Premade Themes

Building a complete table theme from scratch with tab_options() requires setting many individual options. For common styling needs, Great Tables offers a collection of opt_*() convenience methods that bundle these options into simple, one-line calls. This page demonstrates how to use premade themes and the various convenience methods available for quick table customization.

Great Tables provides convenience methods starting with opt_ (e.g. opt_row_striping()), as a shortcut for various styles that can be set via tab_options().

There are two important kinds of GT.opt_*() methods:

We’ll use the basic GT object below for most examples, since it marks some of the table parts.

from great_tables import GT, exibble, md

lil_exibble = exibble.head(5)[["num", "char", "row", "group"]]

gt_ex = (
    GT(lil_exibble, rowname_col="row", groupname_col="group")
    .tab_header(
        title=md("Data listing from exibble"),
        subtitle=md("This is a **Great Tables** dataset."),
    )
    .tab_stubhead(label="row")
    .fmt_number(columns="num")
    .fmt_currency(columns="currency")
    .tab_source_note(source_note="This is only a portion of the dataset.")
    .opt_vertical_padding(scale=0.5)
)

gt_ex
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

opt_stylize(): premade themes

Below are the first two premade styles. The first uses color="blue", and the second uses color="red".

gt_ex.opt_stylize(style=1, color="blue")
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.
 
gt_ex.opt_stylize(style=2, color="red")
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

Notice that first table (blue) emphasizes the row labels with a solid background color. The second table (red) emphasizes the column labels, and uses solid lines to separate the body cell values. See opt_stylize() for all available color options.

There are six styles available, each emphasizing different table parts. The style= values are numbered from 1 to 6:

1
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.
2
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.
3
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.
4
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.
5
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.
6
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

opt_*() convenience methods

This section shows the different opt_*() methods available. They serve as convenience methods for common tab_options() tasks.

Align table header

gt_ex.opt_align_table_header(align="left")
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

The title and subtitle are now left-aligned rather than centered, which works well for tables embedded in text-heavy documents.

Make text ALL CAPS

gt_ex.opt_all_caps()
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

Column labels and row group labels are rendered in uppercase, giving the table a more formal, structured appearance.

Reduce or expand padding

gt_ex.opt_vertical_padding(scale=0.3)
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

Reducing vertical padding creates a more compact table that fits more data into less vertical space.

gt_ex.opt_horizontal_padding(scale=3)
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

Increasing horizontal padding adds breathing room between columns, which improves readability when columns contain long values.

Set table outline

gt_ex.opt_table_outline()
Data listing from exibble
This is a Great Tables dataset.
row num char
grp_a
row_1 0.11 apricot
row_2 2.22 banana
row_3 33.33 coconut
row_4 444.40 durian
grp_b
row_5 5,550.00
This is only a portion of the dataset.

The opt_*() methods give you quick access to common styling patterns without needing to remember the specific tab_options() argument names. For full control, you can always drop down to tab_options() directly, but these convenience methods cover the most frequent customization needs in just a single method call.