diff --git a/src/renderer/components/app-theme.jsx b/src/renderer/components/app-theme.jsx
index 1ce5c485..c24a6632 100644
--- a/src/renderer/components/app-theme.jsx
+++ b/src/renderer/components/app-theme.jsx
@@ -36,10 +36,10 @@ function usePrefersDark() {
 // from them, for its own components, for the older ones through the variables
 // they read, and for the app's own styles.
 //
-// `settings` is what main holds, or null until it has answered: until then
-// the window is painted as under 'system', for the scheme alone, which for a
-// custom theme is the standard theme of its scheme for the moment before
-// the colours arrive.
+// `settings` is what main holds, read before the first render so that a
+// custom theme is painted from the app's first render; null only where that
+// read failed, and then the window is painted as under 'system', for the
+// scheme alone, until main has answered again.
 export function AppTheme({ settings, children }) {
   const prefersDark = usePrefersDark();
   const [warnings, setWarnings] = useState([]);
diff --git a/src/renderer/hooks/use-settings.jsx b/src/renderer/hooks/use-settings.jsx
index 6e2e534d..8477c4e6 100644
--- a/src/renderer/hooks/use-settings.jsx
+++ b/src/renderer/hooks/use-settings.jsx
@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@ import { useCallback, useEffect, useState } from 'react';
 
 // The app's settings (#559), held once for the window for the reason the
 // contributor's details are: they are about the person and the machine,
-// not about a checkout. `settings` is null until main has answered, so a
+// not about a checkout. They are read before the first render, since the
+// theme is one of them (#560), and handed in as `initial`; where that read
+// failed they are null until main has answered a second ask here, so a
 // dialog opened before then can say it is still reading them. `loaded` is
 // what main answered first and does not change: a setting that takes a
 // relaunch, the language, is one whose value now differs from it.
@@ -11,21 +13,23 @@ import { useCallback, useEffect, useState } from 'react';
 // and the details say which one a server starts on, which is the fallback
 // where the one set is not among them. Null until read; `{ error }` when it
 // could not be, so the dialog can say so rather than offer nothing.
-export function useSettings() {
-  const [settings, setSettings] = useState(null);
-  const [loaded, setLoaded] = useState(null);
+export function useSettings(initial = null) {
+  const [settings, setSettings] = useState(initial);
+  const [loaded, setLoaded] = useState(initial);
   const [php, setPhp] = useState(null);
 
   useEffect(() => {
     let cancelled = false;
-    window.api.getSettings()
-      .then((res) => {
-        if (cancelled || !res?.ok) return;
-        setSettings(res.settings);
-        setLoaded(res.settings);
-      })
-      // eslint-disable-next-line no-console -- reaches the log file, see the note in useDetectedEditors.
-      .catch((err) => console.error('Could not read the settings:', err));
+    if (!initial) {
+      window.api.getSettings()
+        .then((res) => {
+          if (cancelled || !res?.ok) return;
+          setSettings(res.settings);
+          setLoaded(res.settings);
+        })
+        // eslint-disable-next-line no-console -- reaches the log file, see the note in useDetectedEditors.
+        .catch((err) => console.error('Could not read the settings:', err));
+    }
     window.api.listPhpVersions()
       .then((res) => {
         if (cancelled) return;
@@ -37,7 +41,7 @@ export function useSettings() {
         if (!cancelled) setPhp({ error: true });
       });
     return () => { cancelled = true; };
-  }, []);
+  }, [initial]);
 
   // One setting written, and the whole replaced by what main then holds. A
   // refusal comes back as one rather than being raised, with the words for
diff --git a/src/renderer/index.jsx b/src/renderer/index.jsx
index fcdcc8cd..6fb4341f 100644
--- a/src/renderer/index.jsx
+++ b/src/renderer/index.jsx
@@ -2406,15 +2406,31 @@ async function loadLocale() {
   document.title = __('WordPress Contributor Toolkit');
 }
 
+// The settings load before the first render too, beside the locale (#560):
+// the theme is one of them, and a custom theme painted after a first render
+// in the standard theme of its scheme was a flash of the wrong colours at
+// every launch. A failed read leaves them to be read again once mounted,
+// as they were.
+async function loadSettings() {
+  try {
+    const reply = await window.api.getSettings();
+    return reply?.ok ? reply.settings : null;
+  } catch (err) {
+    // eslint-disable-next-line no-console -- see the note in loadLocale.
+    console.error('Could not read the settings before the first render:', err);
+    return null;
+  }
+}
+
 // Under the design system's provider, in the theme the window is in (#560):
-// see app-theme.jsx. The settings are read here, above the provider, since
+// see app-theme.jsx. The settings are held here, above the provider, since
 // the theme is one of them; the app is handed what was read.
-function Root() {
-  const settingsState = useSettings();
+function Root({ initialSettings }) {
+  const settingsState = useSettings(initialSettings);
   return <AppTheme settings={settingsState.settings}><App settingsState={settingsState} /></AppTheme>;
 }
 
-loadLocale().then(() => {
+Promise.all([loadLocale(), loadSettings()]).then(([, initialSettings]) => {
   const root = createRoot(document.getElementById('root'));
-  root.render(<Root />);
+  root.render(<Root initialSettings={initialSettings} />);
 });
diff --git a/tests/e2e/journeys/settings.spec.js b/tests/e2e/journeys/settings.spec.js
index 2215e412..832c67a5 100644
--- a/tests/e2e/journeys/settings.spec.js
+++ b/tests/e2e/journeys/settings.spec.js
@@ -412,6 +412,25 @@ test( 'a custom theme is built from the two colours chosen, is kept, and a colou
 	expect( await again.app.evaluate( ( { nativeTheme } ) => nativeTheme.themeSource ) ).toBe( 'light' );
 	expect( await windowColour( again.app ) ).toBe( '#fff8e1' );
 	await expect.poll( () => bodyColour( again.page ) ).toBe( 'rgb(255, 248, 225)' );
+
+	// INVARIANT — the page is in the custom colours from the app's first
+	// render, not after a first render in the standard theme: the design
+	// system's tokens on the document at the moment the app mounts, which is
+	// before the app's first frame is painted, are the custom ones, not the
+	// standard theme's and not none. Read on a reload, which loads the page
+	// as a launch does, by a script put in the page before any of its own,
+	// which notes the document's own style as the app mounts.
+	await again.page.addInitScript( () => {
+		window.__styleAtMount = null;
+		new window.MutationObserver( () => {
+			const root = document.getElementById( 'root' );
+			if ( window.__styleAtMount === null && root && root.childElementCount > 0 ) {
+				window.__styleAtMount = document.documentElement.getAttribute( 'style' ) || '';
+			}
+		} ).observe( document, { childList: true, subtree: true } );
+	} );
+	await again.page.reload();
+	await expect.poll( () => again.page.evaluate( () => window.__styleAtMount ) ).toContain( '#fff8e1' );
 	await ui.settingsButton( again.page ).click();
 	const kept = ui.settingsDialog( again.page );
 	await expect( kept.getByRole( 'radio', { name: 'Custom', exact: true } ) ).toBeChecked();