Appearance

The Appearance screen is where the keyboard’s look comes together. It’s the hub for the theme, font, and icon pickers, and it holds the sliders that shape the keys themselves and the toolbar above them.

The Appearance settings screen, showing Style, Keys, and Toolbar.

Style

WM Keyboard›Appearance›Style

Three rows that each open their own screen rather than settings inline:

• Keyboard themes: light, dark, AMOLED, and custom colors, background images, and theme import/export. Shows the active theme’s name, or “Default” when you haven’t picked one. Full details on Themes.
• Keyboard font: Google Fonts, or a font file you import yourself. Shows “System default” until you pick something else. Full details on Fonts.
• Icons: swap any tool or key icon individually, or install a whole icon pack. Shows “Default” with nothing changed, the active pack’s name once one is installed, or a count of individually-changed icons. Full details on Icon packs.

Reference pages for each of these three screens: Keyboard themes, Keyboard font, Icons.

Keys

WM Keyboard›Appearance›Keys

Three sliders that apply to every key, whatever layout is active. All three are the global value, and a theme may override any of them:

Setting	Range	Default
Key corner radius	0–28 dp	8 dp
Key label font size	×0.7–×2.0	×1.00
Key hint font size	×0.5–×2.0	×1.00
Key hint position	0–16 dp	1 dp

Key corner radius goes from square keys at 0 to fully pill-shaped keys at 28. Turn on “Corner radii for this theme” in the theme editor and it seeds that theme’s own key-radius slider from this value. See Themes for how a theme can override it.

Key label font size scales every printed letter on the keys themselves. It’s separate from the popup bubble that appears on a key press, which has its own size under Key press → Key popup.

Key hint font size scales the small corner hint on a key: the character or symbol a long-press on that key types. This slider only controls their size once they’re showing. The “Press and hold hints” toggle that turns the hints on or off in the first place lives on the Key press screen, not here. See Key basics for how long-press hints work.

Key hint position moves that corner hint up or down. At 0 the hint touches the top edge of the key. Raise it to bring the hint down toward the letter.

The Keys sliders: corner radius, label size, and hint size.

Toolbar

WM Keyboard›Appearance›Toolbar

The toolbar is the strip above the keys that carries word suggestions while you type and your pinned tools otherwise.

The Toolbar group, with the confirmation dialog for turning the toolbar off.

Setting	Type	Default	Notes
Show the toolbar	Toggle	On	Turning it off reclaims its height for the keys, but also hides suggestions and every pinned tool. You’re asked to confirm before it disables.
Where the tools go	The strip / A button / Always	The strip	The strip is the original arrangement: tools and suggestions share one row and the arrow flips between them, so the tools are only in reach when nothing is being suggested. The other two give the tools a row of their own above the suggestions. A button opens and closes that row from the same arrow. Always leaves it open instead. Either way, having the row up costs one row’s worth of keyboard height. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Suggestion strip	Toggle	On	Keeps the suggestion row above the tools row. Turn it off to keep only the tools row and give the suggestion row’s height back to the keys, for example if you’ve turned suggestions off and the row sits empty. It also removes everything else that appears in that row: the paste chip for your last copy, one-time codes, snippet offers and other chips. Voice typing’s compact bar still takes the row while you dictate. Only shown while Where the tools go is set to Always, because with A button the arrow on the suggestion strip is how you open the tools.
Swipe down to hide	Toggle	Off	A downward flick anywhere on the toolbar dismisses the keyboard. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Rearrange by dragging	Toggle	On	A press and hold that moves picks the tool up so it can be dropped elsewhere on the toolbar. Off, a hold that moves stays a hold, and the toolbox is where the bar gets rearranged. For anyone whose hold keeps turning into a drag. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Only the toolbar with a hardware keyboard	Toggle	Off	With a physical keyboard attached, drops the on-screen keys and keeps just the toolbar strip.
Reverse the order for right-to-left languages	Toggle	Off	Mirrors the whole toolbar, toolbox button included, when the active layout’s script runs right-to-left. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Tool layout	Fixed size / Spread out / Scroll	Spread out	Fixed size packs the pinned tools to the left at one size. Spread out splits the width evenly. Scroll keeps each tool at a comfortable size and lets the bar scroll sideways; change the order from the toolbox while it is on. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Toolbar top padding	Slider, 0–24 dp	4 dp	Space between the top edge of the keyboard and the toolbar. The strip carries both suggestions and the toolbar, so the suggestions move with it, and the keyboard gets taller by the same amount.
Toolbar bottom padding	Slider, 0–24 dp	0 dp	Space between the toolbar and the first row of keys. The keyboard gets taller by the same amount.
Hide the toolbar and the clipboard on the lock screen	Toggle	Off	Hides the whole top strip and blocks the clipboard panel while the phone is locked, so nothing like a copied one-time code sits on a screen anyone can wake. See Tools for how this differs from the tools that work before first unlock.
Tool labels	Toggle	Off	Draws a caption under each pinned tool’s icon, the toolbox button at the head of the bar included — it reads Toolbox. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Label text size	Slider, 7–14 sp	10 sp	Only shown once Tool labels is on.
Suggestion text size	Slider, 80%–160%	100%	Scales the words in the suggestion strip without touching the strip’s own height.
Suggestion spacing	Slider, 0–24 dp	6 dp	The gap either side of each word inside its slot. Lower it to fit more of a long word before it shrinks, or to pack more words onto a narrow screen. Raise it to keep neighbouring words apart once Scroll the suggestions is on.
Autocorrect word color	Color, or Auto	Auto	The color the strip paints its first suggestion in, but only once autocorrect has decided to put that word in for a space, so the color is a promise: a bold word without it is just the top guess, and a space keeps what you typed. Auto keeps the theme’s text color.
Reset pinned tools	Button (confirms first)	n/a	Restores the global toolbar to Emoji, Clipboard, and Settings. It resets the global row even while a mode with its own pinned toolbar is active. To change what a mode pins, edit that mode instead.
Tool circle radius	Slider, 0–20 dp	20 dp	20 draws a full circle behind each tool icon, Gboard style. Smaller values give a rounded square. 0 removes the background, leaving bare icons. Has its own per-theme override in the theme editor.
Tool background shape	Row → picker dialog, the same twelve shapes as Key shape	Rounded	The outline of that background. Only Rounded and Cut read the radius above, and the rest size themselves off the button. Hidden while the radius is 0, since there is no background to shape. Has its own per-theme override in the theme editor.
Tool background width	Slider, 38–64 dp	38 dp	How wide each tool’s slot is once the bar stops spreading them, so it decides how many fit before the row scrolls or shrinks. Only shown while the toolbar is on.
Reset toolbar (shown only once something on this screen has moved)	Button (confirms first)	n/a	Puts every slider and switch on this screen back to its default. Which tools are pinned is not affected.

