Theme styles

A style is the look Checkmate starts with: its fonts, colors and buttons, and the sections on the home page, product page and About page. Checkmate has three styles, named Checkmate, Lair and Fang. You pick one in the Shopify Theme Store when you install the theme, as Install a theme on your store describes.

Every style is the same Checkmate theme with different settings. A store that started from Lair or Fang runs Checkmate and has every section, block and setting these docs describe, so these docs apply to it as written.

Compare the styles

Each style also sets its own font sizes and Section spacing. Every row except the demo store is a setting or a section you can change in the editor. The rows up to Show free shipping progress are in Theme settings, which Color settings, Product card settings and the other Theme settings articles describe. The header, footer and popup rows are sections, which How sections and blocks work in Checkmate explains. Add a popup describes Display timing, and Add a label such as Best seller to a product explains product tag labels.

The free shipping amount is in your store's default currency. The bar only shows how close a cart is to free shipping. It does not change your shipping rates, so set up a matching free shipping rate in your Shopify admin or turn the bar off in the Cart group of Theme settings, as Cart settings describes.

Lair's eight swatch colors are Chalk, Sand, Stone, Sage, Clay, Charcoal, Ivory and Oat. A swatch for an option value with one of these names, such as Sage, shows that color. Show color swatches for variants explains swatches.

Fang has no Announcement bar, which holds the side menu's button. To open the side menu in the Fang style, add an Announcement bar or a link to #OffcanvasDrawer, as Add a side menu describes.

Home page

Each style comes with its own home page, in this order from the top.

Section is the editor's name for an empty section you fill with blocks, as the Section section explains. Choose a section for your page says what every other section is for.

Product page

All three product pages open with the Product information section, which holds the photos, price, options and the button to buy.

Several of these sections show each product's own details, and they stay hidden until you connect those details, as How each product gets its own content explains.

About page

The About page template has the Page, Timeline, Video, Testimonials and Subscription sections in the Checkmate style. Lair has the Page section and four Section sections. Fang has the Page, Orbit, Stacking cards, Section and Photo wall sections. A page uses this template once you assign it, as Create an About page describes.

Contact page

The contact page template has the Page and Contact form sections in every style. The Checkmate style adds an FAQ section with five questions under the form. Create a contact page describes the template.

What a style leaves out

A style brings the look and the sections, not the demo store's content. Your store starts without the demo's logo, photos, videos, products, collections, social links and product details. Make your store look like the demo lists each one and how to add your own.

Switch to another style

In Theme settings, Theme style lists the three styles, and Change style applies the one you select.

When you select a style, the preview shows your store in it until you click Change style or Cancel.

Shopify's guide to theme styles has the steps.

To start with another style's sections too, install Checkmate again from the Theme Store with that style selected, as Install a theme on your store describes.