Advance your Data & AI career with 50 days of live learning, dataviz contests, hands-on challenges, study groups & certifications and more!
Get registeredJoin us at FabCon Atlanta from March 16 - 20, 2026, for the ultimate Fabric, Power BI, AI and SQL community-led event. Save $200 with code FABCOMM. Register now.
Hi all,
Long time user, first time poster. I am trying to create a theme for my Power BI report using JSON however; for some reason the column totals keep coming up black. I've looked around but can't seem to find an answer to the problem. For context here is my JSON as well as what my matrix currently looks like. As you can see the bottom row and final column has a black background and white font colour. Does anyone know of a solution to this?
{
"name": "MatrixTemplate",
"visualStyles": {
"pivotTable": {
"*": {
"general": [{
"responsive": true,
"keepLayerOrder": true
}],
"background": [{
"show": true,
"color": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"transparency": 0
}],
"border": [{
"color": { "solid": { "color": "#808080"}},
"show": true,
"radius": 0
}],
"title": [{
"show": true,
"fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#000000" } },
"background": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF" } },
"alignment": "center"
}],
"stylePreset":[{
"name":"Condensed"
}],
"grid": [{
"gridVertical": true,
"gridVerticalColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E6E6E6"}},
"gridVerticalWeight": 1,
"gridHorizontal": true,
"gridHorizontalColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E6E6E6"}},
"gridHorizontalWeight": 1,
"rowPadding": 1,
"outlineColor": { "solid": { "color": "#E6E6E6"}},
"outlineWeight": 1,
"textSize": 14,
"imageHeight": 100
}],
"columnHeaders": [{
"fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#442359"}},
"outline": "Frame",
"autoSizeColumnWidth": true,
"fontFamily": "'Segoe UI', wf_segoe-ui, helvetica, arial, sans-serif",
"fontSize": 8,
"alignment": "Left",
"titleAlignment": "Right",
"urlIcon": true,
"wordWrap": true
}],
"rowHeaders": [{
"fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#333333"}},
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#442359"}},
"outline": "Frame",
"stepped": true,
"steppedLayoutIndentation": 12,
"urlIcon": true,
"wordWrap": true,
"fontFamily": "'Segoe UI', wf_segoe-ui, helvetica, arial, sans-serif",
"fontSize": 8,
"alignment": "Left",
"showExpandCollapseButtons":true
}],
"values": [{
"fontColorPrimary": { "solid": { "color": "#333333"}},
"backColorPrimary": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"fontColorSecondary": { "solid": { "color": "#333333"}},
"backColorSecondary": { "solid": { "color": "#E7E7E7"}},
"bandedRowHeaders": true,
"valuesOnRow": true,
"outline": "Frame",
"urlIcon": true,
"wordWrap": true,
"fontFamily": "'Segoe UI', wf_segoe-ui, helvetica, arial, sans-serif",
"fontSize": 8
}],
"subTotals": [{
"rowSubtotals": true,
"columnSubtotals": true,
"fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"fontFamily": "'Segoe UI', wf_segoe-ui, helvetica, arial, sans-serif",
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"fontSize": 8,
"applyToHeaders": true,
"rowSubtotalsPosition": "Bottom",
"perRowLevel": true,
"perColumnLevel": true
}],
"total": [{
"fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"fontFamily": "'Segoe UI', wf_segoe-ui, helvetica, arial, sans-serif",
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"columnGrandTotal": {
"fontColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#00B8DD"}}
},
"applyToHeaders": true,
"fontSize": 8
}]
}
}
}
}
I found the solution, it is not intuitive, but works!
You need to get column and row total:
"columnTotal": [{
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"applyToHeaders": true
}],
"rowTotal": [{
"backColor": { "solid": { "color": "#FFFFFF"}},
"applyToHeaders": true
}],
Join the Fabric FabCon Global Hackathon—running virtually through Nov 3. Open to all skill levels. $10,000 in prizes!
Check out the October 2025 Power BI update to learn about new features.