Some very impressive projects have arisen in the Reaper community which bring the aesthetic, and some of the workflow, of other DAW software to Reaper. CubicPack and I Logic, are two such ventures, doing very passable impressions of Cubase and Logic respectively. A new Cubase inspired theme was recently posted by Cube13 and it looks great. Eyssina by Cube13 is an advanced theme for REAPER V5 with lots of extras. The install requires extra attention so please and read the instructions thoroughly.This theme is supposed to be used with Reaper 5 (including ‘pre’ and ‘RC’ releases).

A new Cubase inspired theme was recently posted by Cube13 and it looks great. Eyssina by Cube13 is an advanced theme for REAPER V5 with lots of extras. The install requires extra attention so please backup files and read the instructions thoroughly. Go to the forum for all the details.

This theme is supposed to be used with Reaper 5 (including ‘pre’ and ‘RC’ releases). Don’t expect it to be efficiently usable with Reaper 4.xx…

An important thing, I think, needs a reminder : for the ones patient enough to fully test this theme, and as for the ‘Piolit’ one, be sure to install everything bundled in the .zip file, by following the instructions listed in the Readme.txt one. I admit that some of them are tedious, especially the ones related to the layout actions, as there is no way to save these in a dedicated file which would considerably ease the theme distribution process, but well… At the end, the whole theme (which could be thinked as an environment) makes really sense if everything is installed and ready to work.

This theme is based on the PiolitFM theme by the same creator. If you are not upgrading to V5 then this is the theme for you.

Update Jan 2015 – Eyssina is now in the CubicPack with the other Cubase-like theme Frema.

What is a REAPER theme?
REAPER themes are files that can alter the appearance of REAPER. Some aspects of the appearance of the interface can be radically altered, others can be slightly altered and others are fixed and themes are unable to change their appearance whatsoever. You can only use one theme at a time.
Most themes are in the format '.ReaperThemeZip'. Such a theme can be easily installed, tried out and then removed if you don't like it, with no further consequence.
(If a theme comes packed with other files, ignore them for the time being and only install the .ReaperThemeZip.)
You may download new REAPER themes from the Stash, or from this forum, or from a themer's website.
REAPER themes broadly retain compatibility, so even very old themes will work fine with modern versions of the program though they may not always look great, perhaps in areas that did not exist when the theme was made! There's no harm in trying them out, and if they are packaged as .ReaperThemeZip files its just as easy.
Installing a theme
Download the .ReaperThemeZip file to your computer.

Reaper Cubase Theme Download

Remember where you put it! Explore to that folder and find the file. Run REAPER. Now drag and drop the .ReaperThemeZip file onto the REAPER window and ...that's it! REAPER will copy the file to the correct location on your hard drive (which is all that is needed for installation) and switch to that theme.
Changing theme
You can change which of your installed themes you use by going to 'Options > Themes > ' and choosing a different theme.
Layouts
A theme may come with a number of variations for certain panels:

• Transport : the panel containing the transport controls, time position etc...
• Envelope Panel (EnvCP) : The panels on the left of the arrange area where you control envelope automation.
• Master Mixer Panel : The mixer panel for the master track.
• Mixer Panel (MCP) : The mixer panel for each track.
• Master Track Control Panel : The panel on the left of the arrange area where you control the master track.
• Track Control Panel (TCP) : The panel on the left of the arrange area where you control each track.

You can change which layout you use by going to 'Options > Layouts > ' and choosing between the variations the theme maker has provided for each panel. Alternatively, you can do this using the Layouts tab in the 'Screensets/Layouts' window (View > Screensets/Layouts).
You may change layouts on a per-track basis by selecting one or more tracks and using 'Options > Layout Per Track > ' or by right clicking on a track and using 'Set Track Layout'.
For more on all the things you can do with layouts, see the REAPER User Guide.
Uninstalling a theme
To uninstall a theme from your system, you simply need to delete the .ReaperThemeZip from the appropriate folder. Find this folder by selecting 'Options > Show REAPER resource path in explorer/finder...' and opening the 'ColorThemes' folder.
(If you installed any non-.ReaperThemeZip files that came with a theme, removing or even just disabling them may be much more complicated. Hopefully the theme creator will have provided instructions on how to do that.)
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Free Reaper Themes

Additional Information
Further details on what to expect when using a theme.
What a theme can and cannot change
Themer makers have access to all the same functionality that is used in the creation of REAPER's default theme. The degree to which they can change things, however, is governed by the depth to which REAPER's theming functionality provides access to each element's appearance:

• Full control over appearance, size, position, and resizing behaviour. - Transport, Envelope Panel (EnvCP), Mixer Panels (MCP), Track Control Panels (TCP) use the powerful WALTER functionality. These are probably the bits you'll see in the theme screenshot
• Some control over appearance, but not size or position - Arrange area, MIDI Editor, Tabs, Scrollbars etc. The themer may also have had to make compromises over elements that share colour definitions or images.
• Limited control using button and fader images and perhaps panel backgrounds - Most secondary windows, bundled ReaEffects.
• No control; OS drawn elements. REAPER makes extensive use of your OS's provided functionality for drawing dropdowns, tick boxes etc. The appearance of these elements is determined by your OS, their size and position is hard-coded into REAPER. The themer will have had to make compromises to make the themed areas 'fit' with these OS elements.

A theme cannot add new controls or functionality to REAPER. However, some themes may remove some controls or visual elements entirely, or on certain layouts.
Custom Colouring
When you custom colour a track, the appearance of that colour on track panels, mixer panels and track items may have been defined by the theme maker, who has (from V5 of REAPER onwards) full control over where, and how strongly, the custom colour is applied.
Tinting - In older themes, or themes that do not use the V5 custom colour theming functionality, the custom colour is applied by compositing the colour over the top. The location and strength of this 'tint' for media items, as a user preference for all themes that use it, is set in 'Options > preferences > Appearance > Peaks/Waveforms > Custom Colors'.

Reaper Pro Tools Theme

If you are currently using a theme that makes use of the V5 functionality, these preferences will be grayed out to indicate that the preferences you may have set will have no effect on this theme.
Further reading : Custom colouring for Themers