Theme settings
The global controls in Manifest — color schemes, typography, layout, product cards, variants, quick view, and motion — and what each one reaches.
Manifest concentrates its design controls in theme settings rather than scattering them across sections. Open them with the gear icon at the bottom of the theme editor sidebar. Everything on this page applies store-wide.
Color schemes
Manifest ships several color schemes. Each one defines a background, a foreground, button colors, and their paired text colors — six color settings in total, and every background is paired with a foreground so nothing can be configured into an unreadable state by accident.
Sections do not carry their own colors. Instead, each section picks which scheme it uses. This is what lets you alternate bands down a page without configuring color twelve separate times.
How to use it well: define two or three schemes and alternate them. A page using six different schemes reads as noise.
The scheme’s background renders edge to edge across the full width of the browser, while the content inside stays aligned to the page grid. You do not need to think about this — it is how every section behaves.
Typography
Two font pickers: one for headings, one for body text. Manifest loads the bold, italic, and bold-italic variants of your choices automatically, so emphasis inside a product description renders properly rather than being faked by the browser.
Only fonts from Shopify’s font library are available. This is deliberate — custom font files are one of the most common causes of a slow first paint, and the library is large enough that the constraint rarely bites.
Pairing advice: if you are unsure, use one family for both and let weight carry the hierarchy. A mismatched pair is more noticeable than a safe one.
Page width
A single setting controls the maximum content width for the entire theme. Two useful values:
- Narrow suits editorial catalogs — fewer products, longer copy, more photography.
- Wide suits larger catalogs where the collection grid is doing the work.
Sections that are meant to be full-bleed — heroes, large media — ignore this and span the viewport. That is intentional and not configurable per section.
Header navigation
In the Header section, Navigation rail remains the desktop layout you selected. If the primary main menu cannot fit on one line, Manifest automatically uses the Studio header’s compact, one-row Menu drawer instead. This temporary fallback does not change your saved setting. Every primary, nested, secondary, and enabled routine link remains available in the drawer, and the navigation rail returns as soon as there is enough space.
Manifest rechecks the available space after the page loads, web fonts finish loading, the browser is resized, or the Header section reloads in the theme editor. If a keyboard user has focus inside the rail when it collapses, focus moves to the visible Menu button. With JavaScript disabled, the navigation wraps rather than clipping links.
The setting description in the theme editor notes this automatic fallback. You do not need to shrink menu text, clip links, or add horizontal scrolling to accommodate a longer menu.
See Header design recipes for illustrated starting points and the exact settings used to build each one.
Product cards
Card settings apply to every product card in the theme: collection grids, featured collection layouts, search results, and recommendations. Configure them once.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Image ratio | Adapt to image, portrait, square, or landscape |
| Image fit | Fill the image area or fit the whole image inside it |
| Product card image behavior | None, Show second image, or Slideshow |
| Variant option to show | Auto, Color, Size, or First option |
| Variant visibility | Enable variant controls separately for featured collections, collection grids, search results, related products, and cart recommendations |
| Text alignment and Text size | Set the shared product information treatment; Featured collection overrides card text size through its Heading size |
| Show vendor | Show or hide the vendor line |
| Show product rating | Show a review-app rating when one is present |
| Badges | Configure sale, sold-out, new, and custom badges and their color schemes |
Turning on ratings does not create ratings. It surfaces them if a review app has supplied them.
Quick-add and quick-view entry points are enabled in the section that displays the cards. For example, Featured collection has Show quick add and Show quick view, while Product grid has its own Card actions. The popup itself is configured globally under Quick view.
Product variants
Product variants controls the shared picker style, swatch display, swatch shape, chip size, selected-value labels, and visibility of sold-out or unavailable values. These controls apply to product cards, product sections, and quick view. Auto preserves Shopify swatches and moves large or long text option groups into dropdowns.
To turn variant controls on for featured collections or another card location, use the visibility checkboxes under Product cards. Predictive search does not show variants.
Quick view
Open Theme settings → Quick view to configure the shared product popup. These settings apply wherever a section opens quick view, including featured collections and collection product grids. They control the popup’s contents and appearance; enable the card action in the relevant section. Quick view is not a block you add to a page or product template.
Media
Choose Media display: Slideshow to browse product media, or First media item for a single item. Image aspect ratio offers Portrait (3:4), Square (1:1), and Landscape (4:3). Square is the default. The ratio also determines desktop modal height within the available screen space; longer product information scrolls independently.
Media fit offers Fill to fill the frame or Fit to keep the whole image visible. These settings are separate from the product card’s image settings.
Product information
Set Heading size and choose Eyebrow source from None, Vendor, or Product type. Product type is the default. Show product rating uses optional review rating data and hides when no rating is available. Show description uses the Shopify product description and is off by default. Show availability is on by default.
Purchase options
| Setting | What it controls | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show quantity selector | Quantity selection, subject to the variant’s quantity rules | On |
| Show purchase options | Native selling-plan options, such as subscriptions; required subscription options remain visible | On |
| Show volume pricing | Price breaks when available for the product and customer | On |
| Show pickup availability | Native pickup availability for the selected variant | Off |
| Show accelerated checkout | Shopify’s accelerated checkout button | On |
| Show payment terms | Shopify’s payment terms when available | Off |
These switches display existing Shopify product and store data. They do not create subscriptions, price breaks, pickup locations, or payment terms. Variant picker appearance comes from Product variants.
Style and setup
Choose a Color scheme for the popup. Control background offers Solid or Translucent and applies to close, slideshow, playback, and progress controls. Translucent is the default; use Solid when controls need more contrast over product media.
After configuring the group, preview quick view from a section with the action enabled. Check a product with variants and any product using subscriptions, quantity rules, or pickup availability. For Featured collection, Show quick view requires Show quick add; an available product with only its default variant and no required selling plan adds directly to the cart instead.
The Quick view purchase panel renders automatically inside the popup and has no settings of its own. See the Quick view settings reference for every control and default.
Motion
Two controls, and they reach everything:
- Transition style — fade, rise, scale, or none. Applies to menus, tabs, disclosures, drawers, and slideshows.
- Interface speed — how fast those transitions run.
A third, separate setting controls scroll reveals: whether content animates in as it enters the viewport. It is separate because it is a different decision, and because some merchants want interface motion without entrance animation.
Choosing none gives you an immediate, unanimated theme. So does a visitor’s own reduced-motion preference — the theme honors that automatically and you do not need to configure anything for it.
Favicon and social sharing
Set the favicon in theme settings. For social sharing images, Shopify uses the image set on the individual page, product, or collection, falling back to a store-wide image you set in Online Store → Preferences. Manifest emits the Open Graph and Twitter card tags that consume them.
Global settings and section overrides
Theme settings establish shared fonts, colors, card presentation, variants, and quick view. Individual sections choose a color scheme and can offer spacing, heading size, and layout controls. Use those section controls for a particular band; use theme settings for a change shared across the store. See How sections work for the section reference.