[colors] navbar color in Twitter Bootstrap

How can I change the background color of the navbar of the Twitter Bootstrap 2.0.2? How can I change color of all the elements of the navbar to reflect the background color?

You can download a custom version of bootstrap and set @navbarBackground to the color you want.

http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/customize.html

The best way currently to do the same would be to install LESS command line compiler using

$ npm install -g less jshint recess uglify-js

Once you have done this, then go to the less folder in the directory and then edit the file variables.less and you can change a lot of variables according to what you need including the color of the navigation bar

@navbarCollapseWidth:             979px;

@navbarHeight:                    40px;
@navbarBackgroundHighlight:       #ffffff;
@navbarBackground:                darken(@navbarBackgroundHighlight, 5%);
@navbarBorder:                    darken(@navbarBackground, 12%);

@navbarText:                      #777;
@navbarLinkColor:                 #777;
@navbarLinkColorHover:            @grayDark;
@navbarLinkColorActive:           @gray;
@navbarLinkBackgroundHover:       transparent;
@navbarLinkBackgroundActive:      darken(@navbarBackground, 5%);

Once you have done this, go to your bootstrap directory and run the command make.

In bootstrap.css line 4784 we see:

.navbar-inverse .navbar-inner {
  background-color: #FFFFFFF;
  background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(top, #222222, #111111);
  background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0 0, 0 100%, from(#222222), to(#111111));
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #222222, #111111);
  background-image: -o-linear-gradient(top, #222222, #111111);
  background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #222222, #111111);
  background-repeat: repeat-x;
  border-color: #252525;
  filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient(startColorstr='#ff222222', endColorstr='#ff111111', GradientType=0);
}

You need to remove all the 'background-image' property declarations to get the desired effect.

I actually just overwrite anything I want to change in the site.css, you should load the site.css after bootstrap so it will overwrite the classes. What I have done now is just made my own classes with my own little bootstrap theme. Little things like this

.navbar-nav li a{
    color: #fff;
    font-size: 15px;
    margin-top: 9px;
}
.navbar-nav li a:hover{

    background-color: #18678E;
    height: 61px;
}

I also changed the likes of the validations errors the same way.

I'm using Bootstrap version 3.2.0 and it looks as though .navbar-inner doesn't exist any more.

The solutions here which suggest overriding .navbar-inner didn't work for me - the colour remained the same.

The colour only changed when I overrode .navbar as shown below:

.navbar {
    background-color: #A4C8EC;
    background-image: none;
}

You can customize your own version on the Bootstrap official website.

Wouldn't occam's razor say to just do this until you need something more complex? It's a bit of a hack, but may suit the needs of someone that wants a quick fix.

.navbar-default .container-fluid{
    background-color:#62ADD7; // Change the color
    margin: -1px -1px 10px -1px; // Get rid of the border
}

If you are using the LESS or SASS Version of the Bootstrap. The most efficient way is to change the variable name, in the LESS or SASS file.

$navbar-default-color:              #FFFFFF !default;
$navbar-default-bg:                 #36669d !default;
$navbar-default-border:             $navbar-default-bg !default;

This by far the most easiest and the most efficient way to change the Bootstraps Navbar. You need not write overrides, and the code remains clean.

that is what i do

.navbar-inverse .navbar-inner {
  background-color: #E27403; /* it's flat*/
 background-image: none;
}

.navbar-inverse .navbar-inner {
  background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(top, #E27403, #E49037);
  background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(top, #E27403, #E49037);
  background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #E27403, #E49037);
}

it works well for all navigator you can see demo here http://caverne.fr on the top

An excellent resource to see how to theme bootstrap is: bootswatch.com. It has nice examples and shows code as well. In short, they use lessc to recompile the bootstrap.css to your new color-theme.css. The nice thing of their approach is that is build on top of bootstrap, so when bootstrap is updated, you just recompile.

Links about using lessc and bootstrap:

• Using bootstrap with less
• Lessc.org

If you are using LESS, you can use Mixins for less code. Here I will add a gradient, border, and border-radius:

.navbar-inner {
  #gradient > .vertical(#ffffff, #ECECEC);
  border: #E2E2E2;
  .border-radius(6px);
}

*If you are using the rails gem, twitter-bootstrap-rails, I do this directly in the file bootstrap_and_overrides.css.less*

If you havent got time to learn "less" or do it properly, here's a dirty hack...

Add this above where you render the bootstrap nav bar HTML - update the colours as required..

<style type="text/css">   

.navbar-inner {
    background-color: red;
    background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, blue, green);
    background-repeat: repeat-x;
    border: 1px solid yellow;
    border-radius: 4px 4px 4px 4px;
    box-shadow: 0 1px 4px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.067);
    min-height: 40px;
    padding-left: 20px;
    padding-right: 20px;
}

.dropdown-menu {
    background-clip: padding-box;
    background-color: red;
    border: 1px solid rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
    border-radius: 6px 6px 6px 6px;
    box-shadow: 0 5px 10px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
    display: none;
    float: left;
    left: 0;
    list-style: none outside none;
    margin: 2px 0 0;
    min-width: 160px;
    padding: 5px 0;
    position: absolute;
    top: 100%;
    z-index: 1000;
}

.btn-group.open .btn.dropdown-toggle {
  background-color: red;
}

.btn-group.open .btn.dropdown-toggle {
  background-color:lime;
}

.navbar .nav li.dropdown.open > .dropdown-toggle,
.navbar .nav li.dropdown.active > .dropdown-toggle,
.navbar .nav li.dropdown.open.active > .dropdown-toggle {
  color:white;
  background-color:Teal;
}

.navbar .nav > li > a {
    color: white;
    float: none;
    padding: 10px 15px;
    text-decoration: none;
    text-shadow: 0 0px 0 #ffffff;
}

.navbar .brand {
  display: block;
  float: left;
  padding: 10px 20px 10px;
  margin-left: -20px;
  font-size: 20px;
  font-weight: 200;
  color: white;
  text-shadow: 0 0px 0 #ffffff;
}

.navbar .nav > li > a:focus,
.navbar .nav > li > a:hover {
  color: white;
  text-decoration: none;
  background-color: transparent;
}

.navbar-text {
  margin-bottom: 0;
  line-height: 40px;
  color: white;
}

.dropdown-menu li > a {
  display: block;
  padding: 3px 20px;
  clear: both;
  font-weight: normal;
  line-height: 20px;
  color: white;
  white-space: nowrap;
}

.navbar-link {
  color: white;
}

.navbar-link:hover {
  color: white;
}

</style>