- From your inbox, click on the gear icon (near top right), and choose "Themes".
- The current theme is highlighted - just click on another one to switch:
Note: the change should be applied immediately; if it isn't, refresh the page after you've made your selection (hit F5 on Windows and Linux, or Command+R on Mac OS X).
- Color Themes change background color; HD sets a wallpaper picture; Classic uses clipart.
- Explanation for the theme icons Gmail shows in the lower right corner of each swatch: • White corner: light theme (a light Settings button, like the screenshot at the top of this page, and your email messages listed with black text on a white background).
• Dark-gray corner: dark theme (dark Settings button and messages shown in light-on-dark text).
• Three squares - Gmail automatically changes background theme picture every day.
• Sun icon - the background picture changes based on your local weather.
• Clock icon - the background image changes based on time of day.
Example: "Planets" is a dark theme with pictures that rotate daily.
- Weather and time-of-day based themes rely on your current location: scroll to the bottom of the page and look for "Your location is set to..." Click on the Change link to pick another area:
- To let Gmail automatically change your theme (daily), click on "Random" at the very bottom.
- To create your own, click on one of the "Custom Themes" - light or dark background. Then, click on "Change your background image" to choose a "featured" picture, one from your Picasa web albums, a photo from your smartphone, upload one from your computer, or even paste a URL!
Notes: anything you upload is stored in a private album in your Google profile, invisible to others. Background images won't repeat / tile on the screen: they stretch to fit your current screen resolution (currently no way around this limitation). Pictures in custom themes rotate daily.
- This setting saves automatically: when you are done, click on Inbox (left) to return to your emails.
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