# Themes

> Creates Power BI report themes for consistent styling. Use for colors, fonts, visual defaults, and corporate branding.

- Skill: `kpbray/themes` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 4 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add kpbray/themes`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/kpbray/themes/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Docs & Writing
- Author: kpbray (https://skillmd.com/u/kpbray)
- Updated: 2026-09-22
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/kpbray/themes

---


# Themes Skill

This skill helps create Power BI report themes for consistent visual styling and branding.

## When to Use This Skill

- Creating custom color palettes
- Setting default fonts and sizes
- Applying corporate branding
- Configuring visual defaults
- Creating dark/light mode themes
- Standardizing conditional formatting

## Theme File Basics

### File Format

Themes are JSON files with `.json` extension. They can be:
- Imported into Power BI Desktop (View > Themes > Browse for themes)
- Embedded in PBIR reports
- Shared across an organization

### Basic Structure

```json
{
  "name": "Custom Theme",
  "dataColors": ["#118DFF", "#12239E", "#E66C37", "#6B007B", "#E044A7", "#744EC2"],
  "background": "#FFFFFF",
  "foreground": "#252423",
  "tableAccent": "#118DFF"
}
```

## Theme Properties

### Core Colors

| Property | Description |
|----------|-------------|
| `dataColors` | Array of colors for data series |
| `background` | Default background color |
| `foreground` | Default text color |
| `tableAccent` | Accent color for tables/matrices |
| `hyperlink` | Link color |
| `good` | Positive/good indicator |
| `neutral` | Neutral indicator |
| `bad` | Negative/bad indicator |

### Typography

```json
{
  "textClasses": {
    "label": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI",
      "fontSize": 12,
      "color": "#252423"
    },
    "title": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI Semibold",
      "fontSize": 14,
      "color": "#252423"
    },
    "header": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI Semibold",
      "fontSize": 12,
      "color": "#252423"
    },
    "callout": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI Light",
      "fontSize": 28,
      "color": "#252423"
    },
    "largeTitle": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI Light",
      "fontSize": 40,
      "color": "#252423"
    }
  }
}
```

### Text Classes

| Class | Used For |
|-------|----------|
| `label` | Data labels, axis labels |
| `title` | Visual titles |
| `header` | Table/matrix headers |
| `callout` | Card values, KPI values |
| `largeTitle` | Large display values |

## Complete Theme Structure

```json
{
  "name": "Corporate Theme",
  "dataColors": [
    "#0078D4",
    "#00BCF2",
    "#00B294",
    "#FFB900",
    "#E81123",
    "#5C2D91",
    "#B4009E",
    "#107C10"
  ],
  "background": "#FFFFFF",
  "foreground": "#323130",
  "tableAccent": "#0078D4",
  "hyperlink": "#0078D4",
  "good": "#107C10",
  "neutral": "#FFB900",
  "bad": "#E81123",
  "maximum": "#107C10",
  "center": "#FFB900",
  "minimum": "#E81123",
  "textClasses": {
    "label": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI",
      "fontSize": 11,
      "color": "#605E5C"
    },
    "title": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI Semibold",
      "fontSize": 14,
      "color": "#323130"
    },
    "header": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI Semibold",
      "fontSize": 12,
      "color": "#323130"
    },
    "callout": {
      "fontFace": "Segoe UI",
      "fontSize": 28,
      "color": "#323130"
    }
  },
  "visualStyles": {
    "*": {
      "*": {
        "background": [{
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF" } },
          "transparency": 0
        }],
        "border": [{
          "show": false
        }],
        "dropShadow": [{
          "show": false
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

## Visual Styles

### Structure

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "<visualType>": {
      "<propertyGroup>": {
        "<property>": [{ <settings> }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Wildcards

| Wildcard | Meaning |
|----------|---------|
| `"*"` | All visuals / all properties |

### Common Visual Types

| Type | Description |
|------|-------------|
| `"*"` | All visuals |
| `"page"` | Report page |
| `"card"` | Card visual |
| `"multiRowCard"` | Multi-row card |
| `"columnChart"` | Column chart |
| `"barChart"` | Bar chart |
| `"lineChart"` | Line chart |
| `"pieChart"` | Pie chart |
| `"donutChart"` | Donut chart |
| `"tableEx"` | Table |
| `"pivotTable"` | Matrix |
| `"slicer"` | Slicer |
| `"kpi"` | KPI visual |
| `"gauge"` | Gauge |
| `"map"` | Map |
| `"shape"` | Shape |
| `"textbox"` | Text box |

### Common Property Groups

| Group | Properties |
|-------|------------|
| `background` | Visual background |
| `border` | Visual border |
| `dropShadow` | Shadow effect |
| `title` | Visual title |
| `subTitle` | Subtitle |
| `legend` | Legend settings |
| `categoryAxis` | X-axis |
| `valueAxis` | Y-axis |
| `labels` | Data labels |
| `dataPoint` | Data point colors |

### Setting Defaults for All Visuals

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "*": {
      "*": {
        "background": [{
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF" } },
          "transparency": 0
        }],
        "border": [{
          "show": true,
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#E0E0E0" } },
          "radius": 5
        }],
        "dropShadow": [{
          "show": true,
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#000000" } },
          "position": "Outer",
          "preset": "BottomRight",
          "transparency": 80
        }],
        "title": [{
          "show": true,
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#252423" } },
          "fontSize": 14,
          "fontFamily": "Segoe UI Semibold",
          "alignment": "left"
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Card Visual Styling

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "card": {
      "*": {
        "labels": [{
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#0078D4" } },
          "fontSize": 32
        }],
        "categoryLabels": [{
          "show": true,
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#605E5C" } },
          "fontSize": 12
        }],
        "background": [{
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#F3F2F1" } }
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Chart Styling

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "columnChart": {
      "*": {
        "categoryAxis": [{
          "show": true,
          "labelColor": { "solid": { "color": "#605E5C" } },
          "fontSize": 11,
          "gridlineShow": false
        }],
        "valueAxis": [{
          "show": true,
          "labelColor": { "solid": { "color": "#605E5C" } },
          "fontSize": 11,
          "gridlineShow": true,
          "gridlineColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E0E0E0" } }
        }],
        "legend": [{
          "show": true,
          "position": "Top",
          "fontSize": 11,
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#605E5C" } }
        }],
        "labels": [{
          "show": false
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Table Styling

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "tableEx": {
      "*": {
        "grid": [{
          "gridVertical": true,
          "gridVerticalColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E0E0E0" } },
          "gridHorizontal": true,
          "gridHorizontalColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E0E0E0" } },
          "rowPadding": 4
        }],
        "columnHeaders": [{
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF" } },
          "backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#0078D4" } },
          "fontSize": 12,
          "bold": true
        }],
        "values": [{
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#323130" } },
          "fontSize": 11
        }],
        "total": [{
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#323130" } },
          "backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E0E0E0" } },
          "bold": true
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

### Slicer Styling

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "slicer": {
      "*": {
        "header": [{
          "show": true,
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#252423" } },
          "fontSize": 14
        }],
        "items": [{
          "fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#323130" } },
          "fontSize": 11
        }],
        "selection": [{
          "selectAllCheckboxEnabled": true,
          "singleSelect": false
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

## Page Background

