How to add a custom photo background to Gmail

Jun 21, 2012

Updated • Jun 21, 2012

Gmail back in 2008 launched a themes engine that allowed users of the service's web client to change the black and white design of the site to something that at times looked like a homepage from the 90s. Especially the themes that are now listed as classic themes in the interface fell into that category, while the plain color themes offered a professional looking design that changed the color scheme of the site but kept the backgrounds mostly in plain colors.

Google in 2011 introduced high definition themes which improved the site's theme engine further. The company basically added HD photos to Gmail's theme selection that offered custom background images that changed the look and feel of the inbox considerably.

Google yesterday announced another change to Gmail themes. Users can now select custom photo backgrounds for Gmail.

Custom Gmail photo backgrounds

Open the Gmail homepage and locate the settings icon at the top right. It should sit right underneath your profile photo on the page. Select the themes context menu item here to open the themes selection directly. Here you see all existing themes, and the new custom themes entry. Google has made available a light and dark theme template, which define how the background colors look like on the site.

Once you click on light or dark, a selection window opens that gives you several options to pick a custom photo background for your Gmail inbox. Google makes available featured images that you can select or use, your own photos that you have uploaded to other Google services such as Google+ or Picasa, photos from your phone or computer, from a web address, or photos that you have recently selected.

Featured photos for instance can be picked with a click on the photo and another on the Select button. You can alternatively double-click on a photo to use it as the custom background right away.Â You can alternatively use one of the other options to add a custom photo to Gmail.

Once you have added a custom theme to Gmail, you can switch between light and dark styles directly in the interface. If you want to change the photo, you need to click on change your background image instead which opens the configuration menu anew.

Issues

I encountered a few issues when I tried to add bright photos as a theme, as they made several Gmail menus barely readable. This is a big issue, and it can generally be said that darker images, at least in the upper half of the screen, work better than lighter images.

Closing Words

Custom themes will certainly appeal to part of Gmail's user base. I on the other hand won't be using themes on Gmail, first because I mainly access my mailbox using Thunderbird, and second because I think it is adding too much noise to the page.

What about you? Do you like the custom theme option on Gmail? (Thanks Michael for the tip)

Comments

JMGG said on January 19, 2012 at 8:25 am


You said that Outlook isn’t your main email client, so which is your main one?
1. BalaC said on January 19, 2012 at 9:42 am
  
  
  I think its thunderbird
2. Martin Brinkmann said on January 19, 2012 at 10:15 am
  
  
  It is Mozilla Thunderbird.
Salaam said on September 24, 2012 at 9:52 pm


Awesome! This actually solved my problem… what a stupid bug.
Claud said on December 19, 2012 at 2:08 am


If this is the same bug that I’ve encountered, there may be another fix: (1) hover over open Outlook item in Taskbar, cursor up to hover over Outlook window item, and right-click; (2) this should give you Restore / Move / Size / Minimize / Maximize — choose Move or Size; (3) use your cursor keys, going arbitrarily N/S/E/W, to try to move or size the Outlook window back into view. Basically, the app behaves as though it were open in a 0x0 window, or at a location that’s offscreen, and this will frequently work to resize and/or move the window. Don’t forget to close while resized/moved, so that Outlook remembers the size/position for next time.
1. Lynda said on February 12, 2013 at 3:37 pm
  
  
  THANK YOU Claude!!! I could get the main window to launch but could not get any other message window to show on the desktop. You are my hero!!!!
2. Chad said on November 20, 2018 at 4:24 pm
  
  
  Solved my issue! 6 years later and this is still problem…
3. Ivan X said on January 21, 2021 at 4:50 pm
  
  
  Fantastic. Thank you. Size did the trick.
Andrew said on October 26, 2013 at 7:06 am


This solved my Outlook problem, too. Thank you. :)
Charles said on December 7, 2013 at 7:23 pm


Thank you so much, this started happening to me today and was causing big problems. You are a life saver, I hope I can help you in some way some day.
garth said on November 7, 2014 at 7:13 pm


You are a god – thank you!
Faisal said on February 9, 2015 at 10:09 am


thanks a lot…. work like charm.. :-)
Simon said on March 24, 2015 at 11:36 pm


Yah…thanks Claude. I’ve been having the same problem and tried all the suggestions…your solution was the answer. It had resized itself to a 0/0 box. Cheers
Olu said on April 14, 2015 at 1:35 pm


Excellent post. This had me baffled even trying to accurately describe the problem. This fixed it for me.
Thank you
Coenig said on July 23, 2015 at 7:36 am


Thanks a lot for the article. Don’t know why it happenend, don’t know how it got fixed, but it was really annoying and now it works :-)
Fali said on January 20, 2016 at 4:19 pm


Thanks a lot. I was facing this issue from past 3 week. I tried everything but no resolution. The issue was happening intermittently and mainly when I was changing the display of screen ( as i use 2 monitors). The only option i had was to do system restore. But thanks to you.
1. MIki said on January 10, 2019 at 11:54 am
  
  
  I’ve been tried to sole this problem for 12hours. Your comment about changing the display of screen helped me a lot!! Thanks!!
Christina said on January 20, 2016 at 6:14 pm


Thank you…don’t know why this happened but your instructions helped me fix it. Running Windows 10 and office pro 2007
Oz said on July 22, 2016 at 3:20 pm


Great tip! Thanks!
Tracy said on September 1, 2016 at 4:48 pm


Worked for me, too – thank you!!!
shawn said on September 9, 2016 at 10:25 am


It’s Worked for me, too
thank you very much!
Jari said on October 31, 2016 at 11:53 am


I had a similar issue with Outlook 2013 on Windows 10 and this helped me to fix it. Thank you very much!
Michel H said on November 30, 2016 at 11:08 pm


Thank you so much. Solved!
Considering you published this in 2012, incredible not been debugged by Microsoft.
Thank you again. M
Ziad Bitar said on January 9, 2017 at 2:00 am


This problem was faced by only one user logging to TS 2008 r2 using outlook 2010.The issue was resolved.

Thanks.
Anonymous said on February 15, 2017 at 5:24 pm


Great tip. Thank you!!!! If it helps, I had to use the Control Key and the arrow keys at the same time to bring my window back into view. Worked like a charm.
Rochelle said on March 6, 2017 at 11:59 am


Thank you, this worked !!!!
anom1234 said on May 20, 2018 at 11:20 pm


Man, you are a fucking god. Thanks a lot, what an annoying bug!!
JC said on October 12, 2020 at 2:14 pm


Awesome, this post solved the issue. Many thanks!