Themes

You can change the appearance of your survey by changing the colors, fonts, applying a theme, or customizing other options like the logo and footer.

Applying a Theme
Creating a Custom Theme
Previewing Your Theme
Classic Themes
Accessible Surveys

Applying a Theme

To apply an existing theme to your survey:

Go to the Design Survey tab in any survey.
In the left sidebar, click ¿ Appearance.
Click the Themes tab.
Click any theme to apply it to your survey.

As you build your survey, you can always use the rich text editor to make formatting changes to specific text to override the theme settings.

There are three types of themes:

Theme Type	Description
Standard Themes	Standard themes are basic pre-designed themes you can apply to your survey to change the overall the look and feel. With any plan type, you can apply any Standard Theme to your survey, but you need a paid plan to customize it.
My Themes	These are Standard Themes you've customized to match your own preferences, brand, or website. When you create a custom theme, it's saved in your account so you can use it again in the future on any of your other surveys.
Premium Themes	Premium themes are pre-designed themes that use advanced customization features.
Team Themes	Team themes are themes that have been customized and saved to your team's Library—available to all members of your team. Primary Admins and Admins can add themes to the Library to share them with every member of their team.

Theme Colors Carry Over to Email Invitations! When you send your survey via Email Invitation and use the HTML Template, the header and the Begin Survey button in your email template matches the Survey Title Background color of your theme.

Creating a Custom Theme

To create a custom theme:

Go to the Design Survey section in any survey.
In the left sidebar, click ¿ Appearance.
Click the Themes tab.
In the Standard Theme section, find a theme closest to what you want your final theme to look like. You'll use this theme as a starting point to create your custom theme.
Click . next to the theme, then select Edit. This creates a copy of the theme and opens up the Settings tab where you can customize different elements of the theme.

TIP! Changes made to a custom theme affects any surveys with that theme applied. If you need to edit an existing custom theme that’s already being used on other surveys, we suggest creating a new custom theme to ensure you don’t alter your existing surveys.

Theme Settings

These are the sections you'll find in the Settings tab as you're customizing your theme. Logo and footer settings aren't carried over when you apply your custom theme to a different survey.

Nickname

Enter a name for your theme to stay organized. Respondents won't see this.

Logo

You can add a logo to customize your survey.

Footer

You can hide SurveyMonkey branding from the bottom of your survey design.

Fonts

You can change the font type, style and size for the survey title, survey questions, and answer choices.

Layout

You can use layouts to choose how and where your background color or image is displayed.

Background Image and Video

BETA FEATURE: The ability to add a background video is currently in beta and only available to some users.

You can upload your own background image or select an image or video from thousands in our gallery. It isn't possible to upload your own background video.

To change the background image or video:

Click Replace.
Choose From Computer, From Image Gallery, or Video.
Click Done.

When survey-takers access your survey on a tablet or mobile device, the background image or video will disappear to maximize space on smaller screens. Instead, they'll only see the Page Background color.

TIP! When you select a background image, it's automatically used as your Thumbnail Image. You can further customize your Thumbnail Image & Text in the collector options.

Colors

You can change the color of the elements listed in the table below by using the color picker, or entering your own hex codes.

Element	Description
Title Text	The text color of your survey title.
Question Text	The text color of your survey questions.
Answer Choice Text	The text color of a question's answer options.
Accents	Accents are things like buttons, progress bars, and selected checkboxes.
Accent Text	The text color for accents like buttons, progress bars, and selected checkboxes. This color will always appear on top of the Accents color, so make sure there’s enough contrast so it’s easy to read.
Survey Background	The background color that appears behind the questions in your survey. If you’re using a background image, this color is hidden.
Secondary Background	If you’re using a background image, this color overlays on top of the background image. You can control the Overlay Opacity in the Background settings to make the text in your survey easier to read. If you’re using a Split Background layout, this is the background color of the Third, Half, or Banner part of the layout.

NOTE: The Survey Background color will only show if you haven't added a Background Image.

