Custom Skins?

[livin 10]

Any plans to give us the ability to create custom skins? Not looking for super fancy stuff like Kodi has but most around onscreen layout. Emby's native skin is 'usable' but not the most efficient or intuitive as Kodi's native skin (left side menu, etc)

[Luke 42077]

It's possible for the future. Thanks.

[Airbender 128]

Hello Everyone,

I know this is a big ask, but I wanted to put it out there. I genuinely believe this feature would be extremely popular. If you see the merit in it, I'm confident you'll agree with me.

Currently, Emby is a server and client-based system that heavily relies on web development, offering new tools and features that are impressive. However, some of us still cherish the classic Media Center with MB 1 and MB2, which is no longer available since Microsoft discontinued Windows Media Center. One of the coolest aspects of MB2 was the ability to create custom skins for clients. The only system that still allows for this is Kodi. But hey, we're not going back, right?

My feature request is to have an option to add skins to the Emby client, even if it's limited to a few devices such as Xbox X or Windows PC for now. The idea is to have one or two skins with different presentations, for example, an Emby Client Skin in Netflix style or an Emby Client Skin in Crunchyroll style. This way, users can apply the skin to any client.

Now we can make it bit more complicated by adding plugin option in server side and push it to selected devices only or keep it simple and import the skin plugin via direct downloads and install via the client or as exe like we use to do back in the days in MB times 

Since this is add-ons users always will start with default skin and few selected users can go and get the skin and add it to the client and view their media in a new way form and look if that make sense I truly believe  Netflix style or Crunchyroll style skin add-on will be very popular and desired by users.

Perhaps a little demo might help, here is Kodi skin for Netflix just to elaborate in my point 

 

 

I hope developers of Emby see merit in this idea and thanks in advance 

[Dullard 14]

I would quite like this!  ..even if were a little techie to use.  

[Airbender 128]

It will be a game changer 

[sh0rty 714]

It would be a first step that clients could incorporate CSS changes made on the server side like Jellyfin does, before rolling out a whole theming engine imo.

[Dullard 14]

I agree

[denzoid 57]

Came here from the Reddit Emby sub where this subject is being discussed also. I would love this feature! Unfortunately I have zero coding skills but plenty of time to test if that would help.

[visproduction 315]

Hi, I think people using interactive design themes may believe you just have to cut and paste with a few changes.  It is a lot more work.  The page has to look good on all screens, 20 different mobile sizes, tablets, small to large monitors, various TV sizes and floating windows on a large monitor.  Monitor size and often even different languages can cause text wrapping problems, image overlapping or being cut off.

To make custom theme easier to work, some design changes might also be a good idea on the base style design for Emby.  With the current "div class" naming, it is hard to make a CSS style change for a movie media page that does not also change a TV media, episode, actor's and artist's pages.  Too many "div" sections on too many pages have the same class names.  So, upgrading the class names to be more unique and become multi-theme friendly may require... I would make a rough guess perhaps a 2-3 person team working for around 3 months.

When software is udpated it can break a custom theme.  If the software owner makes the theme, then they would have to spend time to update or retire it. If an outside person makes the theme, then it's up to that person to update it. A typical theme change may take anywhere from say 200 + hours, between code, review and testing.  Perhaps update support and coding effort just on one new theme, maybe another 60 hours annually, depending on how many people use it.  If the theme is interactive, count on 10+ times this amount of effort.  Based on US contract code dev compensation, this creates a budget of $8,000 to $80,000 for one new theme, not including accounting, taxes and payroll processing.  If the CSS class naming is also updated, then it would probably be an additional $15,000 to $50,000.

Yes, if themes are fun for some users and the look is so nice that people want to come and use the software, of course, it has value.  This doesn't change the fact that someone has to write the checks to pay for this theme update.  Is there enough cash reserve?  Should this valuable dev time be better spent fixing other issues or new  features?  I am not part of the Emby team, so I have no knowledge of these answers.  It's perfectly fine to request this type of feature.  I just wanted to point out that people might underestimate the cost and effort to make it happen.

I created a custom CSS theme for Emby Web, that I like and it's available in the forum.  This is CSS only and no extra javascript interactive features.  Currently, the theme is over 3300 lines of code.  You are welcome to check it out.  It probably took me about 400 hours of work.  Be sure to scroll all the way down to the end to find the latest version.

 

Edited February 6, 2025 by visproduction

[Airbender 128]

5 hours ago, denzoid said:

Came here from the Reddit Emby sub where this subject is being discussed also. I would love this feature! Unfortunately I have zero coding skills but plenty of time to test if that would help.

