How do I customize colors and the logo?

Requires Basic

Short answer

Open Administration → Branding: there you upload the logo and favicon, set the site name (browser tab), and choose the primary color and secondary color as hex values. The primary color applies UI-wide — to buttons, links, and active navigation — and Notory automatically calculates lighter/darker hover and active shades from it, as well as a contrast-safe text color (WCAG-oriented). The secondary color shapes the sidebar, including its hover state.

Prerequisites

Required role Administrator

— changing instance branding requires require_role(“admin”). For branding individual tenants, the Manager role is also sufficient.

Images: PNG, JPEG, SVG, WEBP, ICO, or GIF, up to the configured upload size limit. Colors: hex notation #RGB or #RRGGBB.

Instructions

GUI (web interface)

1. Open Branding. Administration → Branding (“Set the logo, site name (browser tab) and server name for this instance.”).

   Screenshot pending admin-branding-01 Branding section with logo upload, site name, server name, and primary and secondary color

   The branding section: logo, site name, and the instance's two brand colors.

2. Upload the logo and favicon. Click “Upload logo” and choose the file; do the same for the favicon. The old image is automatically replaced.

3. Set the names and colors. Enter the site name (appears in the browser tab and in e-mails) and, if needed, the server name. Choose the primary color and secondary color using the color picker or as a hex value. Optional: a login message that appears on the login page, and the default theme (Dark, Light, or Notory).

4. Save. The changes take effect immediately — even on the login page, before anyone signs in.

API (curl)

Branding lives in the instance settings. Reading is public (the login page needs it before sign-in); writing requires administrator rights:

Read branding (public)

curl https://demo.notory.io/api/v1/instance/settings

Set colors, site name, and login message

curl -X PUT https://demo.notory.io/api/v1/instance/settings \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer inv_dein_token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "site_name": "ACME Inventar",
    "server_name": "ACME Notory Server",
    "primary_color": "#c6703d",
    "secondary_color": "#15161a",
    "login_message": "Willkommen im ACME-Inventar. Support: it@acme.example",
    "default_theme": "dark"
  }'

Upload logo (multipart)

curl -X POST https://demo.notory.io/api/v1/instance/logo \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer inv_dein_token" \
  -F "file=@acme-logo.svg;type=image/svg+xml"

Similarly: POST /api/v1/instance/favicon. You set tenant branding separately:

Set branding for a tenant (Administrator or Manager)

curl -X PUT https://demo.notory.io/api/v1/tenants/{tenant_id}/branding \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer inv_dein_token" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{ "logo_url": "https://acme.example/logo.svg", "primary_color": "#1B3A5C", "secondary_color": "#ffffff" }'

Possible errors: 403 (not an administrator / missing write scope), 413 (file too large), 415 (unsupported image type — allowed: PNG, JPEG, SVG, WEBP, ICO, GIF), 422 (invalid hex value — pattern #RGB/#RRGGBB).

What happens behind the scenes?

• UI-wide color derivation. From the primary color, the frontend automatically generates a lighter (+12%) and a darker variant (−12%) for hover/active states, and calculates a WCAG-oriented contrast text color (light or dark) so that text on brand-colored buttons stays readable. The secondary color determines the sidebar background; its hover shade is likewise derived (+10%). So you only maintain two values — Notory takes care of every state and contrast.
• Effective before login. GET /api/v1/instance/settings is deliberately public: the browser tab title, logo, colors, and login message already appear on the login page. So don’t store anything confidential here.
• E-mails are branded too. System e-mails (reset link, invitation) pick up the site name, logo, and primary color, as well as the legal footer links.
• Uploads live in the database. The logo/favicon are stored in the database’s media store (not on the file system) — so multiple backend replicas all serve the same image. Replacing an image deletes the old one.
• Two layers of branding. Instance branding applies everywhere; in addition, each tenant can maintain its own logo and colors, which override the instance branding for that tenant’s users.
• Audit. Every change records updated_by (who last made the change) and appears in the log.

Related topics

• Manage the legal footer links
• Tenants — branding per tenant
• Create a user — branded invitation e-mails