Theming in jQuery Mobile is straightforward and simple to use for the developer, but it is pretty elaborate behind the scenes. Luckily, there will rarely be a time when you need to know everything that's being done for you. However, it's worth a little bit of our time to understand how it works.
Out of the box, jQuery Mobile comes with a theme set comprising two color swatches, each associated with a letter (A and B). The theme contains a series of base CSS classes that can be applied at will to nearly any element and contain global settings for width, height, border radius, and shadows. The individual swatches contain specific information about color, fonts, and so on.
Additional swatches can be added to the original swatches from C to Z, or the original swatches can be replaced or overridden at will. This system allows for a total of 26 distinct swatches, allowing for millions of possible combinations of theme colors, styles, and patterns. You apply a...