Site wide
Settings under Theme → Site wide in Ghost Admin — color mode, paper tone, editorial typography, dark-mode logo, and the post-page member CTA copy.
This page covers the Site wide group inside Meridian's theme customizer in Ghost Admin. Settings here cover the core visual identity of every page on your site and the post-page member CTA copy.
To get here: Settings → Design & branding → Customize → Theme → Site wide.
Color scheme
Enforce a specific color mode site-wide or let your visitors choose.
Locking the mode hides the toggle
Selecting Light or Dark enforces the chosen mode globally and removes the theme toggle from the reader controls in the header. Visitors won't be able to switch. Leave on System if you want readers to choose.
Background palette
Pick the paper tone for your entire site. Each preset pairs a light-mode and dark-mode value so the choice survives every color-scheme combination — body-text contrast on every pair clears WCAG AAA.
Newsprint (Default)
Warm off-white paper with classic ink tones. The default — looks like a printed broadsheet.
Mist
Cool, minimal, modern. A subtle blue-grey paper for clean tech and design publications.
Stone
Warm muted gray, magazine-feel. Sits between Newsprint and Press.
Press
Pure black-and-white, brutalist / print-zine. The highest-contrast option.
Surface tokens only
The background palette swaps only the paper and rule tokens. Ink (body text) and accent tokens stay constant across every preset, so brand color and contrast are preserved on every paper × scheme combination.
Accent colour lives in Brand
Meridian uses Ghost's native accent colour for every accent element across the site. Set it under Settings → Design & branding → Brand → Accent color. See Brand.
Font heading & Font body
Meridian ships 11 self-hosted variable fonts picked specifically for editorial reading. Font heading controls every <h1> / <h2> / <h3> and the masthead wordmark; Font body controls article body text, captions, and UI labels.
Precedence
Ghost's custom font picker in Design & branding wins when set. When it's empty (the default), Meridian's Font heading and Font body theme settings apply. The two-tier system lets you ship the curated default and still allow a per-site override.
Conditional preload
Only the fonts you actually pick are preloaded. If you pick the same family for both heading and body, the duplicate preload is skipped automatically.
Dark mode logo
If your primary Publication logo has dark text or graphics, it can be hard to see when dark mode is active. Upload an alternative logo for dark mode here.
Open Design & Branding
Go to Settings → Design & branding in Ghost Admin and click Customize.
Open the Theme → Site wide group
Expand the Theme → Site wide group on the left.
Upload your dark mode logo
Under Dark mode logo, click the upload area and select your image. Ideally the same dimensions as your primary logo.
Save changes
Click Save to apply.
Automatic fallback
If you leave Dark mode logo empty, Meridian renders your light logo with a CSS invert filter in dark mode. That works fine for monochrome wordmarks but produces unexpected colours on multicoloured logos — upload a proper dark-mode variant in that case.
Member CTA headline
The big headline at the top of the member call-to-action shown to logged-out visitors at the end of every article.
- Default:
Read every story, in full. - Suggested patterns: "Reporting that pays for itself.", "Independent journalism, for the price of a paperback a month.", "Become a Subscriber and read everything."
Open Design & Branding
Go to Settings → Design & branding in Ghost Admin and click Customize.
Open the Theme → Site wide group
Expand the Theme → Site wide group on the left.
Edit Member CTA headline
Type your custom headline into the Member CTA headline text field. Leave it empty to use the default.
Member CTA body
The sub-headline below the member CTA headline, explaining what membership includes.
- Default:
Join readers who get full access to every story. - Suggested patterns: Describe the specific benefits of your tiers — what readers actually get when they sign up.
Open Design & Branding
Go to Settings → Design & branding in Ghost Admin and click Customize.
Open the Theme → Site wide group
Expand the Theme → Site wide group on the left.
Edit Member CTA body
Type your custom sub-headline into the Member CTA body text field. Leave it empty to use the default.
Save changes
Click Save to apply.
The CTA is tier-aware
Logged-out visitors see the signup CTA with this headline + body. Free members reading a paid post see an upgrade prompt with tier-specific copy from Ghost (your tier names and prices). Paid members and visitors on free posts don't see a CTA at all — the box is hidden entirely.
The homepage Membership CTA is separate
These two settings only affect the post-page member CTA (the box at the end of an article). The full-bleed Membership CTA band on the homepage sources its copy from a Ghost page with slug membership-cta instead, so editors can write rich HTML there with a <mark> accent phrase. See Membership CTA.