Note types and templates

Browse starter Anki note types, preview them, customize, and download.

A note type is Anki's name for the card template — the front layout, the back layout, the CSS, the field list. 2anki ships a handful of starter note types you can drop into Anki as-is, or fork and edit in the browser. The library lives at 2anki.net/templates.

Plan: Free for browsing, previewing, and downloading. Creating and saving your own templates needs an account.

When to use this

• You want a better-looking deck than Anki's default white-on-white card.
• You want a starting point for a custom template — fork one of ours and edit in the browser instead of writing the HTML/CSS from scratch.
• You want to inspect what fields and styling the n2a-basic, n2a-cloze, n2a-input, or n2a-mcq note types use.

If you just want cards from your notes, you don't have to touch this page — 2anki picks a reasonable default template for every upload. Templates matter once you care about how the cards look.

Browse the library

Open 2anki.net/templates. Three sections show up, in order:

• Your note types — anything you've created or customized in the browser (logged-in only).
• Official 2anki templates — handcrafted designs we ship and maintain. Examples: Abhiyan Night Mode, Alexander Deluxe Blue, Material, Only Notion.
• Starter note types — the bare-bones n2a-basic, n2a-cloze, n2a-input, n2a-mcq, and Image Occlusion templates that 2anki uses by default.

Each card has a small preview of the front. Click the card name to open a full-size Front / Back preview side-by-side.

Use a template in Anki

1. Find the template you want. Click the Download icon (down arrow) on its card.
2. The browser downloads a .apkg containing one empty deck and the note type.
3. Open the .apkg in Anki to import. The note type becomes available for any new deck.
4. In Anki, Add a card → pick this note type from the Type dropdown.

Templates downloaded this way work with Anki on desktop, mobile, and AnkiWeb. You're not locked into 2anki to use them.

Customize a template

1. Click the pencil icon on any template's card. The editor opens at /templates/edit/<id>.
2. Edit the HTML for the front, back, and CSS. The preview updates as you type.
3. Save. The template lands in Your note types at the top of the library.
4. Download it (the same download icon on its card) and import into Anki.

If you started from one of our templates, your edit is a separate copy — the original stays in the Official section.

To make a note type from scratch, click New note type in the top right of the library.

Common mistakes

• Editing the template doesn't change existing decks. Anki imports note types by name. If you've already imported a deck that uses n2a-basic, customizing your local n2a-basic template on 2anki doesn't push back into Anki. Re-export from 2anki, or edit the note type directly in Anki for existing decks.
• Deleting an official template. You can hide it from your view, but the original stays available — drop in another download anytime.
• Forgetting to import the .apkg first. The browser preview is rendered HTML — it's not an .apkg until you click download.

Related

• Card types — what kind of card each template produces
• Card options — the per-upload conversion settings
• Glossary — Note type — the term as Anki uses it