Chapter 15
In This Chapter
Finding good WordPress themes
Using popular WordPress themes to style your blog
The 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:
Theme designer: Justin Tadlock
Hybrid is more of a theme framework, or parent theme that can be modified endlessly to create the perfect child theme, than a theme to use straight out of the box, but don’t let that intimidate you! It’s crazy-easy to use and 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:
You can read about the Hybrid theme at the developer’s (Justin Tadlock) website at http://themehybrid.com. You can also download and install the theme directly into your WordPress website by using the automatic theme installer built in to your WordPress Dashboard.
Theme designer: Smashing Magazine
http://demo.s5themes.com/?theme=designpile
The highlights of this theme are the following:
The designPile theme, shown in Figure 15-1, is a sharp design and an easy-to-use, free WordPress theme for any new user.
Theme designer: CyberChimps
http://wordpress.org/themes/responsive
Responsive design is all the rage right now because of the emergence of mobile and tablet browsing. Responsive design ensures that a website looks perfect, no matter which device a reader is using to view it. The Responsive theme by Emil Uzelac features nine page templates including the Blog, Blog Summary, and other static page templates built on a fluid grid system that adapts to the user’s browsing environment.
Theme options in this responsive design include webmaster tools, logo management, social icons, and navigation menus, as well as multilingual support.
Theme designer: Automattic
http://wordpress.org/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 happens from the convenience of the front page of your site — without requiring anyone to click through to a different page on your site, locate the comment form, type, and submit the comment. The P2 theme also features the following:
Theme designer: Annotum
http://wordpress.org/themes/annotum-base
Annotum Base is a scholar’s blog theme providing a complete open-access journaling system including peer review, workflow, and advanced editing and formatting for blog posts and pages. The most interesting features in this theme include structured figures, equations, and cross referencing from PubMed and CrossRef (including reference importing).
Other theme options include
Theme designer: InkThemes
http://wordpress.org/themes/blackbird
Blackbird, shown in Figure 15-2, is a responsive theme (mobile-ready) with extensive customization options, including the ability to:
Theme designer: Nick La
www.ndesign-studio.com/demo/wordpress/index.php?wptheme=iTheme
iTheme is a WordPress theme designed with Mac lovers in mind. The theme emulates the design elements and features of the Mac operating system, with beautiful blue gradients and Mac-like 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: Automattic
http://wordpress.org/themes/esquire
Esquire is a free WordPress theme created by Automattic, the company behind the WordPress.com hosted service. It has a distinct visual design with creative typography (fonts), a two-column layout, and visually creative design elements that make it unique (such as the date format and content styling).
Esquire supports all of the expected default WordPress features such as featured images, custom background, custom header, navigation menus, and post formats. The theme design is inspired by the art direction of Esquire Magazine.
Theme designer: IWEBIX
http://wordpress.org/themes/wp-creativix
The WP-Creativix theme by IWEBIX is a very clean, professional-looking free theme for WordPress that you can begin using immediately after you install and activate it. This elegantly designed theme is well suited for a business, portfolio, or photoblogging website.
The WP-Creativix theme provides users with custom page templates (such as no-sidebar templates, portfolio, and blog) and allows you to use default WordPress features such as custom header, custom background, navigation menu, featured images, and threaded comments.
Theme designer: Thad Allender
http://graphpaperpress.com/themes/gridline/ - demo-full
Gridline is a minimalist WordPress theme featuring a grid layout. 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.
This is a free theme offered by a commercial theme company: Graph Paper Press — and while it is free, to be able to download it, you need to register for a free account on the Graph Paper Press website.
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