Categories & colors

Every category can have its own color: edit a category (Posts → Categories) or set all at once in News. → Category colors. The color is used for tags, kickers, the active menu item, mega-menu hovers and section accents. Sub-categories inherit the parent’s color unless they have their own. Light colors get white text with a soft shadow.

Per-category layouts#

On the same category edit screen you can also set how that section looks (multi-desk sites — Sport ≠ Local):

Field	Effect
Hero band	Dark band with the top stories at the top of the category page (automatic for sport, sci-tech, lifestyle and crime, or force on/off).
Default article layout	Standard (with sidebar) or Feature (long-form, full-width hero). Stories in this section use it unless the story picks its own layout in the Article layout box. Sub-categories inherit when left on “Site default”.
Category listing	List (rows with excerpt) or Grid (cards) on the category’s story list.
Sidebar	Show or hide the aside on the category page and on standard articles in the section. Feature articles stay full-width either way.

Site-wide defaults (when a category leaves a field on “Site default”) are under News. → Articles → Default article layout and News. → Category pages & search → Default category listing / Default sidebar.