How to customize the viewer background color for your data room?

The Papermark document viewer is the screen your visitors spend the most time on. By customizing its background color, you make the viewing experience feel like an extension of your brand rather than a generic preview.

Viewer background customization is available on the Business plan and above. It also works with full white-label setups using a custom domain.

What you can customize

You can change the visual environment that surrounds your documents in the viewer:

• Background color: any hex value to match your brand palette
• Fill mode: choose how the background fills the viewer area around the document
• Dark and light presets: one-click options for common themes

The background applies to both document links and data room links and shows up around the document preview, in the sidebar, and behind the table of contents.

Step-by-step setup

Step 1: Open your data room branding settings

1. Log into Papermark.
2. Open the data room you want to customize.
3. Click Settings, then Branding.

For document links, the same controls live under your account-level branding so the color applies across every document. See how to customize your document link.

Step 2: Choose a background color

1. Find the Viewer background section.
2. Pick one of the presets (light, dark, or custom) or paste a hex value to match your brand.
3. Preview the change in the live preview pane on the right.

If you already use a custom brand color elsewhere in your account, Papermark suggests it as a default to keep your branding consistent.

Step 3: Pick a fill mode

The fill mode controls how the background fills the area around the document:

• Contain: the document is centered with the background filling all sides
• Fit: the document scales to fit the viewer width with the background visible at the top and bottom
• Full: the background covers the entire viewer with the document floating on top

Most users start with Contain for a balanced look.

Step 4: Save and preview

1. Click Save.
2. Open one of your data room links in an incognito window to see the change as a visitor would.

Customize viewer background

Best practices

• Match your hex codes: copy the exact brand color from your style guide so the viewer matches your website and pitch deck.
• Test contrast: dark backgrounds work well for image-heavy decks, light backgrounds work well for text-heavy PDFs.
• Pair with hidden branding banner: combine a custom background with the hide branding banner option for a fully white-labeled experience.
• Use one background per audience: if you create separate data rooms for different deals, tune the background per data room to mirror that deal's brand.

How background color interacts with other branding

The viewer background sits at the bottom of the branding stack. It works alongside:

• Logo in the header
• Banner image at the top of the data room
• Brand color applied to buttons and accents
• Custom domain that hosts the viewer at your URL
• Favicon in the browser tab

See data room branding for a full overview of everything you can customize.

Frequently asked questions

Related guides

• How to customize data room branding
• How to customize your document link
• How to remove Papermark branding
• How to add a custom domain to your link

Need help? Contact support@papermark.com or use the in-app chat.