google is hands down the biggest name on the web, and this was made possible with a lot of work and the acquisition of other suitable services which they then integrated with their own suite. among these, the most prominent, in my opinion, were youtube and gmail. google had a hard time making gmail a worthy competitor to hotmail & yahoo mail and they have certainly succeeded. Since its launch on April 1, 2004, Gmail has grown considerably, now reaching more than 350 million users worldwide.
And being such a beloved email platform, it’s not hard to imagine that people all over the world would like to make the gmail experience more enjoyable. And out of that effort came a few ways to customize Google services.
Of course, google itself offers some gmail themes and more recently hd themes, but there are only a few and it’s easy to get bored with them. now, you have many themes and more customization tools at your disposal, and two of the best ways to do this are styled, a chrome or firefox extension, available from the chrome web store, and firefox add-ons or a plugin called google redesigned.
gmail themes by style
This great app gives you the ability to add new themes and designs to your gmail account. The extension can be found in the chrome web store or the firefox addon store. After installation, you can find Gmail themes and customizations in their massive collection at http://userstyles.org/. with style you can modify the background, the appearance of the page or the fonts of your account.
If you want to see how much they could change the look of your account and make it truly unique, try some of our top picks, also available among many others at http://userstyles.org/styles/browse/ global/gmail.
1. gmail – more minimalist
minimalist is right! using this style will make your gmail account look like the first email client ever. you have all your emails in a simple list and that’s it. This style is recommended for those who think their gmail account is too confusing. although, for my taste, it is too minimalist.
2. google mail with space theme
if you want to add some color to your gmail account then this is the tool for you. When you enable this style, a beautiful space background takes the place of your old boring background. Please note that this style does not work with Gmail HD backgrounds.
3. m-gmail style meiryo+adomit
a subtle but noticeable change to fonts, making them a bit smaller. I particularly like this style because it looks so much better than the original gmail theme and it also blocks google ads from your gmail account. makes email more visible and gives gmail a nice overall look.
4. gmail inbox: improve readability & adjust colors
as the name suggests, this style is an enhancement to gmail’s default colors, which makes the page easier to read. and I must admit that it is very true, in the past I had a hard time distinguishing emails in the background, but with this style, that is a thing of the past. the text really pops and it’s really easy to read your emails.
5. google subspace
personally i keep my gmail account black, and if you do the same you will be annoyed by the white search bar and contact bar. If that’s the case, Google Subspace will come to your aid. it makes these bars black, and in combination with the color adjuster above, it makes the gmail account look amazing! And an added bonus, it makes your google home page a calm blue color. Best of all, it comes with a neat installer, just to give you an idea of what you can do with your account.
google redesigned
using gmail, google reader or google docs? don’t you like how they look? Well, get ready for a big change! redesigned google really keeps its name and makes these google services look better than ever. I love the way they look. If you want to try it out, you can pick it up at http://www.globexdesigns.com/gr/ or the chrome web store. I recommend it to anyone who wants to go from boring old gmail style to something new and interesting.
After talking about all these changes you can make to your gmail account, changing colors, fonts, backgrounds and more, some of you might be wondering, “can we go back to the old gmail look and feel?”.
I could never understand why some people would want to go back to that mess, but I’m not judging anyone anyway. and to answer that question, yes, you can temporarily go back to the old look of gmail. it’s really simple, just hit options and click go back to previous look temporarily. And there you have it, you can once again enjoy the old school gmail look and feel. but enjoy it while you can, because by the looks of it, google is rolling out the new look and it might become the default theme.