```json
{
  "visualStyles": {
    "page": {
      "*": {
        "background": [{
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#F3F2F1" } },
          "transparency": 0
        }],
        "wallpaper": [{
          "color": { "solid": { "color": "#F3F2F1" } }
        }]
      }
    }
  }
}
```

## Color Palettes

### Microsoft Default

```json
{
  "dataColors": [
    "#118DFF",
    "#12239E",
    "#E66C37",
    "#6B007B",
    "#E044A7",
    "#744EC2",
    "#D9B300",
    "#D64550"
  ]
}
```

### Corporate Blue

```json
{
  "dataColors": [
    "#0078D4",
    "#00BCF2",
    "#004578",
    "#5C2D91",
    "#B4009E",
    "#008272",
    "#00B294",
    "#002050"
  ]
}
```

### Earth Tones

```json
{
  "dataColors": [
    "#5B5EA6",
    "#9B2335",
    "#00A4CC",
    "#E4712B",
    "#3A4D39",
    "#8B6914",
    "#6B4226",
    "#4A5859"
  ]
}
```

### Colorblind-Friendly

```json
{
  "dataColors": [
    "#000000",
    "#E69F00",
    "#56B4E9",
    "#009E73",
    "#F0E442",
    "#0072B2",
    "#D55E00",
    "#CC79A7"
  ]
}
```

### Dark Theme Colors

```json
{
  "dataColors": [
    "#00BCF2",
    "#00CC6A",
    "#FFB900",
    "#E81123",
    "#B4009E",
    "#10893E",
    "#FF8C00",
    "#6B69D6"
  ],
  "background": "#1E1E1E",
  "foreground": "#FFFFFF",
  "tableAccent": "#00BCF2"
}
```

## Conditional Formatting Colors

### Diverging (Bad to Good)

```json
{
  "bad": "#E81123",
  "neutral": "#FFB900",
  "good": "#107C10"
}
```

### Sequential

```json
{
  "minimum": "#FFFFFF",
  "center": "#00BCF2",
  "maximum": "#0078D4"
}
```

## Using Themes in PBIR

### Reference in report.json

```json
{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/fabric/item/report/definition/report/1.0.0/schema.json",
  "themeCollection": {
    "baseTheme": {
      "name": "CY24SU06",
      "reportVersionAtImport": "5.55",
      "type": "SharedResources"
    },
    "customTheme": {
      "name": "CustomTheme",
      "reportVersionAtImport": "5.55",
      "type": "Custom"
    }
  }
}
```

### Embed Theme in Report

Store custom theme file in `StaticResources/` folder of the report.

## Best Practices

### Color Guidelines

1. **Use 6-8 data colors** - Enough for variety, not overwhelming
2. **Ensure contrast** - 4.5:1 minimum for accessibility
3. **Consistent semantics** - Red=bad, Green=good across report
4. **Consider colorblindness** - Use patterns or labels too

### Typography Guidelines

1. **Limit font families** - 1-2 maximum
2. **Use system fonts** - Segoe UI, Arial for consistency
3. **Establish hierarchy** - Titles > Headers > Body
4. **Readable sizes** - Minimum 10pt for data labels

### Visual Defaults

1. **Remove unnecessary elements** - Hide borders, shadows by default
2. **Consistent spacing** - Same padding/margins
3. **Align to grid** - Use consistent positions
4. **Default titles on** - Help users understand visuals

## Boundaries and Constraints

### DO
- Test themes across all visual types
- Verify accessibility (contrast ratios)
- Document color meanings
- Keep color count manageable
- Test on different screen sizes

### DO NOT
- Don't use too many colors (max 8-10)
- Avoid low contrast combinations
- Don't mix font families excessively
- Avoid theme-breaking individual visual formats