Customizing the look

The Appearance tab is your design hub: as the host you set the look of your event here – header, logo, cover image, brand colors, color palettes, dark mode, photo grid, which details appear on each photo, fonts, the default sorting and the QR code design. This page walks you through every option, group by group.

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Settings → Appearance: the central place for your event's look. ① Show Preview opens the gallery as a second column beside the settings on a computer and shows straight away what your unsaved changes do; on a phone it opens as a dialog. A second click hides it again — the button then reads Hide Preview. ② the jump field: type a setting and the page jumps to it – switching tabs if it has to, and highlighting the match there for a moment. ③ the toggle for the advanced sections: it folds them all open at once and your browser remembers the state – which is why it already reads Hide advanced options here instead of Show all advanced options.

“Appearance” is more than the gallery

The tab used to be called “Style”, which made it sound like gallery decoration. In fact most settings here reach every page of your event – including seating, menu, timeline and RSVP. That is why each group carries a small scope pill:

Group	Scope pill	What it holds
Header	applies to every page	header variant, logo, cover image
Photo grid	the photo view only	layout, photo details, sorting, controls above the grid
Basics	applies to every page	colors, dark mode, fonts
QR code	for printouts	the look of the generated QR codes

So if you want to recolor the seating chart, this is the place – not the tool itself.

How to reach the Appearance tab

1. Open your event’s admin area. If you are in the gallery, use the profile menu at the top right to get to the management area.

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   The profile menu at the top right takes you to the admin area. More under “Managing your event”. ① your points and solved tasks, ② Profile options with My Profile, Language, Theme and Help, ③ Management with Account Settings, Moderation and Admin Portal – this section is missing until you hold a role for it, ④ Account with Sign out.

2. In the left sidebar, in the Event group, click “Settings” (route /admin/settings). You land on the Overview first – a grid of tiles describing each settings area in one sentence.

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   Since the rebuild, Settings opens on the Overview. The “Appearance” tile leads into this tab. ① the tab row with every area – it is wider than the window and scrolls sideways; on a phone only three tabs fit at once, ② one card per area, each with a line about what it holds, ③ the bar that stays at the bottom: Show Preview opens the gallery with your changes, Save Changes (just Save on a phone) commits them.

3. Pick the Appearance tile, or the tab of the same name in the tab bar at the top (paintbrush icon). Direct link: /admin/settings?tab=style. For a full tour of the admin area, see Managing your event and the Admin dashboard.

Tip

The heading inside the tab still reads “Style Customization”. It is the same area – only the tab in the navigation is now called “Appearance”. Old bookmarks pointing at ?tab=style keep working.

At the top of the settings page you will find three helpers:

• Preview – opens a live preview of your gallery and reflects every change instantly (after a short delay), before you even save. Keep it open while trying out colors and layouts.
• Search field “Jump to a setting on this page…” – finds individual settings across all tabs. Type “color” or “header” and jump straight to the matching option; Clear search resets it.
• “Show all advanced options” – expands the collapsed sections of other tabs. In the Appearance tab it has nothing to do: nothing is collapsed there any more, every block sits open one below the other.

Save first, then it applies

Changes in the Appearance tab are not saved immediately. A red dot on the tab marks unsaved changes. Click “Save Changes” at the bottom (one shared button for all tabs) to apply everything. If you leave the page with unsaved changes, a dialog warns you. Image uploads (logo/cover) are only uploaded when you save – you then see a progress bar.

Group 1: Header — applies to every page

The header sits on top of every page of your event, not just the photos. It consists of the header variant and the branding assets logo and cover.

Header style

In the “Header Style” block you choose your header’s look from horizontally scrolling cards with real preview images.

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The cards scroll sideways – four of the six variants are visible, with Elegant and Gradient further right. The selected one has a coloured border (Polaroid here). This example event has premium, which is why the cards carry no premium badges.

• Six variants: Modern Compact (free) plus Modern, Polaroid, Minimalist, Elegant and Gradient (premium).
• Without premium, only Modern Compact is selectable; the other cards carry a premium badge and cannot be clicked.

Share button in the header

Below the cards sits the checkbox “Share the gallery: button in the header”. It is off by default. Tick it and your guests get a small button in the header that lets them pass the gallery on via QR code and link. Without the tick, guests do not see that button in the header area.

Every other way to share a gallery is covered in Sharing and Invite guests.

Configure header

The “Configure header” button expands the fine-tuning for the currently selected variant. A small dot on the button (“Customised”) shows that values are already set for it. Each variant has its own controls:

• On every variant: Header height, Title size, Text colour and Alignment (Left / Center / Right).
• Modern adds: Background colour and Overlay strength.
• Minimalist and Elegant add: Background colour.
• Gradient adds: Gradient start, Gradient end and Gradient angle.
• Polaroid adds: Frame tilt.

