Customizing

Lacquer is configured through the Shopify theme editor — no code editing required. Customization surfaces are organized into theme settings (global) and section settings (per-section). This guide covers the global settings.

Color schemes

Lacquer ships with five color schemes by default:

• Scheme 1 — Stage — Dark warm neutral background, warm bone ink, heat accent. The theme's signature register.
• Scheme 2 — Paper — Warm off-white background, deep ink, heat accent. Light counterpart to Stage.
• Scheme 3 — Mid — Mid-gray background, ink and bone in contrast. Used for transitional sections.
• Scheme 4 — Heat — Heat-accent background, dark ink, white accent. Used for CTA sections.
• Scheme 5 — Mono — Pure black background, pure white ink. Used for full-bleed photographic sections.

Each color scheme defines:

• background — Primary background color
• background_secondary — Secondary background (for cards, code, inset content)
• foreground — Primary text color
• foreground_secondary — Secondary text color (captions, metadata)
• accent — Accent color (links, buttons, focus rings)

To customize:

1. From the theme editor, open Theme settings → Colors.
2. Click the scheme you want to edit.
3. Adjust the five color values.
4. Click Save.

You can apply color schemes per section using the color_scheme picker that appears in every section's settings. The convention is to alternate between bg-1 (Stage) and bg-2 (Mid or Paper) across adjacent sections for visual rhythm.

Typography

Lacquer ships with two font families paired across the type system:

• Display — IBM Plex Sans for headings, large display copy, and primary navigation.
• Mono — IBM Plex Mono for metadata, labels, captions, and code.

To swap fonts:

1. From the theme editor, open Theme settings → Typography.
2. Choose a Display font (heading family) and a Body font (body copy family). The mono font is fixed.
3. Choose weights and scales.
4. Click Save.

Lacquer's typography scale uses a perfect-fourth ratio (1.333) anchored at 16px body. Heading sizes step from H6 (16px) to H1 (52px). Custom scales should preserve the ratio for predictable rhythm.

Layout

Layout decisions per template are made via the theme editor by adding, removing, and reordering sections inside each template's section list.

• Home template — templates/index.json. Default preset includes Slideshow + Featured collection + Image with text + Multirow + Featured product + Newsletter.
• Product template — templates/product.json. Two layouts ship: product.editorial.json (gallery-left, editorial register) and product.drop.json (stacked media, drop register). Set the default at Theme settings → Templates.
• Collection template — templates/collection.json. Default preset includes filter sidebar, sort options, 12–48 products per page.
• Cart template — templates/cart.json. Default preset includes line items, cart notes, shipping calculator, recommended products.

To customize a template:

1. From the theme editor, open the template via the dropdown at the top.
2. Add, remove, or reorder sections in the left sidebar.
3. Save.

To create a new template variant (for a specific product or page), use Shopify's Add template affordance from the admin's Templates page.

Color scheme picker usage

Every section in Lacquer ships with a color_scheme picker in its settings. Setting a scheme on a section overrides the section's container colors — background, text, accent — but does not affect blocks inside that don't reference the section's scheme.

The default convention:

• Slideshow / Hero sections — Scheme 5 (Mono) when the image is full-bleed; Scheme 1 (Stage) when content needs to render over a partial image.
• Featured collection / Featured product — Scheme 1 (Stage).
• Image with text / Multirow — Alternate between Scheme 1 (Stage) and Scheme 2 (Paper) section-by-section for visual rhythm.
• Newsletter / Contact form / CTA sections — Scheme 4 (Heat) for emphasis, or Scheme 1 (Stage) for low-key.

Read Section composition notes for more on color-scheme rhythm.

Global settings

Other global settings worth knowing about:

• Logo — Theme settings → Logo. Both a primary logo and a transparent-header logo. The transparent logo is used when the header is in transparent mode over a hero image.
• Favicon — Theme settings → Favicon. PNG or SVG.
• Buttons — Theme settings → Buttons. Configure primary, secondary, and link button styles globally.
• Inputs — Theme settings → Inputs. Input border radius, focus ring color, error state styling.
• Animation — Theme settings → Animation. Scroll-reveal behavior, hover transitions, page transitions. Disable for performance or accessibility.

Next steps

• Sections reference — every section's settings and blocks.
• Presets — what ships with Lacquer's preset.
• FAQ — common customization questions.