[Limited availability]{class="badge informative"}

Apply themes to your email content apply-email-themes

AVAILABILITY
This capability is in Limited Availability. Contact your Adobe representative to gain access.

With themes, non-technical users have the ability to create reusable content that fits a specific brand and design language by adding custom styling on top of the standard templates.

This feature empowers marketers to leverage visually appealing, brand-consistent emails faster and with less effort, while providing advanced customization options for unique design needs.

Guardrails and limitations themes-guardrails

  • When creating an email from scratch, you can choose to start building your content using a theme to quickly apply a specific styling that fits your brand and design.

    If you choose the Manual Styling mode, you won’t be able to apply any themes unless you reset your email.

  • Fragments are not cross-compatible between the Use Themes and Manual Styling modes.

    • Themed fragments are not available in email contents created without using themes.

    • To leverage a fragment in a themed content, this fragment must have been created itself using themes. Learn more

    • When using a fragment in email content, make sure you are applying a theme that you have defined for this fragment. Failing to do so may cause display issues, especially in Outlook 2021 and previous versions. Learn more

  • If using a content created in HTML, you will be in compatibility mode and you cannot directly apply themes to this content.

    • To apply themes, you must first save the imported content as a new template, then convert this template into a theme-compatible content. You can then use this template to create your email content. Learn how to convert a template created with manual styling in this section.

    • You can also still convert your imported HTML content. Learn more

  • When using custom web fonts (including Google fonts) in your themes, be aware that many email clients do not support them. Always define appropriate fallback fonts in your theme to ensure readability across all email clients.

    • Gmail and Yahoo! do not load external web fonts and will fall back to system fonts, regardless of the font family specified in your HTML/CSS.
    • The only Google fonts supported by Gmail are Roboto and Google Sans.
    • Email clients that do support web fonts include Apple Mail, iOS Mail, Android Mail, Thunderbird, and Outlook for macOS.

Create a theme create-and-edit-themes

To define a theme that you can leverage in your future email contents, follow the steps below.

  1. To get started, create a new content template.

  2. Select the Create or edit themes option.

    Content template editor showing the Create or edit themes option

  3. Select an Adobe theme. In this example, select the Default theme and click Create.

    Theme picker with Default theme selected and Create button

  4. You can also select a custom template from the My themes tab and click Edit to update it.

    My themes tab listing custom themes with Edit highlighted

  5. In the General settings tab, start defining your theme by giving it a specific name suiting your brand. You can adjust the default viewport width for your emails.

  6. Use the rail on the right to navigate through the different tabs and update your design settings.

    Theme editor right rail with tabs for colors, text, spacing, and other design settings

  7. From the Colors tab:

    • Use the Edit button to set up a Color palette with default colors for your brand. Select a Preset to quickly create a color scheme, or adjust each color of your theme individually. You can also use a combination of both.

      Animation of editing the theme color palette with presets and custom colors

    • Click Add variant to create multiple color variants, such as light and dark mode, where each variant of your theme has its own color palette and nuance controls.

      Color variants in the theme editor with Add variant for additional palettes

    • For each variant, click the Edit icon to edit any individual element. You can use the default palette that you have created, or any custom colors.

      Animation of editing individual colors within a theme color variant

  8. In the Text settings, you can set the global font that you want to use for your entire theme. For a more granular control, you also can edit each heading and paragraph type to adjust the font, size, style, and so on.

    Text settings tab for global font and heading or paragraph styles in a theme

    note note
    NOTE
    When selecting custom web fonts, note that many email clients such as Gmail and Yahoo! do not support external web fonts and will fall back to system fonts. Consider including fallback fonts to ensure your content displays correctly across all email clients. Learn more
  9. In the Spacing tab, select an individual element from the list to properly space it between the different components.

  10. Using the other tabs on the right, you can manage separately each button element, divider, additional image formatting, and grid layout spacing for this theme.

    Button styling controls in the theme editor right rail

  11. Click Save to store this theme for future use. It is now displayed in the My themes tab.

Apply themes to an email content apply-themes-email

To apply default or custom styling themes to a content template or an email, follow the steps below.

  1. In Adobe Campaign, create an email delivery or work from an existing delivery, or create an email content template, and edit the email content.

  2. You can either select one of the following actions:

    • Select a built-in email template to open the Email Designer. A default theme specific to each template is automatically applied.

    • Design a new content from scratch and select Use Themes to start with a predefined styling theme.

      Email Designer start screen with Use Themes and Manual Styling options

      note caution
      CAUTION
      If you choose the Manual Styling mode, you won’t be able to apply any themes unless you reset your design.
      To leverage a fragment in a themed content, this fragment must have been created itself using themes. Learn more
  3. Once in the Email Designer, click the Themes button on the right rail. The default theme or the template’s theme is displayed. You can switch between the two color variants for this theme.

