Earlier today, Automattic announced they had introduced new color schemes for use on the WordPress.com dashboards. I decided to check these colors out and see how they looked. (You can find the original WordPress.com Blog post here: Three New WordPress.com color Schemes)
What are Color Schemes?
To be clear, these colors do not affect the color of your blog. When people access your site, they will see the exact same theme/colors you have had all along. The color schemes mentioned here are the colors you will see when you edit your blog. It might be easier to show you than to try and explain it…
The above images show the color schemes that have been available until now: Classic Blue and Classic Bright. Actually, until January this year, WordPress.com offered only one color scheme you could use. They improved that color scheme and added a second one in January, taking accessibility into consideration. (Find the WordPress.com Blog post about that here: Customize Your WordPress.com Dashboard) While the new introductions today also take accessibility into consideration, they seem to have been introduced to add more of “a little behind-the-scenes zing”. And to be honest, I think it was a great idea. So without further adieu, here are the three new color schemes…
They are named Powder Snow, Nightfall and Sakura. Pretty good names, I would say. I feel they represent the color schemes better than the classic two do. Currently, I am giving Nightfall a shot and see how it goes. Last time they introduced the new colors, there were multiple bugs and quite a bit of confusion. But I can see now, they introduced a limited number of colors last time so they could work through those bugs and get ready for another deployment. This time, it should go a lot smoother.
Wrapping Up
Color schemes can be changed from your WordPress.com account settings page. You can click on your icon from the top right of your screen and select “Account Settings” or simply click this link: WordPress.com Account Settings. (Of course, you have to have a WordPress.com account for that link to work.) Color schemes can be switched as many times as you want, so try a few that interest you and see how they go. While I really appreciate what Automattic has introduced already, I am also sort of looking forward to what other color schemes they might introduce in the future. We’ll have to see.