Redmine themes are just CSS files, which often come with images. That is, Redmine's support for theming is very basic. However, this makes installing Redmine themes very easy.
All Redmine themes are represented as directories in the public/themes subdirectory of the Redmine root directory (which is /opt/redmine, if you used the tutorial from this book to install it). Thus, by default Redmine comes with two directories in public/themes, alternate and classic, these are Alternate and Classic Redmine themes correspondingly.
So to install a new theme, you need to create a directory for it in public/themes. The name of the theme can, actually, be anything (you can use the name recommended by the theme author or think out your own). The only requirement is that it must be in lower case.
After you have created a directory for the theme put all theme, files into it. Thus, the theme must come with at least stylesheets/application.css, but it also can contain images in the images subdirectory, and so on.
Tip
Individual per-user themes
Haru Iida created a plugin which lets users choose a different theme (which, of course, should be installed in their profiles): http://www.redmine.org/plugins/themechanger.
As soon as all theme files are copied to the new theme directory, restart Redmine using the command (can be different):
$ sudo service apache2 reload
After this, go to the Administration | Settings | Display tab and select the theme in the drop-down list for the Theme field and click on Save.
That's it! Enjoy.
Here faced a dilemma once again—what Redmine themes should I choose to review? I have chosen those that I personally like more, and which to my knowledge, are most popular.
When choosing a theme, you actually have a choice: what existing site do you want your Redmine to look like? Because public themes, especially nice looking ones, are used widely and often. So, if you can find it substantiated, better order the special theme for your site.
This theme was created by Peter Theill. It is a Redmine port of 37signals' Basecamp theme:
Tip
The theme can be downloaded at http://www.theill.com/stuff/redmine.
This theme was originally authored by Eero Louhenperä from Modula:
Tip
Later the maintenance of the theme was taken over by Steven Jones from Computerminds Ltd and it can be found at https://github.com/computerminds/modula-mojito.
This theme was created by Kirill Bezrukov. It is based on the Ronin theme:
Tip
This theme can be downloaded at http://redminecrm.com/projects/a1theme.
This theme was also created by Kirill Bezrukov. It is based on 37signals' Highrise CRM theme. The theme comes in two versions—one with the project menu on the left sidebar and one with the project menu as tabs (ordinary case):
Tip
Both versions can be downloaded at http://redminecrm.com/projects/highrisetheme.