Desktop only
The online Ableton theme editor needs a mouse and a wide screen. It will not work properly here.
Open abletonthemes.pixelabs.net on a computer to design a theme. The 45 ready made themes download and install fine from any device.
Back to the themesA structural mock-up, not a screenshot — enough to judge a palette without restarting Live. Always check the real thing before you ship a theme.
Live ships these identical in all 18 of its built-in themes, so recolouring them is the change people notice first.
WCAG ratios for the pairs that carry text. Accent on surface is reported but not graded — the accent is a fill behind text, and Live's own light themes sit near 1:1 there.
Writes an ID into the file as an XML comment and as ±1 nudges on a few
inert colours. It traces a leaked copy back to a download —
it does not prevent copying. A .ask has to stay readable for Live to
load it, so no theme can be protected. Nobody's can.
A browser can't find Ableton on your disk — it has no way to look. These
scripts can: put one in the same folder as your .ask files and run it.
See Installing a theme below.
If your browser blocks the download (Safari sometimes does from a local file),
copy the XML above and save it as YourTheme.ask.
By hand — macOS
The folder is inside the app. Quit Live, open Applications
in Finder, right-click your Ableton Live app, choose
Show Package Contents, then open
Contents/App-Resources/Themes and drop the .ask in.
By hand — Windows
C:\ProgramData\Ableton\Live 12\Resources\Themes\
If that isn't there, look for Resources\Themes inside your Ableton
Live install folder.
Or run the installer script
It finds your Ableton install itself, copies every .ask file sitting
in the same folder as the script, and refuses to run while Live is open. It's plain
text — open it and read it before running it.
macOS — install-macos.command
macOS quarantines scripts downloaded from a browser, so the first time you must
right-click it and choose Open. Double-clicking will be blocked.
If you have more than one version of Live installed it asks which one.
Windows — install-windows.bat
Double-click it. If SmartScreen warns you, choose More info →
Run anyway. If files fail to copy, the Themes folder needs elevation —
right-click the script and choose Run as administrator.
Either way, remember a Live update replaces the app and wipes custom themes. Keep
your .ask files somewhere safe and install them again afterwards.