Change the look of Vivaldi with Themes

Learn about the settings in the Themes Editor to create a custom look for your Vivaldi browser.

Vivaldi User-Agent and Client-Hints User-Agent (CH-UA)

The User-Agent and Client-Hints User-Agent Brands List are two methods websites can use to identify the visiting user’s web browser. This is sometimes used to adapt a website to the visitor’s web browser, but is sometimes abused to block access to websites unless visited using an approved web browser.

Vivaldi does not use a browser-identifiable User-Agent or Client-Hints (on applicable platforms) by default. However, Vivaldi uses a browser-identifiable User-Agent when users visits about half-a-dozen Partner Sites1.

Users can opt-in to adding the Vivaldi brand to their Client-Hints brand list on the desktop platform (Linux, Windows, macOS). This option is available in Settings > Network > User-Agent Brand Masking.

Vivaldi’s User-Agent and Client-Hints User-Agent availability vary by platform:

PlatformUser-AgentClient-Hint
DesktopVivaldiVivaldi
AndroidVivaldiVivaldi
iOS2VivaiOSNon-Applicable

Vivaldi encourages web developers to rely on Feature Detection rather than adopting user experience based on User-Agents. This design approach is more backwards and forwards compatible than making decisions based on User-Agents.


Examples

Desktop User-Agent (Partner Sites only):

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/146.0.0.0 Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/7.9.3970.64

Android User-Agent (Partner Sites only):

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; K) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/146.0.0.0 Mobile Safari/537.36 Vivaldi/7.9.3970.64

iOS User-Agent (Partner Sites only):

Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 26_4_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) CriOS/146.0.0.0 Mobile/15E148 Safari/604.1 VivaiOS/7.9

Footnotes

  1. You can find the list of Partner Sites in the Vivaldi source code (components/user_agent/vivaldi_user_agent_allow_list.inc). ↩︎
  2. Vivaldi for iOS differ as it’s built on top of Apple WebKit, whereas the other platforms is built on top of Chromium. ↩︎

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Accessibility Features and Settings

The high level of customizability and numerous clever features make the Vivaldi browser an excellent choice for those who need a browser to adapt to their unique needs. The accessibility-friendly settings and features help to make browsing easier and more comfortable for everyone.

Right after installing Vivaldi, the first step on onboarding offers the most common configuration options for those who use a screen reader or other assistive technology, and for those who need keyboard-only access. This can be accessed at any time from the Vivaldi menu > Help > Vivaldi Welcome Tour and each of the options can be found in Settings.

Appearance

Theme

If none of the default or community-created themes hit the sweet spot, you can create your own custom theme with colors and settings that are easy on your eyes.

To create a custom theme, go to Settings > Themes > Library > New Theme.

Settings we recommend adjusting:

  • Colors
  • Color Saturation
  • Color Contrast
  • Transparency

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Themes.

User Interface Zoom

If the default size of the browser toolbars, including the icons on them, and the content on the browser’s internal pages and dialogues is too small on your computer’s screen, you can make them bigger in Settings > Appearance > User Interface Zoom.

Toolbar and Menu Customization

An uncluttered user interface consisting only of the necessary elements can help reduce both cognitive and physical effort. So it’s worth taking some time to move and remove toolbar components to create a configuration that fits your needs.

To customize the toolbars, go to the main Vivaldi menu > View > Customize Toolbar.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Customizing Toolbars.

The same goes for the various application and context menus. They can be full of options that you don’t need or ordered in a way that doesn’t work for you.

To customize the menus, go to Settings > Appearance > Menu.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Customizing the Application and Context Menus.


Web Pages

Web Page Zoom

Increasing the zoom level on web pages is probably one of the easiest ways to reduce eye strain.

Web page zoom can be adjusted, for example, from the right side of the Status Bar, by using Keyboard Shortcuts, or by holding down the Ctrl / ⌘ key while scrolling the mouse wheel.

Furthermore, you can choose whether you prefer zoom levels to be set per tab or per website. You can make your choice in Settings > Webpages > Default Webpage Zoom by either enabling or disabling “Use Tab Zoom”.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Zoom options in Vivaldi.

Web Page Focus

You can choose to cycle through form elements only, or through all links and inputs in order of their appearance in the document. To control which page elements are reachable when moving using the Tab key, go to Settings > Webpages > Webpage Focus.

Website Appearance

If you prefer dark themes and want the web page content to match, go to Settings > Appearance > Website Appearance to set your preferences. You can even force web pages that don’t support a dark mode natively to be displayed in dark colors.

Fonts

While most web developers have set specific fonts and font sizes for their content, some (e.g. Wikipedia), have only specified the font family. For websites like that, you can choose your own preferred fonts.

To customize default fonts and font sizes in Vivaldi, go to Settings > Webpages > Fonts.

Reader View

Enabling Reader View on pages with long-form content creates a clutter-free reading experience, allowing you to focus on what’s important without any of the distractions. Furthermore, you can adjust the font style and size, line spacing, column width, and color scheme to make reading the text even more comfortable.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Reader View.

Page Actions

Page Actions allow you to make adjustments to individual web pages, and to make browsing more effective and focused on your individual needs. Page Actions are custom filters that modify the look of a page, for example, grayscale, or sepia filters, focus, and hover highlights, and inline access key exposure.

Page Actions can be applied from the Status Bar or by using shortcuts.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Page Actions.

Toggle Images and Animations

Visual content, especially the animated kind, can be disturbing. Luckily in Vivaldi, there are settings that allow you to block images from loading altogether and give you options to play looping animations just once or never.

To make your choices, go to Settings > Webpages > Play Image Animation / Load Images.


