Light and dark themes in Grid by Zaweba
Grid by Zaweba has light and dark themes for its ribbon, panels and dialogs, while the cells stay white so your sheet looks the same as it prints.
Some people like a bright screen and some prefer a darker one, especially late in the evening or in a dim room. Grid by Zaweba offers both: a light theme and a dark theme for the ribbon, the panels and the dialogs. One thing deliberately doesn't change, and it's worth explaining why.
What the theme changes
The theme covers the parts of the window that are Grid's own: the ribbon along the top with its tabs and buttons, the panels at the side, and the dialogs such as Format Cells, Insert Function and Find and Replace. In the dark theme these take on dark backgrounds with light text and icons, which many people find easier on the eyes over a long session and less glaring in low light.
Why the cells stay white
In the dark theme, the cells stay white. That's a deliberate choice rather than an oversight.
A spreadsheet's cells carry your own formatting: fill colours on headings, red for negative numbers, conditional formatting that shades a cell green or amber, colour scales and data bars. All of that was chosen to be read on white, and most of it will be printed or saved as PDF on white paper. If the theme inverted the cells, a pale yellow highlight would turn into something murky, a carefully chosen colour scale would stop meaning what it should, and you'd be judging the look of a printout from a screen that shows something else entirely.
Keeping the cells white means what you see is what everyone else sees when they open the workbook, and what comes out of the printer. The dark theme gives you a calmer frame around the sheet without changing the sheet itself.
Choosing a theme
Use whichever you find more comfortable. The dark theme suits evenings, dim rooms and anyone who finds bright toolbars tiring. The light theme suits bright offices and anyone who likes the whole window to match the white of the cells. Neither affects your files: the theme is about Grid's window, not the workbook, so a sheet made in the dark theme looks exactly the same when someone else opens it in the light one.
Looking after your eyes
A theme is one part of a comfortable setup. The zoom slider on the status bar makes the sheet larger without changing how it prints, which helps on a high-resolution screen or when you're reading small figures. Freeze panes keeps headings in view so you're not scrolling back and forth to check which column is which. And a clear structure, with inputs coloured lightly and headings in bold, makes a sheet easier to scan whatever the theme.
Formatting with both themes in mind
Because cells are always white, format them for white. Pick fill colours that are light enough for dark text to read clearly, and font colours dark enough to stand out. Conditional formatting colour scales and data bars are designed for a white background, so they'll look right in both themes.
If you share a workbook with someone who uses a different spreadsheet or prints in black and white, avoid relying on colour alone to carry meaning. A note or a label alongside a red cell says the same thing to everyone.
It's a small feature, but it reflects how Grid by Zaweba is built: comfortable to work in for long stretches, while keeping your workbook exactly as you made it.
