---
title: Customize Appearance with CSS Variables
product: Survey Creator
description: Use custom CSS to make the UI of your form management system look customary for end users with your brand's own design language and style. View a free demo for JavaScript.
framework: Angular
source: https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/edit-user-interface-theme-with-custom-css/angular
index: https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/overview.md
---

# Customize Appearance with CSS Variables (Angular)

Survey Creator comes with an API that allows users to [create, apply, and switch between custom UI themes](/survey-creator/examples/add-custom-theme/). If your project doesn't require these capabilities, you can customize the Survey Creator UI by overriding a few CSS variables. This example shows which CSS variables you can redefine.

- `--sjs-primary-background-500`\
A primary accent color.

- `--sjs-secondary-background-500`\
A secondary accent color.

- `--sjs-special-background`\
A color for the surface background.

Other CSS variables are calculated automatically based on those variables. If you want to customize the Survey Creator UI in more detail, you can override the dependent variables as well.

<!-- For more information on them, refer to the <a href="https://www.figma.com/design/i6Lpc7zkjHtso2oXZV97fo/Design-Kit?node-id=25438-62239&t=Efr3Z8ZOPsVDIzPP-0" target="_blank">SurveyJS Figma</a> project. -->

Survey Creator users can modify the UI at runtime. You may want to disable this capability if you apply UI customizations in code. To do this, set the [`showCreatorThemeSettings`](/survey-creator/documentation/api-reference/icreatoroptions#showCreatorThemeSettings) property to `false` as shown in this demo.

## Files

### `src/app/components/creator.component.css`

```css
/* You can add your custom CSS here. */
```

### `src/app/components/creator.component.html`

```html
<div style="position: fixed; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">
    <survey-creator [model]="model"></survey-creator>
</div>
```

### `src/app/components/creator.component.ts`

```ts
import { Component, OnInit } from "@angular/core";
import { SurveyCreatorModel } from "survey-creator-core";
import "survey-core/survey.i18n";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.i18n";
import "survey-core/survey-core.css";
import "survey-creator-core/survey-creator-core.css";

import SurveyTheme from "survey-core/themes";
import { registerCreatorTheme } from "survey-creator-core";

registerCreatorTheme(SurveyTheme); // Add predefined Survey Creator UI themes

@Component({
    // tslint:disable-next-line:component-selector
    selector: "component-survey-creator",
    templateUrl: "./creator.component.html",
    styleUrls: ["./creator.component.css"]
})
export class SurveyCreatorComponent implements OnInit {
    model: SurveyCreatorModel;
    ngOnInit() {
        const creator = new SurveyCreatorModel({ showCreatorThemeSettings: false });
        creator.JSON = {
          "pages": [{
            "name": "page1",
            "elements": [{
              "type": "matrix",
              "name": "qualities",
              "title": "Please indicate if you agree or disagree with the following statements",
              "columns": [{
                "value": 5,
                "text": "Strongly agree"
              }, {
                "value": 4,
                "text": "Agree"
              }, {
                "value": 3,
                "text": "Neutral"
              }, {
                "value": 2,
                "text": "Disagree"
              }, {
                "value": 1,
                "text": "Strongly disagree"
              }],
              "rows": [{
                "value": "affordable",
                "text": "Product is affordable"
              }, {
                "value": "does-what-it-claims",
                "text": "Product does what it claims"
              }, {
                "value": "better-than-others",
                "text": "Product is better than other products on the market"
              },{
                "value": "easy-to-use",
                "text": "Product is easy to use"
              }]
            }]
          }, {
            "name": "page2",
            "elements": [{
              "type": "rating",
              "name": "satisfaction-score",
              "title": "How satisfied are you with our product?",
              "minRateDescription": "Not satisfied",
              "maxRateDescription": "Completely satisfied"
            }, {
              "type": "comment",
              "name": "suggestions",
              "title": "What would make you more satisfied with our product?",
              "maxLength": 300
            }]
          }, {
            "name": "page3",
            "elements": [{
              "type": "radiogroup",
              "name": "price-comparison",
              "title": "Compared to our competitors, do you feel our product is:",
              "choices": [
                "Less expensive",
                "Priced about the same",
                "More expensive",
                "Not sure"
              ]
            }]
          }, {
            "name": "page4",
            "elements": [{
              "type": "text",
              "name": "email",
              "title": "Thank you for taking our survey. Please leave your email address if you would like us to contact you."
            }]
          }]
        };
        this.model = creator;
    }
}
```

