CSS Themes

The extension has two modes: light and dark, which you can customize separately. Most elements can be styled through just a few CSS variables.

If you're using a third-party theme, consider reaching out to the developer and asking them if they could support zoteroRoam directly in their theme.

Basic styling

You'll most likely want to start by customizing the extension's base accents ; by default, they use a similar color scheme as the Blueprint library does (which is natively used by Roam).

The corresponding CSS variables are :

• --zr-accent-1-hsl (default = a shade of blue)

• --zr-accent-2-hsl (default = a shade of orange)

As their name indicates, these variables should contain HSL color values. Other formats will not work. There are many online tools such as this one where you can explore the color wheel and find the matching HSL parameters.

Example for light mode

:root {
    --zr-accent-1-hsl: 164,58%,47%; /* a shade of green */
    --zr-accent-2-hsl: 315,77%,66%; /* a shade of pink */
}

Example for dark mode

[zr-dark-theme="true"] {
    --zr-accent-1-hsl: 162, 100%, 62%; /* a shade of green */
    --zr-accent-2-hsl: 44, 70%, 51%; /* a shade of yellow */
}

Light Mode

Here are the variables and default values the extension uses for light mode:

:root {
    --zr-accent-1-hsl: 223, 100%, 44%;
    --zr-accent-2-hsl: 18, 63%, 39%;
    --zr-negative-hsl: 0, 92%, 41%;
    --zr-positive-hsl: 155, 58%, 27%;
    --zr-accent-1: hsla(var(--zr-accent-1-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-accent-2: hsla(var(--zr-accent-2-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-negative-co: hsla(var(--zr-negative-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-positive-co: hsla(var(--zr-positive-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-auxiliary: #5c7080;
    --zr-border-co: #ececec;
    --zr-box-bg: #f8f8f8;
    --zr-box-shadow-co: #d7dced4d;
    --zr-dialog-bg: #ffffff;
    --zr-input-size: 240px;
    --zr-minimal-bg: #cad1df26;
    --zr-negative-bg: #fff1f2;
    --zr-positive-bg: #45d29826;
    --zr-secondary-co: #696969;
    --zr-secondary-fw: 300;
    --zr-shortcut-co: inherit;
    --zr-text-co: inherit;
    --zr-text-small: 0.85rem;
}

Dark Mode (default)

Here are the default values that are overriden when using dark mode:

[zr-dark-theme="true"] {
    --zr-accent-1-hsl: 202, 100%, 62%;
    --zr-accent-2-hsl: 30, 70%, 51%;
    --zr-negative-hsl: 0, 85%, 69%;
    --zr-positive-hsl: 120, 86%, 75%;
    --zr-accent-1: hsla(var(--zr-accent-1-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-accent-2: hsla(var(--zr-accent-2-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-negative-co: hsla(var(--zr-negative-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-positive-co: hsla(var(--zr-positive-hsl), 100%);
    --zr-auxiliary: #95a8b7;
    --zr-border-co: #2f3133;
    --zr-box-bg: #191919;
    --zr-box-shadow-co: #0b0b0c4d;
    --zr-dialog-bg: #1f1f1f;
    --zr-negative-bg: #332828;
    --zr-positive-bg: #5863582e;
    --zr-secondary-co: #8ba4bd;
    --zr-secondary-fw: 400;
    --zr-shortcut-co: #9b9b9b;
    --zr-text-co: #76a0cb;
}

Extra

If you'd like to add some visual elements to the extension's interface, you can use CSS to show emojis for certain types of items:

[data-item-type="journalArticle"]::before {
  content: '📄 ';
}

[data-item-type="book"]::before {
  content: '📙 ';
}

[data-item-type="thesis"]::before {
  content: '🎓 ';
}

[data-item-type="conferencePaper"]::before {
  content: '🎙️ ';
}

/* And so on! */

This will take effect in the Search Panel, the Autocomplete feature, and other places.