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Level: Beginner
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# Basic theming

As introduced in the [user guide about theming](../user-guide/theming.md), the customisation of the [Cascading Style Sheets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets) is something straightforward into an ADF application. In this tutorial you will see how to change it, using a step-by-step approach. The focus of this tutorial is [ADF apps built using Yeoman](./creating-the-app-using-yeoman.md), but you can re-use the same principles to customise the themes in all the ADF applications.

## About the `adf-core` theming 

As described into the [user guide about theming](../user-guide/theming.md), all happens into the `src/custom-style.scss` file defining the *primary*, the *accent* and the *warn* set of palettes. For a detailed description of the different types of palettes, check the [user guide about theming](../user-guide/theming.md).

As you can see directly in the `css` file, the sets of palettes are defined by some predefined variables used in the source code as described below.

    $primary: mat-palette($alfresco-accent-orange);
    $accent:  mat-palette($alfresco-accent-purple);
    $warn:    mat-palette($alfresco-warn);

The `mat-palette` function is used to define the [Material Design](https://material.io/design/introduction/) Palettes from a collection of colours and `$alfresco-ecm-cyan`, `$alfresco-accent-purple` and `$alfresco-warn` are variables declared locally into the project to define the colours to be used in the application.

As you can easily imagine, changing the parameter of the `mat-palette` function, you will change the colours of the entire application in one action.

All the available variables containing the set of palettes for the application can be found in the `node_modules/@alfresco/adf-core/_theming.css` file. In that file you can find:

 - `$alfresco-ecm-cyan`
 - `$alfresco-dev-teal`
 - `$alfresco-ecm-blue`
 - `$alfresco-bpm-green`
 - `$alfresco-warn`
 - `$alfresco-accent-purple`
 - `$alfresco-accent-orange`

Check the `_theming.css` file to see the latest changes and how the variable are structured and defined in practice.

## Changing the palette of your application

As an example, let's change the set of palettes for the primary colours. In the `src/custom-style.scss` file, change the `$primary` definition as follows.

    $primary: mat-palette($alfresco-ecm-blue);

Once done, save the `custom-style.scss` file and you will see the application refreshed with different colours. That's all.

## Developing your own palette

In some cases you might want to do something more "customised", and you might want to choose your preferred colours for your application. In this case you simply need to develop your own palette into a local variable and use it as primary, accent or warn.

As an example, let's edit the `src/custom-style.scss` file adding the following source code immediately before the definition of the `$primary` variable.

    $my-own-brown: (
        50: #f9f2ec,
        100: #ecd9c6,
        200: #dfbf9f,
        300: #d2a679,
        400: #c68c53,
        500: #ac7339,
        600: #86592d,
        700: #604020,
        800: #392613,
        900: #130d06,
        A100: #e6ccb3,
        A200: #cc9966,
        A400: #996633,
        A700: #4d3319,
        contrast: (
            50: $black-87-opacity,
            100: $black-87-opacity,
            200: $black-87-opacity,
            300: $black-87-opacity,
            400: $black-87-opacity,
            500: white,
            600: white,
            700: white,
            800: $white-87-opacity,
            900: $white-87-opacity,
            A100: $black-87-opacity,
            A200: white,
            A400: white,
            A700: white,
        )
    );

Once done replace the `$primary` definition as follows and save the `custom-style.scss` file.

    $primary: mat-palette($my-own-brown);

After few seconds you will see the application refreshing with different colours in the upper menu. In the following screenshot you can see how the new palette looks like.

![theming_palette](../docassets/images/theming_palette.png)