Customizing Your Theme

Have you ever dreamed of customizing your blog’s theme? Consider this paragraph a pinch, because you’re not dreaming. You’re wide awake, and you can do all of this and more from the Customize page.

Unsure about the difference between blog appearance and a custom theme? Have a look at our appearance options article which explains this difference.

Please note: Editing custom themes is currently only possible on the web.

By default your Tumblr subdomain (e.g. staff.tumblr.com) will redirect to your blog at tumblr.com/username. To make your blog available at its subdomain URL or customize your blog theme you’ll first need to enable the custom theme option. You can enable the custom theme option in your blog settings on web.

To enable Custom Theme:

• Click “Settings” on the left.
• Select the desired blog on the right.
• Under “Custom Theme”, toggle the “Enable custom theme” switch to on.

Your blog will now also be visible at blogname.tumblr.com, in addition to the default blog view at tumblr.com/blogname. Please note that your custom theme will only apply when you view your blog at blogname.tumblr.com.

If you still can’t view your blog at your subdomain URL blogname.tumblr.com, make sure that “Hide (blog name) from people without an account” in your blog settings under “Visibility” is toggled OFF. Read more about our privacy features here.

You can find and browse custom themes in the Theme Garden or directly in the theme editing panel also called the Customizer. The Theme Garden gives you wider selection of themes to choose from as well as more sorting options while the Customizer allows you to preview a custom theme directly on your blog without installing it first. Installing a custom theme will save it to your blog an override your previous custom theme. If you regret your choice, you can restore a previous theme backup.

To browse and install custom themes in the Theme Garden:

1. Visit the Theme Garden at tumblr.com/themes
2. Click on a theme: You can now read the theme’s details and get a first impression through image previews
   • Click on “Preview” to Preview the theme on an example blog.
   • Click on “Install” to save the theme to your blog.
3. You can now view the theme on your blog by visiting your blog at its web view e.g. staff.tumblr.com.
   • If you’re being re-directed to your blog view, make sure that Custom Theme is toggled on in your blog settings.

To browse and install themes in the Customizer:

1. Go to your blog settings on web.
2. Under “Custom Theme” click “Edit Theme” (make sure Custom Theme is toggled on).
3. Click “Browse themes”.
4. Here you’ll be able to browse through a selection of themes.
   • By clicking “All Themes” you can open a drop-down menu to filter the themes by different criteria.

You can also open the Customizer by visiting the web view of your blog (yourblog.tumblr.com) and clicking the palette icon in the top right corner.

To preview and save a theme to your blog in the Customizer:

1. Click on a theme to see a preview of that theme on your blog.
2. Click “Use” to be able to view its theme options and customize them (more on this later under “Customizing your theme“).
3. Click “Save” to install the theme you selected to your blog.

While we recommend sticking to themes from the theme garden to ensure you’re using a theme that is safe to use, there are some other reliable third-party sources for themes. Check out these makers on Tumblr, for example! @codingcabin, @glenthemes, and @rachaelthemes.

We also offer premium themes for purchase in the Theme Garden. Premium themes are marked by a little bubble with a price tag next to their picture. To find a theme you like, follow the steps under “Choosing a Theme“.

To purchase a premium theme in the Theme Garden on web:

1. Click on the theme.
2. Click “Purchase”
3. Once the purchase is complete, credits in the amount of the theme’s price will be added to your account.
4. After you’ve received these credits, select “Use Credit” to finalize the theme purchase.

To purchase a premium theme through the Customizer:

1. Go to your blog settings on web.
2. Under “Custom Theme” click “Edit Theme” (make sure Custom Theme is toggled on).
3. Click “Browse Themes”.
4. Click on a theme you like to preview it on your blog.
5. If you choose to purchase the theme, click “Purchase”.
6. Once the purchase is complete, credits in the amount of the theme’s price will be added to your account.
7. After you’ve received these credits, select “Use Credit” to finalize the theme purchase.

If you’re not happy with your purchased Premium Theme, please contact us for a refund within two weeks of purchase. Please include your blog URL, date of purchase, and your Paypal email address. You can learn more in our “Premium Theme Refunds” article.

The following options can all be found when editing your custom theme in the Customizer on web. To open the theme Customizer for your blog:

1. Go to your blog settings on web.
2. Under “Custom Theme” click “Edit Theme” (make sure Custom Theme is toggled on).

If you want to edit your blog’s title, description and avatar, you can do so in the customizer under “Appearance Options”. Editing your appearance in the Customizer is the same as editing it in your blog settings or in the blog view. Most themes will display the blog title, description and avatar you set here (but not all). Some themes may have extra settings that you can find and edit under “Theme Options”.

Your theme options will vary depending on the theme as these are up to the theme maker. Any changes you make will immediately be visible in the theme preview to the right. If you’d like to save your changes, click “Save”.

In this section of the Customizer is where you can create, see and edit your blog pages. For more detailed information, have a look at our article about blog pages.

Scrolling to the very bottom of the Customizer you’ll find “Advanced Options”. Clicking on this will give you a few more options to customize your blog.

• Open links in new window: Enabling this will make all links on your blog open in a new window.
• Use default mobile theme: If your custom theme is not displaying on mobile, you’ll need to disable the “Use default mobile theme” in the Customizer. This setting is enabled by default and will override your custom theme with a special layout optimized for browsing on mobile devices. Toggling off this setting is recommended only if your custom theme is responsive and works on different screen sizes.
• Enable Google AMP: To optimizes the way your blog pages appear in search engine results on mobile devices, toggle on “Enable Google AMP”.
• Truncate RSS feed: Shortens posts in your RSS feed so subscribers need to visit your blog to read them in full.
• Preview: You can select between displaying different posts in your theme preview in the Customizer. Your options are:
  • My posts: This will display all your posts in the theme preview
  • Sample posts: This will display a set of sample posts in the theme preview
• Posts per page: Select how many posts per page your theme will display on one page. Note that some themes may have infinite scroll rather than a pagination.
• Add custom CSS: If your theme allows it, this is where you can enter custom CSS styles without making changes to the theme’s code itself.

Did you know that we now offer custom domains directly on Tumblr? Get a Tumblr Domain now to be the home address for all your chaos! Learn more.

You can also edit your theme’s HTML by clicking “Edit HTML” under your theme’s name at top of the customizer. Read more about this in our “Custom HTML” article.

If you regret changing your theme, or you changed your theme by mistake, you can view and restore backups of your blog’s previous custom themes by going to https://www.tumblr.com/themes/recover.

1. Select your blog.
2. Click “View Backups”.
3. Select the backup to recover from a list of previous versions.
4. Click the “Revert” button.

If you’d like to create your own theme from scratch, have a look at our theme documentation as well as our developer resources.