### `src/app/app.component.html`

```html
<component-survey-creator></component-survey-creator>
```

### `src/app/app.component.ts`

```ts
import { Component } from "@angular/core";

@Component({
    selector: "app-root",
    templateUrl: "./app.component.html"
})
export class AppComponent {
    title = "CodeSandbox";
}
```

### `src/app/app.module.ts`

```ts
import { BrowserModule } from "@angular/platform-browser";
import { NgModule } from "@angular/core";
import { AppComponent } from "./app.component";
import { SurveyCreatorModule } from "survey-creator-angular";
import { SurveyCreatorComponent } from "./components/creator.component";

@NgModule({
    declarations: [AppComponent, SurveyCreatorComponent],
    imports: [BrowserModule, SurveyCreatorModule],
    providers: [],
    bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})
export class AppModule { }
```

### `src/environments/environment.prod.ts`

```ts
export const environment = {
    production: true
};
```

### `src/environments/environment.ts`

```ts
// The file contents for the current environment will overwrite these during build.
// The build system defaults to the dev environment which uses `environment.ts`, but if you do
// `ng build --env=prod` then `environment.prod.ts` will be used instead.
// The list of which env maps to which file can be found in `.angular-cli.json`.

export const environment = {
    production: false
};
```

### `src/index.html`

```html
<app-root></app-root>
```

### `src/main.ts`

```ts
import { enableProdMode } from "@angular/core";
import { platformBrowserDynamic } from "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic";

import { AppModule } from "./app/app.module";
import { environment } from "./environments/environment";

if (environment.production) {
    enableProdMode();
}

platformBrowserDynamic()
    .bootstrapModule(AppModule)
    .catch(err => console.log(err));
```

### `src/polyfills.ts`

```ts
/**
 * This file includes polyfills needed by Angular and is loaded before the app.
 * You can add your own extra polyfills to this file.
 *
 * This file is divided into 2 sections:
 *   1. Browser polyfills. These are applied before loading ZoneJS and are sorted by browsers.
 *   2. Application imports. Files imported after ZoneJS that should be loaded before your main
 *      file.
 *
 * The current setup is for so-called "evergreen" browsers; the last versions of browsers that
 * automatically update themselves. This includes Safari >= 10, Chrome >= 55 (including Opera),
 * Edge >= 13 on the desktop, and iOS 10 and Chrome on mobile.
 *
 * Learn more in https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/guide/browser-support.html
 */

/***************************************************************************************************
 * BROWSER POLYFILLS
 */

/** IE9, IE10 and IE11 requires all of the following polyfills. **/
// import 'core-js/es6/symbol';
// import 'core-js/es6/object';
// import 'core-js/es6/function';
// import 'core-js/es6/parse-int';
// import 'core-js/es6/parse-float';
// import 'core-js/es6/number';
// import 'core-js/es6/math';
// import 'core-js/es6/string';
// import 'core-js/es6/date';
// import 'core-js/es6/array';
// import 'core-js/es6/regexp';
// import 'core-js/es6/map';
// import 'core-js/es6/weak-map';
// import 'core-js/es6/set';

/** IE10 and IE11 requires the following for NgClass support on SVG elements */
// import 'classlist.js';  // Run `npm install classlist.js`.

/** IE10 and IE11 requires the following for the Reflect API. */
// import 'core-js/es6/reflect';

/** Evergreen browsers require these. **/
// Used for reflect-metadata in JIT. If you use AOT (and only Angular decorators), you can remove.
import "core-js/proposals/reflect-metadata";

/**
 * Required to support Web Animations `@angular/platform-browser/animations`.
 * Needed for: All but Chrome, Firefox and Opera. http://caniuse.com/#feat=web-animation
 **/
// import 'web-animations-js';  // Run `npm install web-animations-js`.

/***************************************************************************************************
 * Zone JS is required by default for Angular itself.
 */
import "zone.js/dist/zone"; // Included with Angular CLI.

/***************************************************************************************************
 * APPLICATION IMPORTS
 */
```

