While Org mode provides basic HTML support, you can effortlessly enhance your document’s appearance by overriding CSS stylesheets and adding custom HTML themes.

Org-HTML Themes is an innovative, open-source framework that delivers a collection of stunning, cross-browser themes designed to transform your Org documents. Use these themes to elevate your document’s visual design, create professional-looking reports, and impress colleagues with polished, visually appealing content.

Follow @fniessen on Mastodon for the latest updates on Org-HTML themes!

Org mode version 8 (or later) is required.

If such a version is not bundled with your Emacs, install one from ELPA.

This is a list of available HTML themes for Org mode, which you can use right now!

Bigblow is perfect for your work: it is a clean design aimed at optimal Org mode experience in your browser. It looks just awesome!

Click on the image for a quick demo of Bigblow (2:49 min, no audio).

Keyboard shortcuts to save time and boost your productivity:

“Very very nice, I enjoy it a lot.”
– Ista Zahn

“This is awesome. I love it!”
– Rainer M Krug

“This is awesome!!”
– Mehul Sanghvi

“This very nice html theme. […] I cannot use another emacs-theme than your emacs-leuven-theme, and it is going to be probably the same with your html theme!”
– Joseph Vidal-Rosset

“Thanks a lot for sharing […] the wonderful Bigblow theme. I create lot of specification for other team members to use. It has always been a trouble to share and maintain such spec. Now, I can create a much neater spec which is available for the team’s reference as a webpage.”
– Shankar R.

“I like Bigblow the best. I’ve exported most of my Org files using this theme and published them within my company’s intranet. Thanks for sharing this wonderful package!”
– Richard K.

ReadTheOrg is a clone of the official – and great! – Sphinx theme used in the Read The Docs site. It gives a beautiful and professional style to all your Org docs.

Thanks to its creator(s)!

“OMG. The ReadTheOrg theme for exported HTML from org mode files is eye wateringly beautiful. Thank you!”
– Rob Stewart

“It is fantastic, so beautiful. I will switch several of my pages over to this theme.”
– Carsten D.

“That is incredibly impressive. Thanks for this.”
– Noah R.

“Thank you! I enjoy your themes. The best ones I’ve ever found.”
– Kang T.

“Awesome theme. Wonderful job. You’re doing a wonderful thing — it will enable people (at least those who use Emacs and Org mode) to put together on-line reference works in a much-more usable fashion than is currently available.”
– D. C. Toedt

“Extremely useful.”
– Thomas S. Dye

“This is amazing, I’ve been looking for something like this for a LONG time! I will share.”
– Edward H.

I’ve written a demo page for the themes that provides a maximal working support of Org mode syntax.

Please see the Org mode refcard page for full examples of headings, code, admonitions, footnotes, tables and other details.

As of [2026-01-24 Sat], the Org-HTML themes setup files have been renamed.

The old names:

• theme-bigblow.setup
• theme-readtheorg.setup

are deprecated and replaced by:

• html-theme-bigblow.setup
• html-theme-readtheorg.setup

Org files using the old names still work, but a warning banner is injected into the exported HTML page, and a warning is printed in the browser console.

To avoid the warning and ensure future compatibility, update your Org files to use the new setup file names.

#+SETUPFILE: html-theme-NAME.setup

Using a theme from the Org HTML theme gallery in your own Org documents is straightforward:

1. Add a =#+SETUPFILE:= directive in the preamble of your document to include the required CSS and JavaScript files.
   • You may reference the setup file directly via GitHub Pages:

     #+SETUPFILE: https://fniessen.github.io/org-html-themes/org/html-theme-NAME.setup
             

     where NAME is either bigblow or readtheorg.

   • Alternatively, to avoid any dependency on an Internet connection, clone or download the org-html-themes repository and use the corresponding (relative or absolute path to the) local setup file:

     #+SETUPFILE: PATH/TO/org/html-theme-NAME-local.setup
             

     In that case, the src/ directory from the repository must be copied into the same directory as the Org file being exported (so that the exported HTML can find the theme assets via relative paths).

2. Finally, export the Org file to HTML using org-html-export-to-html or with C-c C-e h h.

You love those themes, but you still would like to override particular HTML tags? Some examples do follow…

Before doing that, though, if you think it really is an improvement that could serve other persons as well, including me, you’re invited to submit your change…

Here’s an example to insert into your Org documents:

# Change the background of source block.
#+HTML_HEAD: <style>pre.src{background:#343131;color:white;} </style>

Solution provided by Malcolm Cook:

#+HTML_HEAD: <style> #content{max-width:1800px;}</style>
#+HTML_HEAD: <style> p{max-width:800px;}</style>
#+HTML_HEAD: <style> li{max-width:800px;}</style

Found a bug or have an idea for a new feature? Share your thoughts on the GitHub issue tracker.

I welcome contributions in any form! Feel free to submit patches to enhance the project.

If you find the “org-html-themes” project (or any of my other projects) enhancing your Emacs experience and simplifying your workflow, seize the opportunity to express your appreciation! Help fuel future development by making a donation through PayPal. Your support is invaluable – thank you!

Remember, regardless of donations, “org-html-themes” will always remain freely accessible, both as in Belgian beer and as in speech.

Copyright (C) 2011-2026 Fabrice Niessen. All rights reserved.

Author: Fabrice Niessen
Keywords: org-mode html themes

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.