Themes

  • Updated on May 24, 2026
  • Published on May 23, 2026
  • 1 minute(s) read
  • Aiden Molavi
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Cirrus supports two levels of branding:

  1. Full branding of the whole environment, including login pages and the authoring interface. Contact support@cirrusassessment.com to scope this.
  2. Exam delivery themes, which change the candidate-facing look of exams for specific hierarchies. This article covers exam delivery themes.

What an exam delivery theme controls

By attaching a theme to a hierarchy, you change how exams look for every schedule under that hierarchy:

  • The logo in the header.
  • The colour of buttons.
  • The widget colour.
  • The support colour used for counters and minor accents.

Example custom theme for the Humanities faculty

Create a theme

  1. Open Admin > Themes.
  2. Select Add. A blank theme opens with default settings.
  3. Edit the fields below.
  4. Select Save.

Editing a theme

Theme fields

  • Title: how the theme appears in the themes list.
  • Description: a short note about where this theme is used.
  • Hierarchy: the hierarchy the theme attaches to. The theme applies to every schedule scheduled under this hierarchy. Settings inherit downwards through sub-hierarchies.
  • Logo: select Add image to upload one. Cirrus crops to the right aspect ratio. The example logo is 195 × 66 px PNG; larger images scale down.
  • Colours: enter a hex code directly or use the colour picker.

Preview a theme

Previewing an assessment or a schedule does not show the theme because the theme is bound to the schedule's hierarchy, not the assessment itself.

To preview a theme:

  1. Create a sample assessment.
  2. Schedule the sample using a test candidate account under the hierarchy the theme is attached to.
  3. Log in as the candidate.
  4. Open two browser tabs side by side. Save edits to the theme in one tab and refresh the candidate view in the other to see changes immediately.

Themes with integrations

When candidates come through an integration that takes them straight to the exam (for example ProctorU), the theme works particularly well: the candidate bypasses the login page and the dashboard, and lands directly on the branded exam.

The API methods that drive this:

  • ScheduleGroupExtId
  • ScheduleGroupName

Use either to associate the schedule with the right hierarchy so the right theme picks up.

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