Navigation

Keyboard Navigation

Keyboard Shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts are probably the most popular tool for efficient browsing. Nearly every action in the Vivaldi browser can be assigned its own keyboard shortcut and preset defaults can be changed to match your preferences. You can even use shortcuts comprised of a single key.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Keyboard Shortcuts.

Spatial Navigation

Spatial Navigation is a kind of keyboard navigation using Shift / plus the arrow keys that allows you to move between interactive elements on the page by their proximity not by the document order like using the Tab key does. When using Spatial Navigation, the focused element has an orange border around it.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Spatial Navigation.

Caret Browsing

Caret browsing allows you to navigate through web pages with the arrow keys on the keyboard similarly to Spatial Navigation. The difference is that your place on the page is not focused on specific interactive elements, rather on the text. Your location on the page is shown by a visible text cursor (caret) like in a text editor.

To enable caret browsing, go to Settings > Webpages > Caret Browsing. To quickly toggle the feature on or off, use the keyboard shortcut Shift+F7 / ⇧ F7.

When enabled, use the arrow keys to move around on the page. Hold down the Shift / key and press the arrow keys to select text.

Quick Commands

Via the Quick Commands’ search dialog, you can navigate to any tab, open bookmarks and notes, search the web, and execute any browser command.

To use Quick Commands, simply press F2 / ⌘ E on your keyboard and start typing the search keyword or command name.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Quick Commands.

Command Chains

Command Chains are groups of commands executed in a sequence, thus allowing you to do things in less manual steps. To create a Command Chain, go to Settings > Quick Commands > Command Chains.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Command Chains.

Mouse Gestures

If instead of the keyboard you do the majority of your browsing with the mouse, you’ll find that using Mouse Gestures can significantly speed up your browsing. Actions like navigating back to the previous page, closing a tab, opening a link in a new tab, etc., simply require holding down the right mouse button while moving the mouse in a specific pattern for the action.

To view and customize Mouse Gestures, go to Settings > Mouse > Gesture Mapping.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Mouse Gestures.

Rocker Gestures

Rocker Gestures are Mouse Gestures used to execute commands by clicking first the left mouse button followed quickly by a click on the right mouse button or vice versa. You can assign two of your favorite commands to Rocker Gestures.

To view and customize Rocker Gestures, go to Settings > Mouse > Rocker Gestures.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Rocker Gestures.


Third-Party Features

Extensions

Most Extensions available on the Chrome Web Store work equally as well in Vivaldi. If you know of an extension that makes browsing easier for you, simply find it on the extension store and click on “Add to Vivaldi” on the extension’s profile.

You’ll find more information on the Help page about Extensions.

Screen Reader Software

Screen Readers convert elements on the Vivaldi browser’s user interface and web page content into speech, allowing visually impaired people to browse the web using keyboard navigation and shortcuts.

While Vivaldi can effectively be used with screen reader software, we admit there are a few rough edges we have yet to smooth out.


When you encounter accessibility issues while browsing with Vivaldi, we’d like to hear about them. Please report bugs to the team via our bug report form, or reach out to us on the Forum or social media channels.

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Web Apps and Home Screen shortcuts on iOS

Learn how to create Web Apps and Home Screen shortcuts on your iPhone and iPad with Vivaldi on iOS.

Report crashes on Android

A “crash” occurs when Vivaldi encounters an unrecoverable error and shuts down unexpectedly.

If you’ve downloaded Vivaldi from the Play Store and it has crashed you should see a pop-up saying “Vivaldi keeps stopping” with a few options below it. Select “Send feedback”. This will provide us with some information about the crash, but often we won’t know how to reproduce it. That’s why it’s helpful to report the crash also on our website.

To make a bug report:

  1. Go to https://vivaldi.com/bugreport/.
  2. Select Android: Browser as the affected product and Problem / defect as the type of issue.
  3. Then, give the bug report a concise title in the summary section and step-by-step instructions to trigger the crash in the description section.
    It’s also helpful to mention your setup related to the area of the crash. For example, Address Bar is at the bottom, Sync is active, etc. Feel free to attach screenshots and screen recordings.
  4. If you’re reporting the issue from a different device, please update Vivaldi and operating system version info to match the device where the crash occurs.
  5. Submit the report.

Create a crash log manually

In case you have Developer Mode enabled on Android, you can also create a crash log file manually and attach it to the bug report.

To get a crash log on Android:

  1. Install Android Debug Bridge (ADB) on your computer and connect your Android device following the instructions on https://www.xda-developers.com/install-adb-windows-macos-linux/.
  2. When the devices are connected, run adb logcat -c (Windows/Linux) / ./adb logcat -c (macOS) in the command prompt/Terminal window to remove old and irrelevant logs.
  3. Go to the Vivaldi app and trigger the crash.
  4. Execute adb logcat -d > crashlog.txt (Windows/Linux) / ./adb logcat -d > crashlog.txt (Mac) in the command prompt/Terminal window.
  5. Locate the newly created crashlog.txt file in the platform-tools folder.
  6. Attach the file to your bug report.

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Import browser data to Vivaldi on iOS

Bring your Bookmarks, Passwords, History, and more, right into Vivaldi on iOS.

Auto-hide browser toolbars

Enable Auto-hide to give all space and focus in the browser window to the page.

Follower Tab

Explore links on web pages without loosing sight of the source tab with Follower Tabs.

Tile Tabs for a split screen view

Use Tab Tiling in Vivaldi to create split-screen views of browser tabs.

Vivaldi Webmail access and reputation system

Get access to Vivaldi’s free and private email service, Vivaldi Webmail.