# Appearance

Themes, custom themes in JSON, density and motion tokens, fonts, languages and notifications.

> Kandown documentation — https://kandown.dev/docs/guides/appearance

## Themes

38 themes ship built in, including Vercel, Linear, Claude, Apple, Stripe, Catppuccin, Dracula,
Nord, Terminal and Synthwave. Each comes in **light**, **dark** and **auto** — auto following your
operating system.

### Custom themes

A theme is a JSON object of design tokens, so you can define your own without touching the source:

```json
{
  "name": "My theme",
  "colors": {
    "bg": "#0c1d17",
    "surface": "#142a22",
    "border": "#1e372e",
    "text": "#e8f0ea",
    "textMuted": "#96a89e",
    "accent": "#88e138"
  }
}
```

Paste it into Settings → Appearance → Custom theme. It is stored in `.kandown/kandown.json`, so it
travels with the project and lands in git with everything else.

## Tokens

Beyond colour, the look is driven by four tokenised scales you can set independently:

| Token | Effect |
|---|---|
| Radius | Corner rounding across cards, inputs and panels |
| Shadows | Elevation, from flat to pronounced |
| Density | Vertical rhythm — compact fits considerably more on screen |
| Motion | Animation intensity, down to none |

Five font stacks are available, covering system UI, geometric sans and monospace-forward looks.

> **Note**
> Setting motion to none is also the right choice on a machine where the animated background costs
> you frames. Kandown additionally honours the OS-level `prefers-reduced-motion` setting.

## Animated background

An optional WebGL background renders behind the board. It is off by default on low-power settings
and can be disabled entirely in Settings.

## Languages

The interface is translated into **48 languages**. English is the source of truth; every other
locale is translated from it.

Missing or awkward wording in your language is a genuinely useful contribution — locale files are
plain JSON under `src/lib/i18n/locales/`. See [Contributing](/docs/project/contributing.md).

## Notifications

Browser notifications and sounds can be enabled per project, for due dates and board changes. Both
are off until you turn them on, and neither leaves your machine.