Custom Power BI Themes for Branding

Power BI themes enable you to apply consistent colors, fonts, and formatting across all reports, ensuring brand alignment and professional appearance.

What Are Power BI Themes?

Themes are JSON configuration files that define default colors, fonts, and visual formatting. When applied, all visuals automatically adopt the theme settings.

Theme Components

Colors - Data colors (chart series) - Background colors - Foreground (text) colors - Table colors - Sentiment colors (positive, negative, neutral)

Typography - Font family - Font sizes for titles, labels, values - Font weights

Visual Formatting - Card backgrounds - Border styles - Shadow effects - Padding and margins

Creating a Custom Theme

Basic Theme Structure A minimal theme JSON includes: - name: Your theme name - dataColors: Array of hex colors for data series - background: Default visual background - foreground: Default text color

Advanced Customization Themes can define: - Specific formatting for each visual type - Conditional formatting defaults - Header and title styles - Tooltip formatting

Applying Themes

In Power BI Desktop View menu > Themes > Browse for themes > Select your JSON file

Organization-Wide Publish themes to a shared location and document for all report creators. Consider creating a theme library with variations for different purposes.

Best Practices

Start with an existing theme and modify
Test with multiple visual types
Create light and dark mode versions
Document your color palette for consistency

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I share themes across reports?

Yes, export your theme as a JSON file and share it with your team. Any report can import the same theme file to ensure consistent branding across all Power BI content.

Do themes affect existing visuals?

Themes apply default formatting. Existing visuals with manual formatting overrides retain their custom settings, but new visuals use the theme defaults.