A book theme is the look of your book for everyone who reads it: the book page, the photo gallery, each memory's own page, the memory wall and the printed book. You choose one theme per book. Contributors see only its colour on the forms they fill in; your dashboard and settings keep their usual look.
The themes
- Classic: the standard look, with your own accent colour. Every book starts in Classic, and books made before themes existed stay in Classic until you choose another.
- Party: the party table, with photos standing as photo-booth strips and words hanging as paper tags on balloons, under an invitation and bunting. Suggested for birthday books.
- Training log: a club's week board: a row for every week and a column for every day, each memory a session card on the day it happened. Empty days stay empty, with no counts or streaks. Suggested for fitness journey books.
- Logbook: a ship’s log ledger, one ruled row per memory with its stamped date, its writer and its position (a place the writer types in, if they want), each year its own season. Suggested for daily workouts books.
- Signed card: a greeting card everyone signs: the green front, then the card open as a cream two-page spread where every memory is a signature in coloured ink, read down the left page and then the right. Suggested for retirement books.
- Passport: a passport lying open across your screen, with each year flowing into its own section and larger photo stickers on wider screens. A few words are struck as a stamp in one of four inks, a long story is typed as an endorsement, and a photo or a recording is a holographic visa sticker. A contributor can name the place a memory happened; it heads the entry as its port of entry. On a phone you turn one visa page at a time. Suggested for vacation books.
- Quilt: the whole book is one quilt, each memory a stitched patch in a four-across grid and a long story spread across two patches, in quiet colours. Suggested for memorial books.
- Camera roll: a dark, photo-first gallery with a lime accent. It shows no counts or tallies. Suggested for 1 second a day books.
- Screening room: a dark screening room. The book plays one scene at a time: a video on the screen, a photo held like a slide, and words alone set as a silent-film intertitle. The reel runs under the header, every memory a frame; pick a frame to light its scene. Suggested for anniversary books.
- Daybook: an open daybook: every memory a dated page. A short note that comes straight after an entry is written in the margin beside that entry, and an orange ribbon runs down the middle.
- Recipe cards: the family kitchen counter. The tin's index lists every card by year; pick a line to find its card. The first card stands open on a wooden stand, the rest fan out across the counter, and a contributor can name the dish, which becomes the card's title. Suggested for recipe books.
- Tear-off calendar: a desk calendar: the first page of the book stands on the pad with its date huge, and every other memory is a page already torn off and lying on the desk. It shows no counts or streaks. Suggested for daily improvement books.
- Corkboard: the hallway wall in cork, a year to a layer, with every memory tacked up as the object it is: a snapshot, a sticky note, a folded letter, a fanned stack of prints. A contributor can name the place a memory happened; it goes up on a ticket stub. Suggested when you are not sure what kind of book it is.
- Yearbook: the annual: a padded maroon cover, and each year an open spread of class pages where a photo memory is a square portrait with the writer named under it, a few words are a signature in pen, and a longer story sits in a gold-ruled note. Suggested for graduation books.
- Letterpress: one printed sheet in plum ink, with the book's initials embossed and a wax seal at the head, and every memory set in the centre of the sheet, the writer in small capitals above the words and a fleuron between memories. Suggested for wedding books.
- Gift tags: wrapping paper and twine: each year is a length of string with its memories hung from it as tags, a round tag for a few words, a luggage tag for a photo and a scalloped card for a longer story, each signed by whoever wrote it. Suggested for family year books.
- Picture book: a picture book, where every memory is a spread: its picture on the left page and its words, in big, kind type, on the right, with the page number in words. On a phone you turn one page at a time. Suggested for baby arrival books.
- Gazette: a newspaper front page. A long memory is the lead story, a shorter one a column story, a few words a classified ad. Each story's headline is the one its writer gave it, or else its first sentence when that is no more than half of the story; a classified ad has no headline.
- Mixtape: a cassette tape, its title on the label. The J-card lists the tracks on each page; each year is a lettered side of the tape, every memory a numbered track in time order, and photos, recordings and videos play right in the track.