Previewing Your Theme

As you customize your theme, you can view your changes on the right side of the page. However, to see the background image, you need to preview your survey.

Classic Themes

In early 2019, we rolled out brand new themes and customization features for new surveys! The following themes are now considered classic themes: Jungle, Sky, Ocean, Sea Foam, Midnight, Spring, Autumn, Charcoal, Moss, Aqua, City Lights, Boardwalk, Seashell.

TIP! To use a classic theme on a new survey, you can make a copy of an existing survey with the theme applied and the styling will carry over.

Fonts

Font

You can choose from several popular fonts for your survey. Choosing a font from the Font menu applies it to every text element in your survey.

You can override the main font for the Survey Title or Page Title by selecting a different font in those specific sections.

Font Size & Style

For each of the following text elements in your survey, you can edit either the text size, style (bold, italic, or underline), or both—depending on the element.

Element	Text Size	Style
Survey Title	3	3
Page Title	3	3
Page Description	å	3
Progress Bar	3	å
Question Text	3	3
Answer Text	3	3
Exit Link	3	3
Error Text	3	3

Colors

You can change the color of the elements listed in the table below by using the color picker, or entering your own hex codes.

Number	Element
1	Survey Logo Background
2	Survey Title
3	Survey Title Background
4	Survey Background
5	Page Title
6	Page Title Background
7	Page Background
8	Progress Bar Text
9	Progress Bar Indicator
10	Progress Bar Border
11	Progress Bar Background
12	Page Description
13	Error Text
14	Required Asterisk
15	Question Text
16	Answer Text
17	Answer Text Highlight

NOTE: The Survey Background color will only show if you haven't added a Background Image.

Button Colors

The background and font colors of the Next button will always match the Survey Title Background and Survey Title settings, which you can edit in the Colors section of your theme. If these colors are the same, the buttons will default to grey with black text.

However, you can't change the button color if you use the Sea Foam or Autumn themes. See the Editing Limitations sections below for more information.

Logo

When you add a logo you can choose to position your logo Above Title, Below Title or, Left of Title

Editing Limitations

Depending on the theme you're using, there may be some elements that can't be edited.

Theme	Editing Limitations
Autumn	The theme is full width, so you can't add a Background Color or Background Image. You can't edit the shape or color of the Next and Previous buttons. You can't change the height of the Survey Title Background. You can't edit or remove the circles around the question numbers.
Boardwalk	You can't remove the drop shadow around the survey.
Charcoal	You can't remove the small horizontal line under the Survey Title. Editing options are limited for Matrix/Rating Scale or Matrix of Dropdown questions. You can't update the Font Type of Answer Text.
City Lights	You can't change or remove the header background image. You can't change the transparency of the Survey Title Background. Editing options are limited for Matrix/Rating Scale or Matrix of Dropdown questions. You can't update the Font Type of Answer Text.
Jungle	The theme is full width, so you can't add a Background Color or Background Image.
Midnight	Editing options are limited for Matrix/Rating Scale or Matrix of Dropdown questions.
Moss	You can't change the rounded corners of the survey. Editing options are limited for Matrix/Rating Scale or Matrix of Dropdown questions.
Ocean	Editing options are limited for Matrix/Rating Scale or Matrix of Dropdown questions.
Sea Foam	The theme is full width, so you can't add a Background Color or Background Image. You can't edit the shape or color of the Next and Previous buttons. You can't change the height of the Survey Title Background. You can't change the color of the question numbers.
Sky	You can't change the rounded corners of the survey
Spring	Editing options are limited for Matrix/Rating Scale or Matrix of Dropdown questions.

Accessible Surveys

You can use SurveyMonkey to create surveys that are accessible to people using screen readers. Learn more: Creating Accessible Surveys

Your Plan

--

Custom Themes
Premium Themes

Contact Us

Fill out this contact form and we'll get back to you soon.

Get answers

Start making better decisions with the world's leading survey platform.

Already have an account? Log in for faster support.