# Using themes

Audacity comes with 4 themes preinstalled: Light, Dark, Classic and High Contrast. You can switch between themes by going to **Edit -> Preferences -> Interface** (macOS: Audacity -> Preferences -> Interface)

<figure><img src="https://2387260374-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2F-MhmBVzGzh8SctWQ6jPR%2Fuploads%2FOGUQb970ilwsiOn5rD4p%2Fimage.png?alt=media&#x26;token=0bf12980-65e4-4caa-b09d-385a7030e245" alt=""><figcaption><p>Location of the themes options</p></figcaption></figure>

Once you have chosen a theme, click **OK** to close the preferences dialog and load the new theme.

## Installing custom themes

Custom themes commonly are distributed as files called ImageCache.png. You can find some custom themes here:

{% embed url="<https://plugins.audacityteam.org/additional-resources/audacity-themes>" %}

To install a custom theme, place the ImageCache.png in the following folders. You may create the folders if they aren't present.&#x20;

* **Windows:** C:\Users\\\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Audacity\Theme\custom\\
* **MacOS:** \~/Library/Application Support/audacity/Theme/custom/
* **Linux:** \~/.local/share/audacity/Theme/custom/

Then,&#x20;

1. restart Audacity,&#x20;
2. open the Preferences -> Interface page,&#x20;
3. select Custom as the theme and
4. press OK.

{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** Custom themes are optimized for one version of Audacity only and may break from one Audacity version to the next. If a theme looks different from the screenshots, that's likely the reason.
{% endhint %}

## Creating custom themes

For instructions on creating custom themes, please check the following page:

{% embed url="<https://audacity.gitbook.io/dev/scripting/creating-custom-themes>" %}