---
title: Overview
sidebar_position: 0
slug: /customizing
---

Congrats! You've installed React Native Elements and your immediate question
goes something like this:

> So umm, how do I change how it looks?

Great question! A UI Kit wouldn't be that useful if the apps everyone built
looked the same right? For this case React Native Elements provide a number of
props on each component to enable you to style them how you want.

## Component Styles

_Every_ component from React Native Elements has a container around it. The
container is just a traditional `<View />` from react native that has some
styling on it. This default styling prevents components from colliding with each
other. If you want to change how two components react to each on the screen your
first stop should be the `containerStyle` prop.

Similar to `containerStyle`, components may provide their custom style props
like `buttonStyle`, `titleStyle` etc. Always refer to the documentation for the
component to find out which style props it provides.

## Theming

While component styles are great for single use, you may want to have the same
styling for every instance of a component. For example, you may want all your
buttons to be blue or have the same font. Here are some ways to reuse styles
with React Native Elements.

### Using Composition

With this approach, we create one component with the styles we want and use that
instead of the built-in component.

```tsx
import React from 'react';
import { Button } from '@rneui/themed';

const RaisedButton = (props) => <Button raised {...props} />;

// Your App
const App = () => {
  return <RaisedButton title="Yea" />;
};
```

If we want to use a button that's raised in our app, we can use `RaisedButton`
instead of using `Button`. This component still accepts all the props from the
normal `Button` just that it has the `raised` prop set by default.

---

### Order of Styles

What happens now if we want a `Button` that isn't raised? To do that we have to understand the order in which styles are applied.

> Internal > Theme > External

#### Internal

Internal components styles are the styles which are defined in the component
file. These are applied first.

#### Theme

Theme styles are the values that are set by the ThemeProvider If present, these
are applied second.

```tsx
import { ThemeProvider, Button, createTheme } from '@rneui/themed';

const theme = createTheme({
  Button: {
    titleStyle: {
      color: 'red',
    },
  },
});

const App = () => {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
      <Button title="My Button" />
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
};
```

This will override the white color for the title set in the component's style.

#### External

External styles are the styles which are set through the component props. These
are applied last and have the highest precedence.

```tsx
import { ThemeProvider, Button, createTheme } from '@rneui/themed';

const theme = createTheme({
  Button: {
    titleStyle: {
      color: 'red',
    },
  },
});

const App = () => {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider theme={theme}>
      <Button title="My Button" titleStyle={{ color: 'pink' }} />
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
};
```

This will override both the white color for the title set in the component's
style as well as the red color set in the theme.

> Remember if you want to override the values set in the theme you can always
> use component props.

Note: To theme subcomponents such as `ListItem.Title`, in your theme remove the dot and list them as "ListItemTitle"

### Using the theme in your own components

```tsx title='App.tsx'
import { ThemeProvider, createTheme } from '@rneui/themed';

const myTheme = createTheme({
  lightColors: {
    primary: '#a4e2f5',
  },
});

const App = () => {
  return (
    <ThemeProvider theme={myTheme}>
      {/* ... */}
      {/* ... */}
    </ThemeProvider>
  );
};
```

The updateTheme function merges the theme passed in with the current theme.

```tsx
updateTheme({
  lightColors: {
    primary: 'purple',
  },
});
```

The `replaceTheme` function merges the theme passed in with the default theme.

Don't want to wrap your components with `withTheme`? You can use the `ThemeConsumer` component
which uses render props!

```tsx
import React from 'react';
import { Text } from 'react-native';
import { ThemeConsumer } from '@rneui/themed';

const MyComponent = () => (
  <ThemeConsumer>
    {({ theme }) => (
      <Text style={{ color: theme.colors.primary }}>Yo!</Text>;
    )}
  </ThemeConsumer>
)
```

You can also use `useTheme()` if you use hooks.

```tsx
import React from 'react';
import { Text } from 'react-native';
import { useTheme } from '@rneui/themed';

const MyComponent = () => {
  const { theme } = useTheme();

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={{ color: theme.colors.primary }}>Yo!</Text>
    </View>
  );
};
```

If you want to keep your styles outside the component use `makeStyles()` (hook generator) to reference the `theme` and component props (optional param).

```tsx
import React from 'react';
import { Text } from 'react-native';
import { makeStyles } from '@rneui/themed';

type Params = {
  fullWidth?: boolean;
};

const MyComponent = (props: Props) => {
  const styles = useStyles(props);

  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={{ color: theme.colors.primary }}>Yo!</Text>
    </View>
  );
};

const useStyles = makeStyles((theme, props: Props) => ({
  container: {
    background: theme.colors.white,
    width: props.fullWidth ? '100%' : 'auto',
  },
  text: {
    color: theme.colors.primary,
  },
}));
```