- Library card: the open card catalogue drawer: each year is filed behind a tabbed guide card, and every memory is a checkout card standing on the rod with only its top edge showing, the borrower’s name and the stamped date. Pick an edge to draw that card up and read it; every card is also filed in full below, so no word is hidden behind a click.
- Night sky: a quiet violet-black sky. Each year is a band of sky where every memory is a star, placed by the month it happened and brighter for a longer story, joined into the year’s constellation. Pick a star to read its memory; under each band the year’s memories read in full, in order.
- Field notebook: a field notebook lying open, each year a spread on ruled paper. The notes are written down the left page and on over to the right, photos are taped in as numbered specimens, and a few words are jotted in the margin by hand. On a phone you turn one entry at a time.
- Blueprint: a floor plan on blueprint blue, with every memory written into the room it happened in. A contributor can name the room; a memory without one goes in its writer's corner. Suggested for new home books.
- Airmail: a writing desk under a striped airmail envelope. Each year’s route is drawn on a map, with every memory a postmark on it: where it was sent from (a contributor can name the place) and the month it was posted. Pick a postmark to find its letter; below the map the letters lie on onionskin and the photo memories as postcards. Suggested for farewell books.
- Pennant: a binder of trading cards under a felt pennant, every memory a card you can turn over, numbered in book order. No scores. Suggested for team season books.
- Weightlifting: the gym's chalkboard, with every memory chalked up under a loaded barbell for its three-month training block, pinned memories on the PR board in the corner, and the set line a contributor writes chalked beside the words. It never invents a number. Suggested for lifting year books.
- Cutting room: an editor's bench seen from above. On the light table each year is a scene, one strip of film per scene and every memory a frame on it; pick a frame to find its clip. Below, the trim bin: every memory a clip hanging from the rail, with its writer on the tag, and words alone taped to the bench as notes. Pinned memories are the keepers, ringed in red.
- Darkroom: a darkroom under the red safelight, with every memory a print or a note clipped to a drying line, one line a year. A photo lifts off the line to be seen large.
- Clothesline: washing lines across a summer yard, with every memory pegged up in turn: snapshots, bright notes and long letters, one line a year.
- Opening night: a marquee in a frame of lights over the evening’s programme. Each year is an act, numbered from the first season, and every memory a billing in the cast list: a cast bio under its writer’s name, a ticket stub for a photo, or the intermission card for a video. A memory’s headline, when its writer gives one (“The Lead, Class of 2012”), is billed under their name. A ticket stub shows its row and seat on the page, and its seat in the printed book. Suggested for curtain call books.
Every theme keeps your cover and hero images, and every theme is built to look right when memories are mostly or only photos.
Choosing a theme
- Open your book and click Branding.
- In the Theme section, pick a theme. Preview opens your book in that theme in a new tab; nothing changes until you save.
- Click Save changes.
When you create a book, the form suggests a theme for the kind of book you picked. You can keep it, choose another, or change it later on the Branding page.
Themes and your plan
Classic comes with every plan. Every other theme needs a plan that includes it. A theme the book's plan does not include shows Unlock this theme, which takes you to the pricing page.
If a book moves to a plan without its theme, it keeps the theme it has. Only switching to a theme needs a plan that includes it.
Colours and dark mode
A theme brings its own colours, so your accent colour applies only under Classic. It is kept, not cleared: switch back to Classic and your colour returns. Themed pages always show in the theme's own colours, so the light/dark switch is hidden on them.
Printing
When you export a PDF, the export page suggests your theme's printed version. You can choose a different look for a single export; that never changes the book's theme. A theme's printed version is offered only to books in that theme. Classic books keep the suggestion based on the book's purpose. More about exporting.
The Calendar view
The Calendar view shows your book as a month of days, with a photo on the days that have one. Choose a day to read its memories, and move between months with the arrows. It works under every theme, Classic included.
- Memories land on the same date the book shows for them, so the calendar and the list always agree.
- Readers get a List / Calendar switch once the book's memories span more than about a month.
- To choose which view your book opens in, go to your book's Settings and set Reading view. "Auto" follows the kind of book: daily workouts books open in the Calendar view, everything else in the list.
In the list, once a book's memories span more than about two years, they are grouped under a heading for each year.
Ready to try it? Create your free memory book