I he list I present here isn't exhaustive by any means. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 give you a few more resources to find a theme that suits your needs.
All the themes in this chapter meet the following criteria:
They're user-friendly, which means you don't have to tinker with anything to get things to look the way you want them to.
They're compatible with widgets. In a word, widgets are wonderful. I cover widgets completely in Chapter 5.
They're free. There are some very nice premium themes out there, but why pay if you don't have to?
They use valid code. Although you may not notice it, valid code that meets W3C (
www.w3c.org) standards won't cause errors in browsers.
Theme designers: Justin Tadlock
http://themehybrid.com
Hybrid is more of a theme framework, or parent theme that can be modified endlessly to create the perfect child theme, than it is a theme to use straight out of the box, but don't let that intimidate you! It's crazy easy to use, and Hybrid is very user-friendly.
By default, the Hybrid theme is very plain and simple, but it encompasses any and all of the WordPress features and functions that you would want:
It's SEO ready: Hybrid comes completely optimized for SEO (search engine optimization).
It's highly customizable: Hybrid has 15 custom page templates for you to choose from. Each custom page is set up slightly differently, giving you an array of options.
It's widget ready: Hybrid has multiple widgetized areas for you to easily drop content into, making your WordPress theme experience easy and efficient.
You can read about the Hybrid theme at the developer, Justin Tadlock's Web site at http://www.themehybrid.com — and you can also download and install the theme directly into WordPress Web site by using the automatic theme installer built in to your WordPress Dashboard.
Tip
Check out options for installing and tweaking WordPress themes in Chapters 11, 12, and 13. Those chapters give you information on CSS, HTML, and theme tweaking, as well as guide you through working with parent/child themes.
Theme designer: Smashing Magazine
http://wordpress.site5.net/designpile/
The highlights of this theme are the following:
Three different color schemes: black and pink, black and green, and black and blue
Widgets are configured for use in the sidebar and footer areas of this design
Allows you to create post thumbnails with an easy-to-use plugin called Simple Post Thumbnails (which you can find and download here:
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/simple-post-thumbnails)Includes built-in social networking links and sharing
The designPile theme (shown in Figure 18-1) is a sharp design and an easy-to-use free WordPress theme for any new user.
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/elegant-grunge
Michael Tyson's Elegant Grunge theme is designed with some of the most popular design elements around the Web: grunge design, paper-like effects, and a monochromatic color scheme.
The Elegant Grunge theme also has very nicely designed frames for photos, photo blog handling, custom page templates, and a wide footer area that allows you to add widgets.
Theme designer: Noel Jackson
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/p2
You can easily see the Twitter-esque inspiration behind P2 by looking at the post text box displayed at the top of the theme. As with Twitter, users can post quick updates, and logged-in visitors can leave feedback on the updates. All this stuff happens from the convenience of the front page of your site — without having to click through to a different page on your site, locate the comment form, type, and submit the comment. The P2 theme also features:
Live tag suggestions for your posts and updates
Threaded comment display
A show/hide feature for comments
Real-time notification for posts, updates, and comments
Keyboard shortcuts
Theme designer: Joni Ang
http://taintedsong.com/2008/02/20/stargaze-wordpress-theme
By the designer's own admission, this theme is a bit more "girly" than most. Most free WordPress themes do seem to have a distinct lack of femininity, so I thought I would present a female-oriented one here.
Stargaze is a beautiful two-column theme that is widget ready (meaning that you can use WordPress widgets with this theme without having to do any special adjustments to the theme). The color scheme is a nice combination of blue, yellow, and pink, with a variety of nicely placed icons and design elements drawing attention to specific areas of your content.
Theme designer: Alex King http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/carrington-blog
Carrington (see Figure 18-2) is a theme built upon a framework that organizes different WordPress features that can be styled distinctly by the users, based on their own, individual tastes. Inside the admin options of the Carrington theme, users find they have the ability to customize the color of links and header of the theme with an easy-to-use color picker, as well as a customizable header image that allows users to further customize Carrington to suit their tastes. Carrington is a clean, simple, and minimalistic theme and supports WordPress features — such as threaded comments, image galleries, and simplified CSS — to make it as easy as possible for users to customize the CSS styling. (See Chapter 13 for great information on tweaking WordPress themes using CSS.)
Theme designer: Nick La
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/demo/wordpress/
iTheme is a WordPress theme designed with Macintosh lovers in mind. The theme emulates the design elements and features of the Macintosh operating system, with beautiful blue gradients and Maclike menu headers and icons. This theme has a fully configurable sidebar that allows you to use WordPress widgets, and when they're in your blog, you can drag those widgets around in the sidebar.
Theme designer: Dean J. Robinson
http://deanjrobinson.com/wordpress/redoable
Redoable is the only dark theme that made my list of top tens. The light-text-on-a-dark-background type of theme has gained popularity among designers and theme fans across the blogosphere, but it can make your blog difficult for some visitors to read. I include this theme because of the popularity of this type of look. Aside from readability issues, Redoable is a beautiful theme with a lot of detailed treatment, built on the popular K2 theme.
Redoable has a two-column layout, and its sidebar is widget ready. It supports multiple popular WordPress plugins. (See the theme's Web page for details.) This theme also gives detailed treatment to many design classes, letting you create a unique blog site.
Theme designer: Ori Pearl
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/corporate
The Corporate theme by Ori Pearl is a very clean, professional-looking free theme for WordPress that you can begin using immediately after you install and activate it through your WordPress.
The color scheme is a cool light blue and white with a gray gradient background. The design has trendy rounded corners and a tidy text box on the front page to welcome visitors to your site. If you want to tweak this theme to make it more individual to you, the header is highly customizable (see Chapter 13 for information on tweaking WordPress themes).
Theme designer: Thad Allender
http://gridline.thadallender.com
Gridline Lite is a minimalist WordPress theme. The theme has clean, simple, light elements, which lets your design focus mainly on content rather than appearance. The theme uses black, white, and gray tones and a two-column layout, with content on the left and sidebar on the right.