Creating a Power BI Report Theme

In this tutorial, Allison Gonzalez, a Microsoft Certified Trainer at Pragmatic Works, walks through the process of creating a custom theme for your Power BI report. The tutorial focuses on selecting a color palette, applying themes in Power BI, and customizing them to ensure accessibility and visual appeal. If you want to create impactful Power BI reports that are not only aesthetically pleasing but also functional, this guide will help you master the basics of Power BI themes.

Choosing a Color Palette

The first step in creating a Power BI theme is selecting a color palette. Allison introduces Coolers, a simple yet powerful color palette generator that allows you to experiment with different color combinations.

• How Coolers Works:
  • Press the space bar to generate a new color palette.
  • Lock the colors you like while allowing others to change.
  • Each color generated comes with a unique hex code, which you will later input into Power BI.

Once you have chosen a palette, you can select up to eight shades for your theme. These shades can be adjusted to be lighter or darker to match your desired aesthetic. Additionally, you can add neutral colors like white, black, or gray to balance the palette.

Exploring Power BI's Built-in Themes

Power BI offers several pre-defined themes that are ready to use. In the February 2023 release, accessible themes were introduced to cater to users with visual impairments. These themes ensure that the colors used in the report are distinct enough for everyone, including people with color vision deficiencies.

• Types of Themes:
  • Accessible Themes: Colors are carefully chosen to ensure contrast and visibility for people with different vision impairments.
  • Monotone Themes: A single color family used throughout the report.
  • Colorblind-Safe Theme: Designed with a combination of colors that are easier to distinguish for those with colorblindness.

These themes can be easily applied by selecting them from the themes dropdown in Power BI. You can then modify them further to meet your specific needs.

Customizing a Theme

If you want to create a completely unique theme or modify an existing one, Power BI allows you to customize themes easily. By selecting "Customize Current Theme", you can adjust the default colors used in the report.

• Customization Options:
  • Choose the base colors from your selected palette and apply them to the default eight colors.
  • Modify positive, negative, and neutral colors to suit your data visualization needs.
  • Select Divergent colors for highlighting extremes (like min and max values).
  • Adjust font choices for better readability, with the recommendation to use sans-serif fonts for body text to enhance legibility on screens.

Once your colors and fonts are set, you can name your custom theme and save it for future use.

Fine-Tuning Visuals and Backgrounds

After setting up your theme, you’ll want to adjust the backgrounds of your visuals to match the overall theme.

• Visual Backgrounds:
  • You can change the background color behind each visual. If you prefer a cleaner look, you can adjust the transparency to make it disappear.
  • Page Backgrounds are another key element. This is the area behind your visuals. If you want to integrate your visuals better with the report page, you can set a matching background color.
  • Use filter panes to further customize your report and make certain elements stand out.

Applying and Refining the Theme

Once you've finalized your theme settings, click "Apply" to see how everything looks in the report. This is where you'll often need to make further adjustments. The first application of a theme may not always result in the desired look, so feel free to tweak colors, fonts, and background settings as needed.

• Things to Keep in Mind:
  • Legibility is crucial, especially for small fonts.
    
    

Don't forget to check out the Pragmatic Works' on-demand learning platform for more insightful content and training sessions on Power BI and other Microsoft applications. Be sure to subscribe to the Pragmatic Works YouTube channel to stay up-to-date on the latest tips and tricks.