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Making Custom themes for Gmail

By Ryan Doom on Thursday, November 20, 2008

Making Custom themes for Gmail
By Ryan Doom @ 3:30 AM
466 Views :: 4 Comments :: :: General

I wonder if Gmail will be allowing us to make custom themes for their web based email client? This week they launched a feature under the settings area to change the look and feel of your Gmail.

Here are a couple screenshot examples of the built in themes, but I would like to see them open it up and make Gmail themes uploadable.

Gmail Custom Theme Example 1

Gmail Custom Theme Example 2

Gmail Custom Theme Example 3

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ByFarhan Ahmad @ Thursday, November 20, 2008 11:15 AM
I am still waiting for themes to be turned on for my account, but these look pretty cool. I am happy to see that Google has finally decided to dedicate more resources to Gmail because now almost every other week they are coming up with something new (a few labs features, the smileys, and now this).

I highly doubt that Google will allow custom themes, mainly because of the security issues behind it. You know what happened with a Firefox add-on that let you archive gmail (the author was emailing the user/pass to an account that he created for this purpose :)).
By Jay @ Thursday, November 20, 2008 1:21 PM
There shouldn't be any security issues with custom themes. It's just a css swap.

I'm hoping to see custom themes as well. I'd like to see the guys at Globex Designs bring Gmail Redesigned to the officially supported themes, so I can get that goodness whether I'm in Firefox, Safari, Camino, or on someone elses computer that doesn't have the Firefox extension installed.
ByDoom @ Thursday, November 20, 2008 3:11 PM
Yeah, I think they could work out the security bit. They probably have it setup where all it is, is a change in CSS file(s) & images to accompany the files.

Good task for tonight, I'll analyze the HTML output for the different themes. Guessing it will be the same.
By MyToS @ Friday, November 21, 2008 9:11 AM
this should be possible by forcing a local CSS file use using Opera or a Firefox addon...
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