Logo size and logo shape have moved

Logo size and Logo shape are no longer in this panel. They sit directly beneath the logo upload, in the “How the logo looks” block – where you uploaded the logo in the first place. The hint below them names the variant they apply to: “Size and shape apply to the ‘…’ header.”

Resetting works per control and as a whole

Every control you touch gets a small “Reset to default” arrow. As long as nothing is set, the control shows “default” or the default value. At the bottom of the panel, “Reset all to defaults” clears the whole variant. Important: the values are stored per variant – switching from Modern to Elegant keeps your Modern settings, and they return when you switch back.

Branding assets: logo and cover image

Premium feature

The entire “Branding Assets” block (logo + cover) is a premium feature. Without a matching plan you see an upgrade note instead of the upload fields. For plan details, see Upgrade & pricing.

These assets appear in the header: the cover forms the background (with a soft fade-out effect), and the logo sits next to it.

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Right below the style cards sit the checkbox “Share the gallery: button in the header” (unticked here) and “Configure header”. Below them the Branding Assets block with Logo (PNG/SVG) and Cover (Wide 16:9) – both still empty, each with “Browse Templates” underneath.

1. Upload a logo. Drag a file into the left “Logo” field or click into it. Recommended (also shown on the field): Square (1:1) as PNG/SVG – ideally with a transparent background.

2. Set how the logo looks. Right below the upload field sits the “How the logo looks” block with Logo size and Logo shape (Round, Rounded, Square, Original (no crop)). Both values apply to the header variant chosen above.

3. Upload a cover. Use the right “Cover” field. Recommended: Wide (16:9) in high quality.

4. Fine-tune the image. After uploading, a gear icon appears at the top right of the image (“Image settings”). It holds Set focus point, Rotate 90° left, Rotate 90° right and Crop ….

5. Pick a template instead of uploading (optional). Instead of uploading your own file, both fields also let you choose a ready-made template from the built-in template library. The templates offered are filtered by category per field (logo or cover background). These are pre-made, centrally stored templates – not your own Design Studio designs (the Design Studio is for QR / print templates).

The logo is not necessarily round

How the logo is cropped is set per header variant with the Logo shape control. For Polaroid, Minimalist and Gradient, Original (no crop) is the default – those layouts show the logo as free-standing artwork, and a square crop would mangle wide wordmarks. For Modern Compact, Modern and Elegant the variant keeps its own rounding until you pick a shape.

Focus point for logo and cover

The focus point decides which part of an image stays visible when it has to be cropped – in the header, the cover and the logo frame. Without one the center always wins, which goes wrong for group photos or off-center subjects.

1. Click the gear on the image and choose Set focus point. The “Focus point” dialog opens.

2. Tap or click the spot in the image that should stay visible. The hint in the dialog says exactly that: the spot that survives the crop.

3. Center resets the focus point back to the middle of the image.

Cropping replaces the image

Crop … and the rotations create a new version of the image and replace the current one – the original is not kept. The “Replace image?” dialog asks first; confirm with “Yes, crop”. If you only want to steer the visible section, use the focus point instead. For editing individual gallery photos, see Editing a photo.

Cover image background options

Below the upload fields you can expand “Cover Image Background Options” to fine-tune the cover:

• Position – “Behind Header Only” (cover sits only behind the header) or “Fullscreen” (cover fills the whole page background).
• Dark overlay – lays a dark veil over the image so light text stays readable. When the overlay is on, an Overlay Intensity slider (0–100 %) appears as well.
• Blur (0–20 px), Brightness (0–200 %), Contrast (0–200 %), Saturation (0–200 %) and Opacity (0–100 %) shape the image look.
• Text stroke and Text shadow – improve the readability of title and subtitle over the image.
• “Reset to Defaults” – restores every control in this block (overlay on at 40 %, position “Behind Header Only”, no blur, text stroke on, text shadow off).

Note on Fullscreen

When the cover position is set to “Fullscreen”, the image hides the configured background color – it no longer takes effect. A hint also appears in the colors block. Choose “Behind Header Only” if you want your background color to stay visible.

Group 2: Photo grid — the photo view only

This is the only group that touches the photo view exclusively. Seating, menu or RSVP are unaffected by it.

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The layout cards show real previews; the selected one has a blue border. This example event includes premium – without a plan the premium layouts carry a lock overlay.

Gallery layout

The “Gallery Layout Style” block controls how photos are arranged – also via cards with real previews.

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The tiles are radio buttons — the marked one is active. Clicking another tile switches the gallery grid; guests only see it after Save Changes at the bottom.