    Email Designer canvas with Themes panel open showing the active theme and color variants

  4. Click the arrow next to the theme currently used. The list of available custom and Adobe themes displays.

    Theme dropdown expanded to show Adobe themes and My themes

  5. Click My themes and select a theme that you created.

    My themes list with a user-created theme selected in the theme picker

  6. Click outside of the drop-down list. The newly selected custom theme automatically applies its styles to all email components. You can toggle between the color variants if any.

  7. When a theme is selected in a content template, you can click the Edit theme button to update it. Learn more

    Content template in Email Designer with Edit theme button in the Themes panel {width="40%"}

    note note
    NOTE
    This option is not available when using themes in email contents.
  8. If you leverage a theme using several color variants, you can choose a specific variant for a given structure component. This allows you to define a color variant for the whole content, and use a different variant for just one specific structure.

    note note
    NOTE
    You cannot perform this action on content components.

    To do this, select a structure component, click the Use specific theme’s variant option from the Styles tab on the right, and apply the desired variant to that structure.

    Selected structure with Use specific theme's variant option in the Styles tab

    In this example, the first color variant of the current theme is applied to the whole email content, but the third color variant is applied to the selected structure. You can see that the body and viewport background colors for that specific structure are different from the rest of the content.

You can switch themes at any time. The email content remains unchanged, but the styles are updated to reflect the new theme.

Unlocking styles unlocking-styles

When a component is selected, you can unlock its style using the dedicated icon in the Styles tab.

Styles tab on a selected component showing the unlock style icon {width="90%"}

The selected theme is still applied to that component, but you can override its styling elements. If you change themes, the new theme is only applied to the styling elements that were not overriden.

For example, if you unlock a text component, you can change the font color from black to red:

Unlocked text component with custom red text color on a white background {align="center" width="80%" modal="regular"}

If you change themes, the font color is still red for that component, but the background color for this component will change with the new theme:

Same unlocked text with red color retained and background updated from a new theme {width="80%"}

Leverage themes in a fragment leverage-themes-fragment

To leverage a fragment in a template or email with themes applied, this fragment must have been created itself using themes. Otherwise, you will not be able to use this fragment in your themed content.

To create a fragment compatible with themes, follow the steps below.

  1. In Adobe Campaign, create a visual fragment and click Create to design the content of your fragment. Learn how

  2. Select Use Themes to start with a predefined styling theme.

    Fragment Email Designer start options with Use Themes selected {width="100%"}

    note caution
    CAUTION
    If you choose the Manual Styling mode, you won’t be able to apply any themes unless you reset your fragment design.
  3. Once in the Email Designer, you can start building your fragment.

  4. Click the Themes button on the right rail. The default theme is displayed. You can switch between the different color variants for this theme.

    Fragment content in Email Designer with Themes rail showing the default theme {align="center" width="100%" modal="regular"}

  5. You can select other themes to preview your fragment content. To do so, select the arrow next to the default theme and click Select themes.

    Theme header with arrow and Select themes control for fragment preview {width="40%"}

  6. You can navigate between the Adobe themes and My themes tabs, and select up to five compatible themes (from both tabs) for your fragment.

    Select compatible themes dialog with Adobe themes and My themes tabs {width="70%"}

    note caution
    CAUTION
    When using the fragment in an email content, make sure you apply a theme that you have defined for this fragment. Failing to do so may cause display issues, especially in Outlook 2021 and previous versions.
  7. Click Close.

  8. Select again the arrow next to the Default theme. You can now toggle between the different themes you just selected to preview each style rendering.

    Fragment canvas with multiple themes selected for preview in the Themes panel {width="90%"}

  9. Click Select themes again to add more themes or change your selection.

Make a template compatible with themes theme-convertor

Adobe Campaign allows you to convert a template which was created using manual styling into a theme-compatible content. This can be particularly useful if you created content templates before themes were introduced into Adobe Campaign, or if you are importing external contents.

NOTE
Only email templates can be converted to be compatible with themes. Individual emails cannot be converted; you must save your content as a template first.
  1. Open an email content template and edit its content using the Email Designer.

  2. Select the Themes icon on the right rail and click the Generate theme from content button.

    Themes panel with Generate theme from content button highlighted {width="100%"}

  3. The Create a theme window opens. Adobe Campaign automatically detects the styling elements and consolidates them into a new theme.

    Create a theme dialog summarizing styles detected from template content {width="90%"}

  4. Provide a name for your theme.

  5. Make your own adjustments as needed, just like you do when creating a theme from scratch, such as adding a color variant, editing fonts, etc. Learn how

    Generated theme in the editor showing color palette and variant controls {width="90%"}

  6. Click Save to store this new theme for reuse. You can now apply this theme to your contents such as any other theme. Learn how

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