{"id":13,"date":"2026-03-23T17:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/2026\/03\/23\/premium-skins\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:49:09","slug":"premium-skins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/2026\/03\/23\/premium-skins\/","title":{"rendered":"Premium Skins"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Premium Skins are the headline feature of Legal Pro. A skin layers over the free theme&#8217;s base styles to deliver an entirely different visual identity \u2014 different palette, different typography, different mood \u2014 without breaking your content, customizer settings, or template structure.<\/p>\n<p>Activate Pro and you immediately get access to the bundled skins. New skins arrive with each Pro release, all included in your existing license.<\/p>\n<h2>Skins shipped in Legal Pro 1.0.0<\/h2>\n<h3>Editorial (default)<\/h3>\n<p>This is the bone-canvas, oxblood-accent, Fraunces-headlines look the free theme ships with. It&#8217;s the baseline, and it&#8217;s already considered Pro-quality typography for serious legal practice.<\/p>\n<h3>Chambers \u2014 Ink &amp; Gold<\/h3>\n<p>The showcase skin. Deep ink canvas (almost-black, warm), gold leaf spine, Playfair Display headlines, Source Sans body. Built for senior counsel and white-shoe firms \u2014 reads like a leather-bound brief in evening light.<\/p>\n<p>Use Chambers when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your firm operates at the upper end of the market<\/li>\n<li>Your hero pull-quote and testimony block carry real weight (the dark canvas dramatizes them)<\/li>\n<li>Your brand is established enough that &#8220;we don&#8217;t need to shout&#8221; is a coherent message<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Don&#8217;t use Chambers if your practice serves a more accessible market \u2014 civil-disputes mid-market, consumer-protection, employment for individuals. The dark canvas reads as exclusive in a way that may misalign your brand with your client base.<\/p>\n<h2>How to activate a skin<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Make sure Legal Pro is installed and your license is active.<\/li>\n<li>Go to <strong>Appearance \u2192 Customize \u2192 Legal Pro \u2192 Premium Skins<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Use the <strong>Active Skin<\/strong> dropdown to choose between Editorial and Chambers (and any future skins).<\/li>\n<li>Click <strong>Publish<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The site immediately repaints with the new skin. Refresh any front-end tab and you&#8217;ll see the new palette and typography.<\/p>\n<h2>How skins work technically<\/h2>\n<p>Each skin is a folder under <code>wp-content\/plugins\/legal-pro\/skins\/<\/code> containing three files:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>skin.json<\/strong> \u2014 metadata (name, description, fonts URL, version)<\/li>\n<li><strong>style.css<\/strong> \u2014 the skin&#8217;s CSS (typically 300\u2013500 lines)<\/li>\n<li><strong>screenshot.png<\/strong> \u2014 600\u00d7450 preview thumbnail shown in the Customizer<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you activate a skin, the plugin enqueues that skin&#8217;s <code>style.css<\/code> after the theme&#8217;s base styles, and (if the skin specifies its own font URL) replaces the Google Fonts URL via the <code>legal_fonts_url<\/code> filter.<\/p>\n<p>Skins override CSS variables in <code>:root<\/code> \u2014 palette tokens, font tokens, shadow tokens \u2014 and then patch a small number of specific components whose feel changes more drastically than a variable swap can express.<\/p>\n<h2>Switching back to the free theme look<\/h2>\n<p>Set Active Skin to <strong>Editorial (Default)<\/strong>. This is the bundled built-in option that ships with the free theme \u2014 selecting it disables all premium skins.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t lose any settings or content. Skins are presentation-only.<\/p>\n<h2>What happens if I deactivate Legal Pro<\/h2>\n<p>The site reverts to the free theme&#8217;s Editorial baseline. Your customizer values, content, and skin selection are preserved \u2014 the moment you reactivate Pro, the previously-selected skin returns.<\/p>\n<h2>Building your own skin<\/h2>\n<p>The skin folder structure is deliberately simple. If you have a developer on staff or an agency, building a custom skin for your firm is realistic.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Create a folder <code>wp-content\/plugins\/legal-pro\/skins\/your-slug\/<\/code>.<\/li>\n<li>Drop in <code>skin.json<\/code>, <code>style.css<\/code>, and <code>screenshot.png<\/code>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Example <code>skin.json<\/code>:<\/p>\n<pre><code>{\n    \"name\": \"Mychambers \u2014 Custom\",\n    \"description\": \"Our firm's branded skin.\",\n    \"version\": \"1.0.0\",\n    \"author\": \"Your Firm\",\n    \"fonts\": \"family=Cormorant+Garamond:ital,wght@0,400;0,600;1,400&family=Inter:wght@400;500;600&display=swap\",\n    \"pro\": true\n}<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>The plugin auto-discovers the folder via the <code>lgpro_register_skins<\/code> filter \u2014 no code changes needed. Your skin appears in the Customizer dropdown alongside the bundled ones.<\/p>\n<p>For a starter, copy <code>chambers\/style.css<\/code> and modify. The CSS variables it overrides are documented in <a href=\"\/custom-css\/\">Adding Custom CSS<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Note: skins added to the plugins folder are wiped when Legal Pro auto-updates. For permanent custom skins, register them from a child theme or a small mu-plugin instead.<\/p>\n<h2>Roadmap<\/h2>\n<p>The skin system is actively developed. Skins planned for upcoming releases:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mid-Market<\/strong> \u2014 softer palette (warm gray + sage), Inter throughout, less editorial gravitas. For consumer-facing practices.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Boutique<\/strong> \u2014 minimalist, single-accent, Crimson Pro. For solo practitioners and small chambers.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Tribunal<\/strong> \u2014 formal courtroom palette (charcoal + brass), serif-heavy. For litigation-focused firms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>All future skins are included in your existing license at no additional cost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Switch your site&#8217;s entire visual identity in one click \u2014 Chambers ships with v1.0; new skins arrive with each Pro release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,23,12,22],"class_list":["post-13","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pro-features","tag-chambers","tag-design","tag-pro","tag-skins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/docs.fasterthemes.com\/legal-wordpress-theme\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}