• Eight layouts: Modern Grid and Uniform Grid (free) plus Polaroid Wall, Vintage Collage, Timeline, Seamless Mosaic, Featured and Justified Rows (premium).
• Without premium, only the two free grids are selectable; the others carry a lock overlay.
• “Configure layout” – opens the fine-tuning for the chosen layout, again with per-control resets and “Reset all to defaults”. Here too, every setting applies to that one layout only.
• Typical controls are Columns on mobile, Columns on desktop, Spacing between photos and Corner roundness; the playful layouts add Tilt amount, Random tilt, Position jitter, Shadow strength, Frame width, Frame/card colour and a Photo filter (None, Sepia, Black & white, Warm, Cool). Justified Rows has a Row height instead of columns.

Gallery item settings

The “Gallery Item Settings” block controls which extra details appear on each photo:

• Show album – displays the album name on each photo. If no albums exist yet, a hint with a link to create them appears. See Managing albums.
• Show task – displays the associated task. If tasks are not in your plan or turned off in the Gallery features tab, a hint points that out. See Managing tasks.
• Show caption – displays captions beneath each photo.
• Show comment icon – shows the comment icon (depending on plan and feature setting).
• Show favorite icon – shows the like icon (depending on plan and feature setting).

Note

Individual toggles are greyed out or hidden if the feature is not included in your plan or has been turned off in the Gallery features tab. See Turning features on and off.

Default sorting

The “Default Gallery Sorting” block sets the initial sort order – guests can still re-sort themselves.

• Sort by – “Upload Date” or “Capture Date (Photo Taken)”.
• Sort order – “Newest First” or “Oldest First”.

Below it, “Albums Page Sorting” controls the order of the album and task cards:

• Options: Photo Count, Manual Order (as arranged in the Albums Manager), Alphabetical, Shuffled (random), Visitor’s Own Uploads.
• The Sort Order control only appears when neither “Manual” nor “Shuffled” is chosen (there the direction has no meaning).

See also Managing albums and the album view from the guest’s perspective.

Controls above the grid

At the bottom of the group sit two toggles that used to live in the Gallery features tab under “Gallery Views”. They now sit with the grid they appear on:

• Quick Sort Bar – “Show a quick sort bar above the gallery grid”. Guests can reorder by upload, capture date, likes or comments without opening the search panel.
• Album Quick Select – “Show scrollable album shortcuts below the sort bar”. Your event’s albums appear as tappable chips; one tap jumps into an album. The toggle is locked if the feature is not part of your plan.

Group 3: Basics — applies to every page

Colors and fonts are written to the whole event surface. They therefore also color seating, menu, timeline, RSVP and the digital invitation.

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The six curated palettes set primary, accent and background color in one click. “Inherited” on the right means no own color is set yet.

Colors, palettes and dark mode

In the “Appearance Settings” block, under the Color Theme heading, you tune your event’s color world.

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Instead of mixing single colours you pick a ready-made palette — here Bordeaux & Gold. One click sets primary and accent colour to match; you can still fine-tune afterwards, and saving happens at the bottom as everywhere else.

Premium feature

Brand colors and dark mode are premium features. Without a plan you see a yellow “Premium” badge on the colors (the color is display-only, not editable), the palettes and the primary/accent pickers are missing entirely, and a lock overlay sits on the dark mode toggle. See Upgrade & pricing.

1. Pick a color palette (recommended start). Above the individual colors sits a row of curated palettes, each previewing three color dots: Classic Blue, Bordeaux & Gold, Sage & Cream, Midnight & Rose, Emerald & Copper and Plum & Blush. One click sets the primary, accent and background color together. You can then adjust each color individually – the palettes are a starting point, not a lock.

2. Primary color – for buttons, links and active states. Chosen via the color picker and resettable at any time. If none is set, the field on the right reads “inherited”, or “brand default” on brand-managed events, and the picker shows exactly the color your event actually renders.

3. Accent color – for highlights and celebratory details, also resettable.

4. Background color – sets the tone of the surface. The current hex value is always shown on the right.

5. Enable dark mode (optional). With the “Enable Dark Mode” toggle, your guests may switch to a dark theme themselves. Below it a sun/moon icon shows your own browser preference.

Hover and in-between shades are derived

You only set these three colors. Hover states and subtler shades are derived automatically – you never maintain them one by one.

Dark mode and background color

When guests enable dark mode, your background color set above does not apply – dark mode uses its own dark color scheme. An info hint reminds you of this as soon as the toggle is on.

Fonts

In the “Font Settings” block you choose via three dropdowns:

• Title – for main headings.
• Subtitle – for body text.
• Text – fallback font for all remaining text.

Fonts apply to every page of the event too, not only to the photo view.

