Level up your amazing worldbuilding with visual themes

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then imagine the impact visual themes and images have on your worldbuilding! They’re a quick and easy way to add the finishing touches to your world setting. They’ll give your world maximum impact when you share with your players and readers. And it’ll keep you motivated and grounded in your world’s atmosphere too!

This article is part of a series to help you get started worldbuilding with World Anvil! If you’re new to worldbuilding, we recommend you get started with the Meta Document. That will give you a foundation, and help you develop your world in worldbuilding articles.

How to find World Anvil’s visual themes?

You can find World Anvil’s visual styling section by clicking the art palette button at the bottom of the left sidebar. This allows you to style the View mode of your world – the way others will see your articles.

All our visual themes are available in the Theme dropdown menu at the top. And we have dozens of options, everything from Epic Fantasy, to sleek Sci-fi, to a minimalist white theme! Each visual theme comes with an automatic cover image for your world cover and article cover. But you can also add your own Cover Image for your World, and a Global Cover Image, which will appear at the top of all your articles. Just add the image to your world via the Images and Files interface, and it’ll appear here.

If you’re still a Free user, you’ll only see an option to change out your World Cover. Join the worldbuilding guild here to get access to visual themes, dozens of extra worldbuilding features, and help us keep World Anvil alive and growing!

Which visual theme is right for my world?

Below I’ve listed some of our most popular visual themes! That said, you can check out our whole catalog of visual themes here.

Writing Epic Fantasy or playing a Dungeons and Dragons-style world? The Dungeons and Dragons theme is for you!
Looking for something dark and eldritch? Check out the Eldritch Horror theme!
Our Cyberpunk theme is perfect for neon dystopias!
Creating a scifi world? Choose between sleek “Modern Spaceships” and our Star Trek theme, “These are the voyages“
For an elegant, nature-focused theme with gold trim, check out the Elven Forest theme.
Can’t resist the call of steampunk? Our Wild Wild Steam theme will be perfect for you!
Just looking for something clean and simple? Our Whiteout theme is the ultimate minimalist experience.

Can I adjust the visual theme myself?

Yes, absolutely! Guild members can automatically adjust the base font size and base font color of the visual theme they’ve selected (see image above). This is very useful if you want to make small tweaks to a pre-existing visual theme.

All guild members have access to complete customizability using CSS (“Cascading Style Sheet”). CSS is a simple, universal styling language that allows you to control exactly how your content is displayed on the screen.

If you’re curious to learn more about CSS customization, check out this basic guide to CSS, and this guide to CSS on World Anvil! And make sure you also check out our #css-help channel in our Discord community, where people exchange tips and help each other get the most out of CSS customization!

If that sounds like too much, just stick with a set visual theme for now! We’re releasing new ones all the time, and if there’s one you want that’s missing, you can request it on our community feature suggestions board!

There are also many people in the World Anvil community (and elsewhere) who can create a custom theme for you if you decide you want something special later on. Again, make sure you don’t spend more time than you need to on styling your world – you’re here to worldbuild, after all! Find something that’s close, and you can always perfect it later!

What should I do next?

If you’ve already finished the “Get Started on World Anvil” series, then you’ll have the beginnings of a beautifully organized world setting, complete with a timeline and a map! Congratulations!

If you’re a writer, get your novel set up in our novel writing software!
If you’re a Gamemaster or Dungeon Master, get your RPG campaign set up in our campaign manager, and invite your players to create and manage their characters!

Otherwise, check out other articles in this Get Started on World Anvil series, designed to get your world setting off to the right start. There are loads of hints and tips in there for creating an imaginative, cohesive setting, as well as workflows, tips for organization, and help to expand your world!