### `src/styles.css`

```css
/* You can add global styles to this file and import other style files */
.svc-creator {
  --sjs-primary-background-500: #20283DFF;
  --sjs-secondary-background-500: #4AB309;
  --sjs-layer-3-background-500: #F2F3F6FF;
  --sjs-special-background: #F2F3F6FF;
}
```

### `src/typings.d.ts`

```ts
/* SystemJS module definition */
declare var module: NodeModule;
interface NodeModule {
    id: string;
}
```

### `.angular-cli.json`

```json
{
  "apps": [
    {
      "root": "src",
      "outDir": "dist",
      "assets": [ "assets", "favicon.ico" ],
      "index": "index.html",
      "main": "main.ts",
      "polyfills": "polyfills.ts",
      "prefix": "app",
      "styles": [ "styles.css"  ],
      "scripts": [  ],
      "environmentSource": "environments/environment.ts",
      "environments": {
        "dev": "environments/environment.ts",
        "prod": "environments/environment.prod.ts"
      }
    }
  ]
}
```

### `_tsconfig.json`

```json
{
  "compileOnSave": false,
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "./",
    "outDir": "./dist/out-tsc",
    "sourceMap": true,
    "declaration": false,
    "allowSyntheticDefaultImports": true,
    "downlevelIteration": true,
    "experimentalDecorators": true,
    "moduleResolution": "node",
    "importHelpers": true,
    "resolveJsonModule": true,
    "target": "es2015",
    "module": "es2020",
    "lib": [
      "es2018",
      "dom"
    ]
  }
}
```

### `package.json`

```json
{
  "name": "surveyjs-angular",
  "scripts": {
    "ng": "ng",
    "start": "ng serve",
    "build": "ng build --prod",
    "test": "ng test",
    "lint": "ng lint",
    "e2e": "ng e2e"
  },
  "private": true,
  "dependencies": {
    "@angular/animations": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/cdk": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/common": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/compiler": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/core": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/forms": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/platform-browser-dynamic": "14.1.1",
    "@angular/router": "14.1.1",
    "core-js": "3.6.4",
    "rxjs": "6.5.4",
    "survey-angular-ui": "latest",
    "survey-creator-core": "latest",
    "survey-core": "latest",
    "survey-creator-angular": "latest",
    "tslib": "1.13.0",
    "zone.js": "0.11.7"
  },
  "devDependencies": {
    "@angular-devkit/build-angular": "~13.0.0",
    "@angular/cli": "~13.0.0",
    "@types/jasmine": "3.6.3",
    "@types/jasminewd2": "2.0.8",
    "@types/node": "14.14.28",
    "codelyzer": "6.0.1",
    "jasmine-core": "3.6.0",
    "jasmine-spec-reporter": "6.0.0",
    "karma": "6.1.1",
    "karma-chrome-launcher": "3.1.0",
    "karma-coverage-istanbul-reporter": "3.0.3",
    "karma-jasmine": "4.0.1",
    "karma-jasmine-html-reporter": "1.5.4",
    "protractor": "7.0.0",
    "ts-node": "9.1.1",
    "tslint": "~6.1.3",
    "typescript": "4.1.5"
  },
  "keywords": [ "angular", "surveyjs" ],
  "description": "SurveyJS-Angular example project"
}
```

## Other Frameworks

- [React](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/edit-user-interface-theme-with-custom-css/reactjs.md)
- [Vue 3](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/edit-user-interface-theme-with-custom-css/vue3js.md)
- [jQuery](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/edit-user-interface-theme-with-custom-css/jquery.md)
- [Vanilla JS](https://surveyjs.io/survey-creator/examples/edit-user-interface-theme-with-custom-css/vanillajs.md)