A theme rarely lives alone. You inherit one from a colleague, you need the same colours in a web app, the designers want them in Figma. This lesson covers everything Report Design Studio takes in and gives out, so one design serves the report and the rest of your brand.
Import an existing theme
Open Import in Report Design Studio. Paste a Power BI theme JSON, or Upload .json (up to 2 MB), then click Import. The studio validates it on the way in and loads its colours (exactly as they are, in their order) and font for editing. If one of them is too faint for its background, A11y says so.
Settings the studio does not edit are kept: visual styles it has no controls for, extra text classes and unknown keys are written back into your export. So you can import a big hand-written theme, change its palette, and export it without losing anything.
Save and share a design
Open Share:
- Copy share link puts the whole design (colours, font, mode, background, page layout and the look of every visual) into the link itself. Nothing is stored on a server; whoever opens it gets the design to change freely
- Save preset stores the design in this browser. Your presets are listed below it: click one to reload it, or × to delete it
Presets are good for trying variations. A share link is good for sending a design to a colleague, or keeping it in a ticket or a wiki.
Know the validation rules
Every theme export is checked against the load-blocking rules of Microsoft's published theme schema: valid hex colours, the right types in the right places. There are two kinds of findings:
- Errors would make Power BI reject or mis-load the theme. The export is blocked until they are fixed, with the first problem named
- Warnings are legal but suspect, likely a mistake. You can export anyway
This matters most after an import, when a hand-written theme may have had mistakes all along.
Export the right format
Export in the bar offers:
| Format | What you get | Use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Theme JSON | The Power BI theme file | Importing into Power BI Desktop |
| Dark + Light pair | Two theme files, a dark and a light version of the design | Reports offered in both modes |
| Swatch sheet | A PNG of the palette with its hex codes | Style guides, slides, handing to a designer |
| CSS variables | A .css file of custom properties | Web apps and portals around the report |
| SCSS variables | A .scss file | Sass-based front ends |
| Figma / W3C tokens | A .tokens.json file in the design tokens format | Figma and design tools |
Keep the brand in step
With the tokens exported, the same colours can drive the report, the company intranet page that embeds it, and the designers' files. When the palette changes, change it once in the studio, export again, and replace the files.
A simple habit for a team: keep the theme JSON and the share link together in the repository or wiki where your reports live. The JSON is what Power BI needs; the link reopens the design in the studio for the next change.
That was the last lesson. You can now design a complete Power BI theme, check it, and take it everywhere your brand appears. If something is missing or wrong, the Feedback button in the studio's bar goes straight to the issue tracker.