Power BI: Quick Guide To Customizing Themes In Power BI

[swapneel-panda-419bc751 (Swapneel Panda)]

Using Power BI Desktop themes, you can apply design changes to your entire report, such as using corporate colours, and changing the default font size.

Please note that you can only apply themes using Power BI Desktop. If you have an existing report in Power BI service then you can’t apply a theme to that.

If you have an existing theme in Office that you would also like to use for your Power BI report theme then see the end of this article.

If you are using the new ribbon interface in Power BI Desktop (March 2020) you can select from the different built-in report themes in the View ribbon:

Click a Theme to apply it. Depending on the Theme you’ve chosen the background of the page may change as well as the colours on the theme visuals.

Tip: If you not using the updated ribbon, then Themes are on the Home ribbon – Switch Theme:

Previously, the only way to create a custom theme that had your own corporate colours was to create and import a json file. The ability to do this was beyond the knowledge of most Power BI users. Now Microsoft have made it simple to customise themes from within Power BI

From the View ribbon, click the drop-down next to the Theme gallery and choose Customize current theme:

You can customise any part of the theme: Select the element on the left, such as Colors, Text or Page and make your changes then click Apply and Save.

For example, you can customise the general text options:

And also customise the font used for cards and KPIs:

It’s easy to change the colours:

And control other options such as the borders around visuals:

Re-Use your Theme

To ensure your Power BI reports have a consistent look, we recommend you set up a report theme and then export it. This will give you a JSON theme file which can be imported into your other reports. It can also be used as the basis for creating custom themes if you want to make future edits but don’t want to lose your current set up.

To export the theme: from the View ribbon, click the drop-down next to the Theme gallery and choose Export current theme. Save the file into a convenient folder in a shared area so that other users can access it too.

To import the customised theme: from the View ribbon, click the drop-down next to the Theme gallery and choose Browse for themes. Locate the saved file and click Open. You will then see a Success message letting you know the Theme has been applied. Click OK to the message.