For the toolbox itself (pinning, reordering, and which tools work before you unlock your phone), see Tools.

Toolbox

WM Keyboard›Appearance›Toolbox

The toolbox is the grid of every tool behind the toolbar’s grid button. It is a different feature from the bar, so it has a page of its own.

Setting	Type	Default	Notes
Reset toolbox order (shown only once you’ve dragged the grid around)	Button (confirms first)	n/a	Puts the tools in the toolbox grid back in their original order. The pinned bar is a separate list, reset by the row above.
Toolbox layout	Icons / Pills	Icons	Icons is the round-icon grid with a caption under each tool. Pills gives every tool a wide rounded row instead: icon on the left, name beside it, and an arrow on the right for the tools that open something.
Toolbox grid size	Slider, 3–6	4 per row	Tools per row in the toolbox grid, the grid behind the toolbar’s grid button. Fewer per row makes each tool bigger; more fits more tools without scrolling. Only shown while the layout is Icons.
Pills per row	Slider, 1–3	2 per row	How many pills sit side by side. Only shown while the layout is Pills.
Fill the pills with the tool color	Toggle	Off	Colors the whole pill with the tool’s accent instead of just its icon, flipping the icon and name to whatever reads on top. Needs Colorful tool icons (under WM Keyboard›Tools) to be on. Only shown while the layout is Pills.
Swipe the toolbox in pages	Toggle	Off	Breaks the toolbox into fixed pages you swipe sideways, with dots underneath, instead of one grid that scrolls. Applies to both layouts.
Tools per page	Slider, 4–40	12 per page	How many tools each page holds. Only shown once paging is on.
Toolbox label size	Slider, 0–16 sp (0 = follow the toolbar labels)	Follow toolbar	Sizes the captions in the toolbox on their own. At 0 the readout reads “Follow toolbar” and the captions take the toolbar’s label size instead.
Reset toolbox (shown only once something on this screen has moved)	Button (confirms first)	n/a	Puts the grid layout, columns, paging and label size back to their defaults. The order of the tools, and which tools are switched on, are not affected.

Details & edge cases

• The Keyboard themes, Keyboard font, and Icons rows are shortcuts, not inline settings. Each opens its own full screen, so this page only covers what their trailing value means and where the real controls live.
• Key label font size and key hint font size are the global values, and a theme can override both. ThemeSpec carries its own nullable fontScale, hintFontScale and boldKeyLabels, so a theme that sets any of them wins over these sliders until you switch to one that doesn’t. Key corner radius, tool circle radius, tool background width and tool background shape all work the same way. A theme can also set the toolbar’s height, which has no global slider; the toolbar top and bottom padding add to it either way. A row the active theme’s Layout for this theme group replaces says so under its name and greys out, so a slider that no longer reaches the keyboard is never mistaken for a broken one. The global value is kept and comes back the moment the theme stops setting it. See Themes for what a theme does and doesn’t control.
• Press and hold a tool used to live here as its own screen. It moved onto each tool’s own page under Tools, where the row is called Press and hold on the toolbar. See Tools.
• Turning Show the toolbar off is the one toggle that asks you to confirm. Every other switch and slider here applies immediately, and turning the toolbar back on is instant with no confirmation. The reset buttons confirm too, since each one throws away an arrangement.
• Tool layout is one choice. Scroll used to be a second switch that silently overrode the spread one; the three options now say which layout you get.
• Reset appearance sits at the end of the Keys group and covers only the corner radius, the two label sizes and the hint position. The Toolbar and Toolbox pages each have their own reset.
• Reset pinned tools only touches the global toolbar row. A keyboard mode that carries its own pinned toolbar keeps it. You reset that from the mode’s own editor instead.