We offer a powerful template editor for designers to create beautiful themes for the Lightspeed Theme Store or customize an existing shop's design. Using our template language, Rain, you can publish your designs to a broad range of merchants.

Furthermore, to build a Lightspeed eCom theme or a custom design, you do not need a partner account; you can start designing with a simple eCom Demo shop.

This article serves as a launching pad to our Developer's Guide for building themes, and includes these topics:

• Before you begin
• Steps for designing, creating and publishing a theme

Before you begin

Before you get started, please decide if you want to build a new theme or customize a shop's design for a customer.

New theme	Custom design for a shop
You want a theme accessible to all Lightspeed users	You want design a shop for yourself or for a client on the Lightspeed platform
You want your theme on the Lightspeed Theme Store and to earn money from users who install your theme	You want to have your own agreement for your client or yourself
You are ready to modify your designs based on the requirements of the Lightspeed platform	You want complete freedom over your designs
You are ready to put your theme through a strict quality assurance validation process	You have your own needs & deadlines
You are ready to provide support for your theme to all users as long as your theme is available for sale	You want to have your own support agreement with your client
You are ready to respond to any bug reports or code update requests within 48 hours	You want complete control over your page code and updates

If you want to build a Theme, you can apply for a partner account.  Following partner approval your account details will be sent to you within 3 working days.

Steps for designing, creating and publishing a theme

1. Designing your theme
2. Coding your theme
   • 2 a. Development tools
   • 2 b. Cluster information
   • 2 c. Using the Template Editor
   • 2 d. Template Editor - advanced settings
   • 2 e. Adding settings to the theme
3. Understanding the Lightspeed Draft framework
   • 3 a. Rain - page structure
   • 3 b. Rain - variables
   • 3 c. Rain - filters 
   • 3 d. Rain - syntax
   • 3 e. Snippets
   • 3 f. AJAX and JSON
4. Publishing your theme to the Lightspeed Theme Store
   • 4 a. Writing a Theme Store description
   • 4 b. Validating your theme
   • 4 c. You're ready to publish!

NOTE: If you're making a custom design for a customer, you can skip steps 1, 2 and 4. The most important section when custom designing a theme is 3. Understanding the Lightspeed Draft framework, but other sections, such as 2 a. Development tools and 2 c. Using the Template Editor, provide helpful information.