# Themes for WinForms Overview

Thank you for choosing Themes, a WinForms control to add themes.

## Content

**Themes for WinForms** makes it easy to theme your WinForms controls with many built-in themes and an easy to use Theme designer to create your own themes or modify the existing ones.  This product enables you to easily provide a consistent customized look to WinForms applications which use other ComponentOne WinForms products such as C1Ribbon, C1Scheduler, C1FlexGrid and others. Themes for WinForms includes one component, **C1ThemeController**, and a **Theme** designer.
The C1Themes product physically consists of two separate parts:

* **C1.Win.C1Themes assembly**

This assembly provides the C1ThemeController component, which is used to load and apply themes to controls at design and runtime. Besides, the assembly contains (as embedded resources) a set of predefined themes which can be used as is, or customized to better serve your purposes. Projects using this assembly need to have a reference to C1.C1Zip dll.

* **C1.Win.C1Themes.Extended assembly**

This assembly provides the C1ThemePicker control, which can be dropped from the toolbox to the form. The C1ThemePicker control represents a drop-down list to select one of the registered themes and apply it to the assigned C1ThemeController.

* **C1ThemeDesigner application**

This application can be used to create new, or customize existing themes (including those embedded into the C1.Win.C1Themes assembly as mentioned above).

### Key Features

* C1Themes allow to provide a consistent customized look to your applications that use ComponentOne WinForms controls.
* The look of an application can be changed with a single click at design or run time.
* The look of your applications can be designed/modified by visual designers (not programmers) independently of actual coding, using the easy to use C1ThemeDesigner.
* Use one of the pre-built themes, or create your own either from scratch, or by modifying a pre-built theme.
* Themes can be deployed independently of applications, and used by different applications throughout your company as long as the applications are built using C1 WinForms controls.
* Within a theme, a common repository of properties (Base Theme Properties) can be referenced throughout the theme to enable creation of consistent and easily modifiable themes.
* The user can add a Theme Combo Box to switch between multiple themes at run-time. To know more, refer the [C1ThemePicker](/componentone/docs/win/online-themes/c1themepicker) topic.

>type=note
> Note: ComponentOne Themes for WinForms is compatible with both .NET and .NET Framework.

>type=info
> **Namespace Update**: The **C1.Win.C1Themes** namespace is now **C1.Win.Themes**. Update your using directives and reference the new NuGet package **C1.Win.Themes**. All Themes assemblies are merged into a single package for easier installation

| **API References** |  |
| -------------- | --- |
| [C1.Win.C1Themes .NET Framework Assembly](/componentone/api/win/online-themes/dotnet-framework-api/C1.Win.Themes.4.8/C1.Win.Themes.html) | [C1.Win.Themes .NET Assembly](/componentone/api/win/online-themes/dotnet-api/C1.Win.Themes.10/C1.Win.Themes.html) |

## See Also

[Help with WinForms Edition](/componentone/docs/win/online-themes/overview/HelpWithC1StudioforWinForms)