark"
```
The result of this command is a dx.generic.dark.css file in which every rule is prefixed with the .dx-swatch-dark CSS selector. Move the file to the application folder, register it, and add the swatch class to a page element.

Refer to DevExtreme CLI: ThemeBuilder for more information about CLI commands and command line arguments.
ThemeBuilder UI

Click Export on the toolbar to open the Theme Export pop-up dialog. Enter the color swatch's name, check the Save as a color swatch checkbox, and proceed to the last step.

Click Download CSS File to save a CSS file on your computer.

Move the resulting CSS file to the application folder, register it, and add the swatch class to a page element.

NOTE

Color swatches cannot be used to customize SVG-based UI components because the UI component's themes are UI component configurations that do not use CSS. With predefined CSS themes, SVG-based UI components detect which theme is used on the page and apply the corresponding UI component configuration. When an SVG-based UI component is within a color swatch, the detection is impossible. However, you can create and apply a UI component configuration that visually fits the color swatch.