> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mauvely.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The Design tab

> Set the look of your published course: theme presets, colours, logo, background, typefaces, corner rounding and content width.

The **Design** tab (`Ctrl` `3`) controls how your **course** looks to learners. It has nothing to
do with how the Compose editor looks — that lives in **Settings ▸ Appearance**.

<Note>
  Design tab → what learners see. Settings ▸ Appearance → what you see while authoring. Changing
  Compose to dark mode does not make your course dark.
</Note>

Every change applies live to the canvas and the preview. Click **Pop out** to open the panel in a
larger window while you work.

## Theme presets

Six built-in presets, each a complete look:

| Preset       | Character                                            |
| ------------ | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| **Daybreak** | The Mauvely default — violet on a light ground       |
| **Nocturne** | The same identity, dark                              |
| **Slate**    | Indigo, cool, light                                  |
| **Forest**   | Teal with a serif for headings                       |
| **Ember**    | Warm amber on a dark plum ground                     |
| **Paper**    | Muted plum, serif throughout, barely-rounded corners |

Applying a preset sets colours, typefaces, corner rounding and light/dark together. Change anything
afterwards and the preset marks itself **custom** — nothing is locked.

## Your presets

Below the built-in row, **Save current…** writes your design to a `.cetheme` file in your Themes
folder, where it shows up as a preset you can apply to any course.

Right-click one of your presets for **Export / share…** (a portable file to send a colleague) or
**Delete preset**. **Import…** brings someone else's in. A background image travels inside the
file, so a shared preset is genuinely self-contained.

## Colours

Four swatches, each opening a colour picker:

| Colour         | What it paints                                  |
| -------------- | ----------------------------------------------- |
| **Accent**     | Buttons, links, progress fills, selected states |
| **Background** | The page behind the content                     |
| **Surface**    | Cards and blocks sitting on that background     |
| **Text**       | Body copy                                       |

<Tip>
  Check contrast between **Text** and **Surface** rather than between text and background — most
  reading happens on the surface colour.
</Tip>

## Logo

Choose an image (PNG, JPEG, WebP or SVG) and it **replaces the course title in the learner's top
bar**. The sidebar keeps the title as text, because that is the navigation's identity.

**Clear** removes it and the title comes back.

## Background image

An image shown behind the course pages, dimmed. PNG, JPEG or WebP.

Like the logo, it is embedded in the course rather than referenced, so it exports and shares with
everything else.

## Typography

Three pickers — **Headings**, **Body** and **Code** — each choosing from a curated library of eight
open-licensed typefaces:

| Category | Faces                         |
| -------- | ----------------------------- |
| Display  | Baloo 2, Fraunces             |
| Sans     | Inter, Work Sans              |
| Serif    | Source Serif 4, Lora          |
| Mono     | JetBrains Mono, IBM Plex Mono |

**Every chosen typeface is embedded into the exported course**, so a published course never depends
on the learner having a font installed. That is why the library is curated: each face is licensed
for redistribution, which a font picked from your own system would not necessarily be.

<Note>
  Earlier versions offered a system-font browser and custom font upload. Both were removed — a
  system font meant learners silently got a fallback, and an uploaded font file shipped inside
  courses with nothing checking it was licensed to. Courses authored with either still open, and
  their font choices are mapped onto the library automatically.
</Note>

## Shape

**Corner rounding** — 0 to 16 px, applied to cards and blocks in the published course. 0 is
squared-off and severe; 12 is the default.

**Content width** — the measure lessons are laid out at:

| Setting | Width  |
| ------- | ------ |
| Narrow  | 620 px |
| Normal  | 760 px |
| Wide    | 900 px |

Individual blocks can override this with their own **Block width** setting — useful for a wide
diagram in an otherwise narrow course. See [Blocks](/compose/blocks).

**Block groups** — whether grouped blocks get a visible border drawn around them, or merge
seamlessly.

## Mode

**Light** or **Dark**, for the published course and its preview. Independent of the editor's own
theme.

***

## Reusing a design across courses

Two routes, and the difference matters:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="A design preset (.cetheme)" icon="palette" href="/compose/templates">
    Just the look. Apply it to an existing course at any time from the Design tab.
  </Card>

  <Card title="A course template (.cetemplate)" icon="stack" href="/compose/templates">
    The look **plus** blocks pinned to the top of the first lesson — a welcome banner, a standard
    objectives block. Used when starting a new course.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>