Apply preset themes to style shapes in Lucidchart

Select a theme

To select a theme and apply it to existing and future shapes in your document, follow these steps:

1. Open the Themes panel from the Primary Toolbar on the left-hand side.
2. Select a theme from the panel that appears.
   

Selecting a theme will change the style of all shapes currently on the canvas as well as for all future shapes, unless you have manually updated the style for a shape on the canvas. If you want to apply the theme to a shape you have manually updated the style for, follow the steps in the Change the theme for selected shapes section.

Theme styles

Each theme has six preset styles:

• Primary: Applies to action or task-related shapes from the flowchart shape library such as Process or Manual operation.
• Secondary: Applies to workflow shapes from the flowchart shape library such as Decision, Manual Input, Preparation, Delay, and Merge.
• Accent: Applies to endpoint or data storage shapes from the flowchart shape library such as Terminator, Database, Hard disk, Internal storage, Stored data, and Display.
• Highlight, Success, and Error: These styles aren’t automatically applied to any particular shapes, but can be used to further customize the theme to your needs.

You can use conditional formatting to change which styles are applied to specific shapes. Check out the Use conditional formatting with themes section for detailed steps.

Edit a theme

After you have selected a theme, you can customize it according to your needs. You can also manually change the style of individual shapes if you need them to be different from your selected theme. Read the next sections for more information.

Customize theme styles

Customize each theme’s style by changing its fill color, border color, border style, style, and text color. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Open the Themes panel from the Primary Toolbar on the left-hand side.
2. Click the Edit icon in the top-right corner of your selected theme.
3. Select a style from the options such as Primary, Secondary, or Accent.
4. Update the fill color, border style, border color, border width, or text color.

The changes will apply to all existing and future shapes that use the style you customized.

Change the style for selected shapes

You can change the theme style for one or more specific shapes on the canvas, even if it already has a theme style applied to it. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the shape(s) you want to update.
2. Click the Fill color icon, the Line color icon, or the Text color icon from the Formatting bar at the top of the workspace.
3. Select a new style under "Styles" at the bottom of the panel that appears.
   • These options correspond to whichever theme you have selected. If you haven’t selected a theme, the style options default to the “Chalk” theme.
     

Use conditional formatting with themes

Using conditional formatting, you can change and automate what theme styles are applied to which shapes. For example, if you want Process shapes to always have the “Accent” style instead of the “Primary” style, you can set up a conditional formatting rule for that. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Select the Conditional Formatting icon from the Primary Toolbar at the far left-hand side of the canvas.
2. Click Create rule.
3. Under the “If” section, select Shape type from the first dropdown menu.
4. Check the box next to the shape(s) you want to update the theme style for.
5. Click Done.
6. Under “Then use formatting”, select a new style from the options.
   • These options correspond to whichever theme you have selected. If you haven’t selected a theme, the style options default to the “Chalk” theme.
     

All existing and future shapes with that specific shape type will acquire the selected theme style.

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