The generic look of Facebook gets very boring after a while. You can search your profile and account options far and wide for a way to change the default look, but you won’t find anything. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to customize your Facebook page?
The good news is that there are fairly simple ways to customize Facebook. The bad news is that only you will see the changes, while others will continue to see the default layout. However, this may be a good thing as not everyone has the same taste.
This article will guide you through the options you have to add a custom color scheme or graphical layout to your Facebook page.
Option 1: Yontoo Layers Browser Plugin
You can use the browser plugin Yontoo Layers from PageRage to change the graphical layout of your Facebook profile. The changes can be applied to all pages or only your profile. Naturally, the changes will be visible to you only.
PageRage works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Be careful when you initiate the plugin download, as it will close all your browser windows of any open browser without asking for your confirmation!
Once the browser addon is installed, you can browse the PageRage website and try their free layouts. When you find a style you like, decide whether it should be applied to all pages or your profile only and click > Select This Layout in the bottom right. Works magically.
Option 2: Auto-Colorizer for Facebook Greasemonkey Script
If Firefox is your standard browser and if you already use Greasemonkey, try the Auto-Colorizer for Facebook script. You cannot add background images, but at least you can change the color scheme. Again, these changes will be visible to you only.
This is probably the least evasive way to customize your Facebook profile and it provides beautiful results. The example image above is courtesy of Auto-Colorizer for Facebook.
Option 3: Stylish Addon For Firefox / Stylish Addon for Chrome
This is a technique that will work for Firefox and Chrome. It’s an addon that lets you apply custom skins and themes to not only Facebook, but also Google, YouTube, Orkut, and many more. Install the plugin, then browse available styles to get started.
Note that you can skip installing the addon in case you run Greasemonkey. The styles can be installed as a Greasemonkey user script.
Be careful with templates from userstyles.org. Many are outdated and no longer fit the current layout of Facebook. Nevertheless, you may find a few that are up to date and suit your fancy.
If you know a little CSS, however, you can go ahead and use Stylish to create your own custom skin. In Firefox, add the Stylish icon to your toolbar (from the > Customize window), then click it and select > Write new style. You can check out the code of a good template at userstyles.org to get an idea what code needs to be covered.
Other Options
If you search a little, you will find at least two other ways to customize Facebook, for example Facebook Expressions and Chameleon Tom. The former was banned by Facebook and the latter triggers an adware / virus warning when trying to download the necessary plugin. Hence, I didn’t include these two. However, Chameleon Tom seems to be the only way to customize your Facebook page in a way that others can see it, given they join the respective Facebook group.
Conclusion
Taken together, customizing the look of your Facebook profile is possible and rather easy. Unfortunately, with most techniques you will be the only one to see the pretty makeover.
Would you join the Petition for Backgrounds on Facebook Profiles? Or would you prefer for Facebook to stay as simplistic as it is now in regards to page layout? Let us know in the comments below.
