Themes, branding and custom wording

A theme controls the colors, typography and wording of the interface around your content. This article covers what a theme reaches on a signage display. That's a narrower set of things than the theme editor offers, because the editor is shared with other STQRY products.

Where themes live

A theme belongs to your account, not to a single project. You'll find it under Account → Theme, described in Builder as "Customize the look and feel of your content."

Each project then selects a theme in Project settings → Theme. Several projects can share one theme, and changing the theme updates all of them.

Themes are account-level. Each project picks one.

What a theme reaches on a display

A theme reaches three surfaces on a signage screen, and leaves the rest fixed.

The error screens stay fixed so they're legible whatever the theme is, including when the theme hasn't loaded. The provisioning screen appears before the display knows which account it belongs to, and the "waiting for content" screen is deliberately consistent with it.

The audio companion is themed thoroughly because it's a page a visitor looks at on their own phone, with your name on it.

Change the wording

A theme carries string overrides, per language. Any piece of interface text the display shows can be replaced with your own wording, in each of your project's languages.

The most common use is the audio companion caption, "Scan to listen along". Venues often want their own phrasing, a note about headphones, or their own name.

Set string overrides as part of your theme in Builder. They're delivered to the display with the theme and applied when it loads.

The theme editor's other settings

The editor offers more than a signage display uses. For completeness, it carries:

• Colors: background, primary, secondary, button background and so on.

• Font: family, size and unit, weight from Thin through to Black, style (normal or italic), and color.
• Per-component overrides: each component can override the global font and color settings. Builder's note applies: Leave a field blank to inherit from the font and color settings.
• Advanced settings: for finer control.

The editor also has sections for audio players, tab bars, bottom navigation, title bars, collection items and popups. None of those exist on a signage screen.

If you also use STQRY's app or kiosk products, the same theme drives those, where far more of it is visible. Build the theme for whichever product shows the most of it, then check the signage surfaces afterwards.

Check your theme on a display

A theme is delivered with the display's content and applied at load.

1. Save the theme in Builder.

2. Make sure your project has it selected.
3. Reload the display. Wait for its next content check, which takes up to five minutes, or use Reload display in the on-device settings overlay.

The quickest way to see the effect is to have the language switcher enabled. The pills are the most visible themed element on a playing screen.

Brand a display beyond the theme

Most branding on a signage display is done in the content, because the theme reaches so little of a playing screen. A logo bug baked into your images, a branded holding slide, or a title card at the start of a playlist loop all work well.

For a screen that's often idle, assign a branded holding playlist as a low-priority all-day schedule block. The screen then shows your brand rather than "Display has no running playlists". See Build a schedule: time blocks, priority and recurrence.

Next steps

• Content languages and the language switcher

• The audio companion QR code
• On-screen messages explained