Awesome Gmail Themes and Customizations 28 Feb, 2012 by Ionut Nedelcu Downloads

Google is, without any doubt, the biggest name on the web, and this was made possible with hard work and the acquisition of other suitable services that they later integrated with their own set. Amongst these, the most remarkable, 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 release, on April 1, 2004, Gmail has grown considerably, now reaching over 350 million users worldwide.

And being such a loved email platform, it’s not hard to imagine that people from all over the world wanted to make the Gmail experience more pleasurable. And from that effort, a few ways to customize Google’s services have emerged.

Now, you have lots of themes and have more customizing tools at your disposal, and two of the best methods to do so are Stylish, a Chrome or Firefox extension, available on the Chrome Web Store and Firefox Add-Ons or a plug-in called Google Redesigned.

Gmail Themes by Stylish

This great app gives you the possibility to add new themes and designs to your Gmail account. The extension can be found on the Chrome Web Store or on the Firefox add-ons Store. After installation, you can search for Gmail themes and customizations in their massive collection, over at http://userstyles.org/. Stylish can modify the background, page aspect or fonts of your account.

If you want to see how much they could change the aspect of your account, and make it truly unique, try some of our top picks, also available among many others on 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 that ever existed. You have all your emails in a simple list and that’s about it. This style is recommended for those who think that their Gmail account is too confusing. Although, for my taste, it’s to minimalist.

2. Google Mail with Space Theme

If you want to add a bit of color to your Gmail account, than this is the tool for you. When you enable this style, a beautiful space background takes the place of your old dull background. Keep in mind, that this style does not work with the Gmail HD backgrounds.

3. M-Style Gmail Meiryo+AdOmit

A subtle, but noticeable change in fonts, making them a little smaller. I particularly like this style because it looks much more better than the original Gmail theme and it also blocks Google Ads from your Gmail account. It makes the email more visible and it gives an overall pleasant aspect to Gmail.

4. Gmail inbox – improve readability & adjust colors

As the name suggests, this style is an improvement to the Gmail default colors, that makes the page easier to read. And I must admit it’s very true, I had a hard time in the past making out the emails from the background, but with this style, that is a thing of the past. The text really pops up 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 surly annoyed by the white search bar and the contacts bar. If that is the case, Google Subspace will come to your aid. It makes these bars black, and in combination with the color adjuster above, it makes Gmail account look awesome! And a bonus, it makes your Google main page a calm blue color. Best of all, it comes with the Stylish installer, just to give you a taste of what you can do with your account.

Google Redesigned

Using Gmail, Google Reader or Google Docs? Don’t like the way they look? Well, prepare for a big change! Google Redesigned really keeps up with its name and it makes these Google services look better than ever. I absolutely love the way they look. If you would like to try it out, you can pick it up at http://www.globexdesigns.com/gr/ or on the Chrome Web Store. I recommend it to anyone who wants to move from the old, boring style of Gmail to something new and interesting.

After talking about all these changes you can make to your Gmail account, switching colors, fonts, backgrounds and others, some of you might ask, “Can we revert back to the old Gmail Look?”.

I could never understand why some people would want to revert back to that mess, but anyway, I’m not judging anyone. And to answer that question, yes, you can temporally revert back to the old Gmail look. It’s really simple, just hit Options and click Revert to the old look temporally. And there you go, you can once again enjoy the old-school Gmail look. But enjoy while you can, because from the looks of it, Google is enforcing the new look and it’s possible that it could very well become the default theme.