Themes & Appearance

Zerosum ships with a full set of appearance controls: light and dark mode, seventeen color themes, a high contrast mode, and an adjustable font size. This guide covers what each one does and where to find it.

Light and dark mode

Open your account menu at the bottom of the sidebar and choose Appearance to switch between Light, Dark, and System. The same choice is Color mode under Settings → Appearance. System follows your device setting, so the app flips automatically when your device does. The Appearance menu also has a Color theme row that shows your current theme and opens its settings. This choice is saved per device: your phone can run dark while your desktop stays light.

Color themes

Pick a theme under Settings → Appearance → Color theme. The picker has two groups, named for what a pick does:

• Full themes repaint the whole app: backgrounds, panels, text, and accent. Midnight is the default, with an arctic blue light mode and a navy dark mode. Slate is the cool gray look with a steel blue accent, for anyone who finds Midnight too blue and Ink too black. Iris is the vivid blue-violet look: an iris tinted light mode and a deep navy dark mode with a bright blue-violet accent. Lavender is the violet look: a lavender tinted light mode and a deep violet dark mode with amethyst accents. Plum is the magenta look, between Lavender and Rosewater: a mauve tinted light mode and an aubergine dark mode with orchid accents. Rosewater is a soft pink: a blush cream light mode and a deep wine dark mode. Paper is the warm one, with a cream light mode and an espresso dark mode. Moss is sage: a green tinted light mode, a moss dark mode, and a deep pine accent. Tide is the sea look: a sea glass light mode, a harbor slate dark mode, and a teal accent. Ink is pure black and white: a gallery-white light mode and a true black dark mode made for OLED screens.

• Accent only keeps the standard gray surfaces and recolors just the buttons, links, and the current page in the sidebar: Indigo, Violet, Blush, Raspberry, Teal, Cobalt, and Graphite. Pick one of these right after a full theme and the change is deliberately small.

Each option in the picker shows a dot with that theme's background and accent for the mode you are in, so in dark mode you compare the dark looks, not the light ones. Every theme has a light and a dark variant, so the theme and the color mode combine freely. Your theme choice follows your account, so every device you sign in on shows the same look.

To use one theme in light mode and another in dark mode, for example Paper by day and Ink at night, turn on Separate dark mode theme under Settings → Appearance. The picker splits into Light mode theme and Dark mode theme, and each one's dots show the mode it controls. The dark one applies when the display mode is Dark, or System on a dark device. Turning the switch on starts from your current theme, so nothing changes until you pick.

To keep the sidebar dark while the rest of the app stays light, turn on Dark sidebar under Settings → Navigation, in the Sidebar card. In light mode the sidebar uses your dark mode colors: your dark mode theme if you set one, otherwise your current theme's dark look. Iris gives a navy sidebar, Plum an aubergine one, and Ink a black one. In dark mode nothing changes.

ℹ️ Money colors never change. Green for income and funded goals, red for overspending and outflows, amber for warnings. Themes restyle the chrome around your budget, never the meaning of the numbers.

High contrast

Turn on Increase contrast under Settings → Appearance. It works on top of every theme, in light and dark mode, and makes the whole app easier to read:

• Borders and dividers become clearly visible instead of subtle.

• Secondary text darkens (or brightens in dark mode) to meet WCAG AAA contrast.

• Links and accent colored text do the same, so they meet WCAG AAA in every theme while keeping the theme's color.

• The reds, greens, and ambers used for money states deepen so they stay readable on their tinted chips.

• Keyboard focus outlines become thicker and easier to follow.

The setting follows your account across devices. If your operating system is already set to increased contrast, Zerosum starts with the mode on; the switch always has the final say once you touch it.

Font size

Scale text and controls from 80% to 150% under Settings → Appearance → Font size. Font size is saved per device, so a larger size on your phone leaves your desktop unchanged.

What syncs and what stays per device

• Synced to your account: color theme, including a separate dark mode theme, the dark sidebar, and high contrast.

• Saved per device: light and dark mode, font size, and the Hide amounts switch under Settings → Privacy and device (see Settings).