Group 4: QR code — for printouts

The “QR Code Customization” block is a premium feature. With a plan, you design the look of all generated QR codes (photo wall, downloads, tasks).

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The live preview on the left, the designer and “Reset to default” on the right. Changes apply to every QR code of the event.

1. On the left you see a live preview of the QR code.

2. Click “QR Code Designer” on the right. The “QR Code Customization” dialog opens with a real-time preview: you adjust dot color, corners and background. Confirm with “Use This Code” or dismiss with “Cancel”.

3. “Reset to Default” – resets the dot color back to your primary color.

Below the designer sit two cross-links, because a QR code is not looked at here – it is printed:

• “To put the code on signs and cards, use the print templates.” → Print templates
• “Whether the access code is embedded in the QR code is decided under ‘Access’.” → Settings → Access, see Invite guests

Pro tips for scannable QR codes

Keep the contrast high, use no light colors for the dots, and test the code with several scanner apps. Dot color = primary color (the default) looks brand-consistent. More on QR cards in the Design Studio.

Example

For an autumn wedding you click the Bordeaux & Gold palette in group 3 – primary, accent and background color are set in one go. In group 1 you pick the Elegant header style and use Configure header to set the alignment to Center. In group 2 you take the Polaroid Wall layout, open Configure layout and set Columns on desktop to 3, the Photo filter to Warm and turn the Tilt amount down so the pictures hang only slightly askew. Under Gallery item settings you leave Show album on and Show caption off. You set the default sorting to Capture Date (Photo Taken) and Oldest First – so the gallery reads like the evening itself, from the ceremony to the dance floor. Finally you switch the Quick Sort Bar on so guests can still flip to “most liked”. If you then briefly try Modern Grid, your Polaroid values are kept and come back when you switch back. Without a premium plan you are left with Modern Compact and the two free grids – the sorting and the item toggles still work.

Premium and role overview

Block	Without a matching plan
Logo & cover	upgrade note, no upload
Color palettes, primary & accent color	missing entirely; background color display-only with a “Premium” badge
Dark mode	lock overlay over the toggle
Header variants (except Modern Compact)	only Modern Compact selectable
Gallery layouts (except Modern/Uniform Grid)	only the free grids
Album Quick Select	toggle locked
QR design	lock overlay

Roles and brand-managed events

The Appearance tab is the host’s (owner’s) domain. Moderators only see it with explicit settings access.

On brand-managed events (white-label/reseller) it looks different from the table above: header variants and gallery layouts that the brand’s plan does not include are not shown at all – instead of a locked card with a premium badge, the card is simply missing. The same goes for controls the managing brand has locked for you (logo, cover, colors, header or layout): they are hidden without a note. If both halves of a group are locked, the whole group disappears including its heading. That is intentional and is enforced on the server as well.

Common questions and troubleshooting

• “I can’t find the ‘Style’ tab any more.” It is called “Appearance” now. The address ?tab=style stayed the same, so old links keep working.
• “I’m looking for the ‘Advanced style options’.” That collapsible section is gone. Fonts, gallery item settings, sorting and QR design sit open in their groups – fonts under Basics, the other three under Photo grid and QR code.
• “My change is gone.” It was not saved – click “Save Changes” at the bottom (red dot on the tab).
• “I can’t find logo size and logo shape in the header panel.” They sit directly beneath the logo upload in the “How the logo looks” block. Remember: the value applies only to the currently selected header variant.
• “My background color has no effect.” Either the cover position is set to “Fullscreen” (covering the color) or the viewer has enabled dark mode.
• “The color controls or the palettes are missing.” You lack the premium plan for brand colors, or the brand has locked them.
• “I cannot find a header variant’s preview card at all.” On brand-managed events, variants that are not unlocked are hidden rather than locked – ask your managing brand.
• “The album/task toggles are greyed out.” The feature is not in your plan or is turned off in the Gallery features tab.
• “The QR code scans poorly.” Increase the contrast and avoid light dot colors (see pro tips).
• “The logo or cover is cropped wrongly.” Use the gear on the image to set the focus point on the spot that should stay visible. Only crop if that is not enough – cropping replaces the image.

Best-practice tips

• Pick a color palette first, then fine-tune – and keep the preview open. Check a tool page too (the seating chart, say): colors and fonts show up there as well.
• Cover in 16:9 and high resolution, logo in 1:1 with a transparent background; for wide wordmark logos set the logo shape to Original (no crop).
• For light cover images, enable the dark overlay so titles stay readable.
• Turn on the share button in the header if guests should pass the gallery on – otherwise the only routes are QR codes and invitation links.
• Related pages: General settings, Gallery features, Setting up the photo wall, Custom domain.