How slides look: themes and layout

The theme decides how the slides look for your whole church: the font, the background, where the text sits, the logo, and which slides make up a song and a reading. You set it up once in the desktop app: Themes (⌘7).

The theme on screen is always the one marked Default for this church. You don't switch themes during a service. To save a theme you need an internet connection and the Service plans: Edit permission. Without internet, you can only preview it. Without the permission, you'll see Could not save theme.

Shortcuts are written for Mac: on Windows and Linux, press Ctrl instead of ⌘ and Alt instead of ⌥ (⇧ is Shift).

1. Start from a preset

1. Click the palette icon next to + New above the theme list (tooltip Start from a preset).
2. Pick one of the ready-made looks, e.g. Classic black, Deep blue, Minimal white, Serif Scripture, Lower third (text at the bottom, e.g. over video), Cathedral, Candlelight.
3. Adjust it (see below) and click Save.

+ New creates a theme from scratch. A new theme doesn't change what's on screen until you tick Default for this church on it and save it — so you can experiment safely.

2. Preview

At the top of the editor there is a live preview. Switch between content types: Song, Scripture, Announcement, Stream. Scripture, announcements and Stream inherit the song look. If you change the font, the background or anything on the Text and Text box tabs for one content type, it gets its own settings. Transitions, the section label color, the logo and Layout are shared by the whole theme. Reset to song look undoes those changes. The preview shows the logo of the theme that's on screen now, so a logo picked in another theme appears only after you save that theme as the default.

Tick Default for this church and click Save to put this theme on screen.

3. Tabs

Look

• Font: Family (e.g. Inter, Serif (Georgia), Rounded), Color, Weight, Align, Italic, UPPERCASE.
• Background: Solid color, Gradient or Image / video — from your own media or the built-in backgrounds. Media dim makes text easier to read on a bright photo.
• Transitions: Text fade and Background fade.
• Section label color — the color of the label in the corner of the slide (e.g. “Verse 1”); whether it shows is set on the Layout tab.

Text

• Lines per slide (Bible, announcements), Min font (1080p), Max font (1080p), Line height.
• Outline and Shadow — they help when the text sits on a photo or video.

Text box

• Left, Top, Width, Height and Vertical align — where the text sits on the screen, e.g. a lower third over video. The Stream content type doesn't use this position: the lower third always sits at the bottom of the picture.

Logo

• Logo image — first upload the logo in Media (ideally a PNG with a transparent background), then pick it here. Without an image, a text wordmark shows instead if Show wordmark when there is no logo image is ticked.
• Logo size. The L key shows the logo during a service.

Layout — which slides make up a song and a reading:

• Slide sequence — thumbnails of a sample song and reading,
• for a song: Slide before (None, Blank, Title), Slide after (None, Blank, Logo), Section label (e.g. Short (V1) or Verse 1 of 4),
• Title slide: Songbook and number, Author, font and size (works when the slide before a song is set to Title),
• Header: Content (Title, Section, Title + section) and Position (Top / Bottom),
• for Scripture: Slide before (Reference or Reference + translation), Verse numbers (Corner, In text, Superscript), Caption with the reference at the top or at the bottom, Verse text size.

4. Exceptions

• A single song can have its own Slide before and Header (the bar above the slides in Songs or Show). That choice stays on this computer only.
• A single plan item (a song or a reading) can have its own slide before: in Show, right-click it (or click the sliders icon that appears on hover — tooltip Slide layout of this item) and pick an option in the Slide before (this item) menu, or for a reading Reference slide before the reading. That choice applies on every computer of the church, and the item gets the note “own layout”.
• A background picked during the service on the Backgrounds bar replaces the theme background. A content type with its own background in the theme (e.g. Scripture in the starter theme WorshipPro Standard) keeps its own.

Our tips

• For a bright room: dark text on a light background, or Stronger contrast (bright room) in Settings → Slides.
• For the livestream: a separate look in the Stream content type (e.g. Band without background (text only — transparent in NDI and the OBS overlay) in Look → Background) — see Streaming: lower thirds for OBS, vMix and NDI.
• Less is more: one font, a calm background, short transitions.

What's next

• The Bible on screen
• Media, backgrounds and presentations (PDF, PowerPoint, Keynote)