Mawu ships with 13 dark color schemes in three collections: the original, the Nature collection (added in 0.5.0) and the Hero collection (added in 0.9.0). Every one of them is built to the same contrast standard, not just visually different reskins of the same colors.
The original
Mawu
The original. A calm, deep night sky.
Nature collection
Canopy
Moonlight filtered through pine needles, warmed by an amber understory.
Tide
Deep-water calm with a bioluminescent flicker at the edges.
Dune
Cooling sand after sunset, still glowing faintly terracotta.
Ember
Obsidian dark with a live coal still burning underneath.
Fern
Undergrowth in shadow, catching one shaft of lime-green light.
Hero collection
Emerald
A green-black base with a glowing, slightly blue green.
Gargoyle
Neutral charcoal with one flash of warm yellow.
Skyline
Night-sky navy with a hot red accent.
Forge
Dark red like cooling metal, with a molten orange.
Onyx
Near-black with a hint of violet and a bright purple glow.
Velocity
The warmest base in the set, a deep crimson, with lightning gold.
Abyss
Deep-sea teal-black with a bright aqua.
Each hero theme started from a comic book hero’s signature color. Read the story behind each one.
Every theme clears WCAG AA
Each theme’s body text and muted text were checked against its own background using the same relative-luminance contrast formula, and clear 4.5:1 (the AA threshold for regular text). Every theme’s link color clears 4.5:1 on both of its card colors, and black button text clears 4.5:1 on every accent. None of the 13 are a dark palette that merely looks contrasty; each was measured, and the plugin’s test suite re-checks all of them on every change.
Where each theme reaches
Whichever theme you pick applies consistently across the admin bar and menu, the recolored dashboard content area, the block editor’s writing canvas and its buttons, the Classic Editor, and (if enabled) the login screen.
Switch themes any time from Settings → Mawu Dark Mode, where you can preview every theme and filter by collection, or from Users → Profile → Admin Color Scheme. See choosing your color scheme for exactly where to find the picker.