I was always envious of people who have programming skill combined with the ability to make software look nice from an artistic standpoint. Luckily, these days we don’t have to depend on someone else to make software look the way we want. With the introduction of themes and skinning, it’s now possible to customize the look and feel of many software applications without needing to know much of anything about programming; it’s the best of both worlds.

One of the reasons I like Chrome as my browser is that it was built to be extensible. Customization wasn’t an afterthought, it was a feature baked in from the beginning. Being able to select a theme or color scheme for an app is nice, being able to roll your own is better. With Chrome, there are web sites and plugins available through the Chrome Web Store that will allow you to create your own custom browser look.

The two names that stick out for Chrome customization are Chrome Theme Creator, available as an online web app and as a plugin. The other, which I’ll use to demonstrate the process is called My Chrome Theme. They all work pretty much the same.

1) Download and install the plugin

2) Select a background image

3) Pick your colors for the active window and tabs

4) Install your custom theme

It’s just that easy to have an instant custom browser!