Google Chrome

Google official color themes for Chrome bring dark mode-lite Just Black option

Damien Wilde | Feb 12 2019 - 5:39 am PT

Google has released 12 official color themes for Chrome (via Techdows) that includes a Chrome dark mode-lite ‘Just Black’ colorway.

The new themes will be a welcome addition as whilst there are some excellent third-party themes on the Chrome Webstore, some do lack the polish that official stylings tend to offer. This news also means you no longer need to install Canary to at least get a basic dark mode for Chrome before it officially gets added in the not-too-distant future.

One of the best things is that all of these themes can be applied to any version of the Chrome browser. Although, there is an issue that does appear whereby the main viewpane remains white after a theme is applied.

This will likely be fixed in a future update to Chrome. I personally had this issue when applying the Just Black theme, but closing all instances of Chrome and restarting seemingly fixed it for me at least.

Google Chrome dark mode on Windows 10 and macOS respects system-wide setting w/ latest Canary release

Whilst the new Chrome Just Black theme will likely be the most welcome, there are a further 11 color options to choose from including:

Slate
Oceanic
Ultra Violet
Classic Blue
Banana
Black & White
Honeysuckle
Rose
Serenity
Sea Foam
Marsala
High Contrast Colorful
Pretty in Pink

It is a step in the right direction adding a few more color options to the browser but bear in mind that this isn’t a true dark mode for Chrome. Menus, search bars and taskbars all remain white.

Simply head to the Google Chrome Store to install your favorite option now. Also, be sure to tell which is your favorite down in the comments section. I’m finding the Sea Foam option to be my favorite so far closely followed by the Oceanic for similar color reasons.