You and me both if i was a coder i will make it by myself 

[Airbender 128]

55 minutes ago, visproduction said:

Hi, I think people using interactive design themes may believe you just have to cut and paste with a few changes.  It is a lot more work.  The page has to look good on all screens, 20 different mobile sizes, tablets, small to large monitors, various TV sizes and floating windows on a large monitor.  Monitor size and often even different languages can cause text wrapping problems, image overlapping or being cut off.

To make custom theme easier to work, some design changes might also be a good idea on the base style design for Emby.  With the current "div class" naming, it is hard to make a CSS style change for a movie media page that does not also change a TV media, episode, actor's and artist's pages.  Too many "div" sections on too many pages have the same class names.  So, upgrading the class names to be more unique and become multi-theme friendly may require... I would make a rough guess perhaps a 2-3 person team working for around 3 months.

When software is udpated it can break a custom theme.  If the software owner makes the theme, then they would have to spend time to update or retire it. If an outside person makes the theme, then it's up to that person to update it. A typical theme change may take anywhere from say 200 + hours, between code, review and testing.  Perhaps update support and coding effort just on one new theme, maybe another 60 hours annually, depending on how many people use it.  If the theme is interactive, count on 10+ times this amount of effort.  Based on US contract code dev compensation, this creates a budget of $8,000 to $80,000 for one new theme, not including accounting, taxes and payroll processing.  If the CSS class naming is also updated, then it would probably be an additional $15,000 to $50,000.

Yes, if themes are fun for some users and the look is so nice that people want to come and use the software, of course, it has value.  This doesn't change the fact that someone has to write the checks to pay for this theme update.  Is there enough cash reserve?  Should this valuable dev time be better spent fixing other issues or new  features?  I am not part of the Emby team, so I have no knowledge of these answers.  It's perfectly fine to request this type of feature.  I just wanted to point out that people might underestimate the cost and effort to make it happen.

I created a custom CSS theme for Emby Web, that I like and it's available in the forum.  This is CSS only and no extra javascript interactive features.  Currently, the theme is over 3300 lines of code.  You are welcome to check it out.  It probably took me about 400 hours of work.  Be sure to scroll all the way down to the end to find the latest version.

 

It looks like your theme requires Windows and Emby Theater, but aside from that, most people don’t use PCs anymore. Do you have a video demonstrating how your theme works? From the screenshots alone, it’s hard to tell what the theme actually does. Also, how would someone without coding skills import it? That said, my idea is a bit different from what you’ve created. Custom CSS styling is one thing, but fully changing the skin and functionality is another.

[Airbender 128]

On 1/19/2020 at 9:05 AM, livin said:

Any plans to give us the ability to create custom skins? Not looking for super fancy stuff like Kodi has but most around onscreen layout. Emby's native skin is 'usable' but not the most efficient or intuitive as Kodi's native skin (left side menu, etc)

That would open up Emby for a lot more development and improvement 

[visproduction 315]

4 hours ago, Airbender said:

It looks like your theme requires Windows and Emby Theater, but aside from that, most people don’t use PCs anymore. Do you have a video demonstrating how your theme works? From the screenshots alone, it’s hard to tell what the theme actually does. Also, how would someone without coding skills import it? That said, my idea is a bit different from what you’ve created. Custom CSS styling is one thing, but fully changing the skin and functionality is another.

Ab, Thanks for asking.  For Web Emby, you just add the CSS file to Admin / Settings / Custom css insert field area and click Save.  There are options for which background images you want and some other features that are editible inside the file. 

You are correct, this is only available for Emby Web server.  Other Emby app versions do not offer the custom CSS.  Getting a theme that is interactive, point click and choose an option makes the theme take, at least, twice as long for any platform,  compared to a straight Custom CSS.  All the interactions have to be coded.  I've never had a customer who agreed to pay for such an elaborate upgrade.  I did work for a company that created a competitor to Youtube in 2005.  I know that they spent over $1M to offer interactive theme adjustments and had 4 million members.  This cost eventually killed the software.  Even ad revenue was not enough and there were too many bugs because the release was pushed very quickly without much QA testing.

Look into the other companies with theme options and I think you may find that they are mostly made by third party developers and not by the media companies. I don't think Kodi actually does the skin.  Say 100 members would love to use it and sign up as a result.  I think you have to look at the business side where this may cost $1000, per user, to make this happen.  If it were my business choice, I would want such a feature to cost no more than $5 per potential membership income, to do something this big.  Perhaps some dev teams think that it would cost much less. 

My previous work, as an Integration manager, was to come up with estimates for software features.  I don't have all the information, so this is just my educated guess.  I think it's too big and too costly.  If a theme project does start up, please be patient with whomever is doing it,  because it really is a lot of work.

