Two independent systems share the word "theme" in AstroWatch, and they don't affect each other: the app's own Dark / Light appearance, which restyles the window chrome, cards and text everywhere, and a separate set of twelve wheel styles that only restyle the chart itself — background, ring colors, glyph color, house lines, aspect lines. Changing one never changes the other.
The app's Dark / Light appearance
Settings → Themes opens a small submenu with two radio options, Dark and Light. This switches the whole application's chrome — window background, card surfaces, borders and text color — instantly, with no restart needed. It isn't Pro-gated in any way, and it's saved globally, so AstroWatch reopens in whichever mode you last picked.
Settings → Themes — a plain two-item radio list, switching the whole app's chrome instantly.
Restyling the chart wheel
A small gear icon labelled Chart settings sits on the chart toolbar in the Expanded Chart View, next to Export. Clicking it opens a flyout headed Choose a chart style — a grid of theme cards that restyle the wheel only, leaving every layer, ring and aspect exactly where it was.
The twelve styles
Each style has a matching light-mode counterpart that swaps in automatically when the app itself is in Light appearance — three of them (Carrara Marble, Parchment Scroll and Vellum Ink) look the same in either mode, since they were designed as light, paper-toned styles from the start:
- Cosmic — the default — obsidian midnight, becomes Ivory in Light mode
- Obsidian Noir — pure monochrome, becomes Gallery White
- Parchment Scroll — a medieval astrologer's codex, unchanged in either mode
- Celestial Gold — baroque grandeur, becomes Gilded Ivory
- Aurora Borealis — polar night skies, becomes Arctic Dawn
- Bauhaus — geometric primaries, keeps its name with a paper-toned variant
- Neon Synth — synthwave grid, becomes Retro Print (risograph inks on paper)
- Carrara Marble — Italian sculpture hall, unchanged in either mode
- Sage Botanical — herbal apothecary, becomes Herbarium
- Burgundy Manor — library by firelight, becomes Claret Press
- Blueprint — a drafter's grid, becomes Graph Paper
- Vellum Ink — quiet classical drafting, unchanged in either mode
There's no color editor — you choose from these twelve presets, you can't define your own palette. A separate Aspect Colors toggle on the chart page controls one related thing: whether aspect lines use the active theme's single line color, or your own per-aspect-type colors from the Aspects settings dialog.
Twelve theme cards in one grid — only Cosmic and Obsidian Noir (top row) are free in Dark mode; the rest unlock with Pro.
Free vs. Pro
Exactly two wheel styles are free in Dark mode — Cosmic and Obsidian Noir — and Pro unlocks the full set of twelve. Every other card in the flyout is locked; picking one prompts the upgrade panel and reverts to whatever was active before.
Does it remember your choice?
The flyout's own footer says a style choice "applies to current view only" — in practice it's remembered for you. AstroWatch keeps one saved wheel style for Dark appearance and a separate one for Light appearance, and restores whichever one matches your current app mode every time you reopen the Expanded Chart View, including after a full restart.
Themes and exports
Your wheel style choice carries into exported chart images and PDFs, but only when you export using the Screen style. The Print export style always renders with its own fixed parchment palette, matching whatever report template you picked, regardless of which wheel style is active on screen at the time.
What's next
That's everything under Settings & Calculation. From here, the full Shortcut Reference — including the Timeline's keyboard time-travel mode.