Themes and backgrounds

Light, dark and auto

Maelo runs in light or dark, and you choose which from the ⋮ menu on your dashboard. On a computer the three options sit as a small switch at the bottom of the menu: Light, Dark and Auto. On a phone the menu carries a single row that reads Light Mode, Dark Mode or Auto Mode, and tapping it steps to the next one so you can see each before you settle.

Auto follows your device. If your phone dims at sunset, so does Maelo, and it keeps following as your device changes rather than picking once at startup. It is the right answer for most people.

Choosing a background

Behind your widgets sits a background, and there are 77 to choose from. Open the ⋮ menu and choose Background, or Change Background on a phone. A panel slides in from the side with every option as a small preview, and the one you are using wears a tick.

They are sorted into eight colour groups: Blended, Pastel, Neutral, Earth, Green, Blue, Plum & Wine and Charcoal. Each preview names its finish, from pigment washes and glazes to stipple and sun-faded riso. Brass Pine is the default.

Tap one and it applies immediately. There is nothing to confirm and nothing to save, so try six of them and keep whichever you stop noticing.

Backgrounds in dark mode

Every background has a designed dark counterpart, and Maelo swaps to it when you switch to dark. Brass Pine is a pale green with warm brass tones in light and a deep forest green in dark. Each is a matched pair with its own colours.

The previews in the picker follow the same rule, so what you see in the panel is what you get on the page. Switch to dark first, then browse, and you will be choosing between the colours you are actually going to live with.

Where your choices apply

Your background and your light or dark setting cover your whole workspace, not just the dashboard. Requests, messages, clients, flash, events, your financial pages and settings all sit on the background you picked.

They stop at the edge of your account. Your public page, your booking form and the private hub each client gets are always light, and they always use the design you chose for them rather than the one you chose for yourself. A client browsing at midnight sees your page exactly as you built it.

What follows you between devices

Your background is saved to your account, so picking Brass Pine on the studio computer means your phone opens on Brass Pine too.

Light, dark and auto are kept on each device instead. That is deliberate: a bright studio and a dark front room want different answers, and having to change it every time you moved between them would be worse than either.

Your widget layout is also per device. See one layout per device.

If something looks off

These backgrounds are still, including their textures. There is no background animation running while you work. On a slow connection you may briefly see the background’s base colour while its detail loads.

If an older background was saved to your account, Maelo now opens on Brass Pine. You can pick any of the new designs from the Background panel.