[Airbender 128]

1 hour ago, visproduction said:

Ab, Thanks for asking.  For Web Emby, you just add the CSS file to Admin / Settings / Custom css insert field area and click Save.  There are options for which background images you want and some other features that are editible inside the file. 

You are correct, this is only available for Emby Web server.  Other Emby app versions do not offer the custom CSS.  Getting a theme that is interactive, point click and choose an option makes the theme take, at least, twice as long for any platform,  compared to a straight Custom CSS.  All the interactions have to be coded.  I've never had a customer who agreed to pay for such an elaborate upgrade.  I did work for a company that created a competitor to Youtube in 2005.  I know that they spent over $1M to offer interactive theme adjustments and had 4 million members.  This cost eventually killed the software.  Even ad revenue was not enough and there were too many bugs because the release was pushed very quickly without much QA testing.

Look into the other companies with theme options and I think you may find that they are mostly made by third party developers and not by the media companies. I don't think Kodi actually does the skin.  Say 100 members would love to use it and sign up as a result.  I think you have to look at the business side where this may cost $1000, per user, to make this happen.  If it were my business choice, I would want such a feature to cost no more than $5 per potential membership income, to do something this big.  Perhaps some dev teams think that it would cost much less. 

My previous work, as an Integration manager, was to come up with estimates for software features.  I don't have all the information, so this is just my educated guess.  I think it's too big and too costly.  If a theme project does start up, please be patient with whomever is doing it,  because it really is a lot of work.

But do you have a video demo of this custom theme that can apply to emby as website view? It will be hard to try something that we don't even know what it looks like. As far cost for such skin theme part I am not sure why would it cost 1 million dollars to built it. The emby app already does most of it. All we ask for bit layout change and bring slide show view which emby already does in home page and recent added parts so moving that to main libraries won't he hard. Netflix was a reference only 

[visproduction 315]

AB, 

No video. Try it out.  If you don't want it, it is easy to delete.  Install or delete takes about 2 seconds.

[sh0rty 714]

On 2/7/2025 at 3:10 AM, Airbender said:

But do you have a video demo of this custom theme that can apply to emby as website view? It will be hard to try something that we don't even know what it looks like. As far cost for such skin theme part I am not sure why would it cost 1 million dollars to built it. The emby app already does most of it. All we ask for bit layout change and bring slide show view which emby already does in home page and recent added parts so moving that to main libraries won't he hard. Netflix was a reference only 

Like @visproductionsays, it's an easy tryout. Past the code into the Emby server CSS field, and the Web page changes immediately. If you don't like it, delete content in the field save to get back to stock visuals. No knowledge of CSS coding needed. Unfortunately, the CSS theming does not work for any client except Web since they mostly are built from scratch.
That's why I suggested to incorporate the CSS theming feature to the clients before invest menpower into a Skin engine. Theming via CSS is already there and when using server CSS on clients, the Emby dev team could lay the theming in the users hands and spend energy on more core features under the hood. This works pretty well on Jellyfin, I guess because their clients are wrapped up web applications baked into e.g. the Android apk.

This is the forum section for Web CSS:

Web App CSS - Emby Community

There are several CSS themes like vis' one, the Plex theme or the classic cinema theme. Check out the last pages of the corresponding threads to get the latest code if you'd like to try it out.

[GrimReaper 4739]

Might be of interest. 

 

[BasementCoder 5]

Nah I'm good, I will release it for free running only for Jellyfin. TC..

[Airbender 128]

18 minutes ago, BasementCoder said:

Nah I'm good, I will release it for free running only for Jellyfin. TC..

Since jelly fin is a fork of emby any chance would it work with Emby 

[Luke 42077]

42 minutes ago, Airbender said:

Since jelly fin is a fork of emby any chance would it work with Emby 

He'd have to develop two versions. I assume that is his plan given that he posted in this community.

[Airbender 128]

That would be great 

[Frode789 0]

I also would really like to see some more visual options in Emby..

Both different skins (which would work across platforms, not just web..) and being able to adjust some layout options in the apps themselves. 

[Airbender 128]

54 minutes ago, Frode789 said:

I also would really like to see some more visual options in Emby..

Both different skins (which would work across platforms, not just web..) and being able to adjust some layout options in the apps themselves. 

Recently I testes jellyfin with jellyflix app and it is amazing. I really hope some developers In emby look into jellyflix app and mybe come up with better app for Emby. 

[Airbender 128]

On 3/22/2025 at 3:05 PM, BasementCoder said:

Nah I'm good, I will release it for free running only for Jellyfin. TC..

So how is your setup different from jellyflix? And any updates if you will release it for emby as well or you will keep it all on jellyfin environment? 

[Airbender 128]

Here is link of another example of what I was suggesting