If you want to change Google Sheets to a darker theme with a black background, you can set it to dark mode.
Dark mode themes (also called night mode) have gained popularity in recent years because they are easier on the eyes than a traditional white background.
If you are on a phone device like an android, iPhone, or Ipad, Google Sheets has built-in functionality that allows you to set it to dark mode.
If you are on a computer, there is not currently a dark mode setting, but there are some workaround methods we can use.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to turn on dark mode in Google Sheets.
Table of Contents
Turning On Dark Mode on an Android, iPhone, or iPad
Changing your theme to dark mode on a phone or tablet device is an easy process because it is a built-in theme setting.
Here are the steps to do this:
1. Open up the Google Sheets App on your smartphone device or tablet. After you have the app open, click on the menu button which should be in the top-left corner of the screen.
2. Select Settings
3. Select Choose theme
4. Select Dark
5. You should now see that your spreadsheet is displaying in dark mode which has a black background. You can toggle this on and off for individual sheets by selecting the three-dot menu and changing it back to light mode if desired
Turning on Dark Mode on a Computer
At this time there is not a dark mode theme for desktop computers. If you are on a PC and want to set your Google Sheets to dark mode, you will have to use a workaround method of setting your spreadsheet to dark mode or by using Google Chrome Flags.
To use Chrome Flags to set Google Sheets to dark mode:
1. In the address bar at the top of your browser type chrome://flags/
2. Navigate down to the sections that says “Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents”. Set this to Enabled
3. You will have to restart your browser for the changes to take effect. Select the relaunch button to restart your browser
Please note: Flags is in beta and it could effect your browser performance. Use these settings at your own risk
Another option that you have is just to manually change your background to a dark background and your text color to white.
This isn’t a true “dark mode” but it might be sufficient enough for you if you just want a darker background to be easier on the eyes.
Here is an example of what my sheet looks like after I change the background color to black, and the text to white:
Closing Thoughts
If you’re on the phone app, dark mode is as easy as changing your theme, however, if you’re on a PC you will have to either manually change your background to something dark, or you can use Google Flags to force dark mode.
One thing to note with the flags setting is that this will force dark more on everything in your browser, not just Google Sheets. So that is something to keep in mind.
I’m sure eventually Google Sheets will release a dark theme for PC’s, so it’s only a matter of time!
More Google Sheets Tutorials:
How to Change Font Format