Getting started

Welcome to Backline Themes. This guide takes you from a fresh install to a store that’s ready to launch. Work through it in order, because the early steps set the defaults that everything later inherits. Time spent here saves you correcting the same detail section by section.

1. Install the theme

After your purchase, add the theme to your store from the Shopify Theme Store, then open Online Store → Themes in your Shopify admin. Your new theme appears in the theme library.

Always work on a copy

Before you customize anything, especially theme code, open the ⋯ menu next to the theme and choose Duplicate. Edit the copy, and publish it only when you’re happy. This keeps a safe fallback at all times.

2. Choose a theme style

The theme ships with five theme styles (Lathe, Patchbay, Skep, Lapidary, and Volm). Each one is a complete visual starting point, with colors, typography, corner shapes, and spacing tuned for a different kind of store.

In the theme editor, open Theme settings → Change theme style and pick the one closest to your brand. You can switch at any time and fine‑tune everything afterwards. See Theme styles for a tour of each one.

3. Find your way around theme settings

Global settings live behind the gear icon at the bottom of the editor sidebar, sorted into fourteen groups. You don’t need to work through them top to bottom. Set them in the order a shopper notices them:

• Your brand: Logo and Favicon put your name in the header and in the browser tab.
• The overall look: Color schemes, Typography, and Corners, borders and depth carry most of the visual character. Adjust these three and the whole store follows.
• Shopping surfaces: Buttons, Product cards, Icons, and Cart shape how people browse and buy.
• Structure and movement: Layout and Spacing set page width and breathing room, and Animations controls how content arrives on screen.
• Finishing touches: Social media and Gift card cover the edges of the store.

Every choice here applies storewide, so you make it once. Options that belong to a single section stay on that section, and are documented in the sections reference, from Storytelling and Media to Products, Conversion, and Chrome.

4. First-run checklist

• Upload your logo in Theme settings → Logo, and a square favicon in Theme settings → Favicon.
• Set your color scheme and typography, or keep the theme style’s defaults.
• Build your header and footer menus in Online Store → Navigation.
• Add your products and collections, then place them on the home page.
• Add your social profiles in Theme settings → Social media. There are fields for 20 platforms, and an icon appears only for the ones you fill in, so list the accounts you actually post to and leave the rest empty.
• Choose your cart type (drawer or page) and set up a free‑shipping bar if you use one.
• Review the store on mobile. Every section is built to adapt.

Domains, payments, shipping, and taxes are set up in your Shopify admin rather than in the theme. The Shopify Help Center walks you through each of those.

5. Recommended image sizes

Use high‑resolution images and let the theme resize them. As a starting point:

• Logo: up to 600 px wide (transparent PNG or SVG).
• Slideshow and banners: 2000–3000 px wide.
• Product images: at least 2000 px on the longest side, with a consistent aspect ratio.
• Collection and blog images: 1200–2000 px wide.

The theme serves responsive, lazy‑loaded images automatically, so you don’t need to create multiple sizes yourself.

Note

None of these choices are locked in. Because the settings above are storewide, you can revisit any of them after launch and the change carries through every page at once.

Rebuild the demo you saw

Your store will not look identical to the demo on day one, because the demo shows its own products and photography. If you want the same layout, each style has a page listing the exact sections and settings behind it: Lathe, Patchbay, Skep, Lapidary, and Volm.