Resonar is an elegant WordPress blog theme that was launched in mid-March on WordPress.com and is now available to self-hosted WordPress sites. This theme makes a big impact with its strong typography and fullscreen featured images. Resonar was designed by Takashi Irie, the same designer for the Twenty Fifteen and Twenty Fourteen default themes. Irie’s…
Justin Tadlock, creator of Theme Hybrid, announced today that the seven year old theme club is experimenting with a radical change in club pricing. Club membership is now free for anyone who wants to sign up. Although Theme Hybrid’s plugins and themes have always been free, standard club membership (which includes access to the support…
Argent is a bold new portfolio theme that was launched on WordPress.com last week. The theme is centered around showcasing the work of visual artists such as designers, photographers, craft makers, painters, etc., with portfolio items featured prominently on the homepage template. Argent was designed by Mel Choyce, co-author of the popular Flounder and Aventurine…
The WordPress Theme Review Team is now curating a library of code examples on GitHub for theme developers. The first section is devoted to customizer code with examples for panels, sections, basic controls, and advanced controls. “We will continue to add to the library, including more examples of custom controls, and more advanced examples, such…
One option that users often appreciate in themes is the ability to control typography without having to modify any code. Justin Tadlock has been experimenting with adding a typography control class for the WordPress customizer. Instead of writing a lengthy tutorial, he opted to create a a proof-of-concept plugin that demonstrates how theme authors might…
The WordPress Theme Review Team (TRT) is currently seeking feedback via three separate surveys on the review process, themes, and the directory. After weathering several months of increasingly negative community feedback, the team is now looking to users and theme authors to help shape its roadmap for the future. The team’s controversial decision to require…
Easy Digital Downloads announced a major change to its themes marketplace today. All official EDD themes (those that are built by the EDD core team) are now 100% free. This includes half a dozen themes that are guaranteed to be fully compatible with EDD, including the new Vendd theme launching today. EDD support manager Sean…
Since writing about o2, Automattic’s successor to the P2 theme in 2013, a number of readers have requested updates on the project’s status. When asked about the project in a recent interview, Matt Mullenweg explained that despite loving the project and truly believing in it, work on o2 has shifted to other parts of WordPress.com…
During this week’s WordPress.org Theme Review Team meeting Chip Bennett opened the floor to discuss the “grey areas” of presentation vs. functionality distinctions in themes. The hotly debated topic concerns what is permissible in terms of “content creation” for themes that are hosted in the official directory. “We know that CPTs and custom taxonomies are…
If you’re looking to bring your blog’s design back to the bare bones of pure content without distractions, then the new Cover theme may be a good option. Cover brings blogging minimalism to a new level. After less than a month on WordPress.org, it has already been downloaded more than 2,500 times. Cover was created…
Gazette is a new WordPress magazine theme from the folks at Automattic, designed by Thomas Guillot. Since the majority of themes produced for WordPress.com are well-suited to single author blogs, Gazette’s fine-tuned focus on digital publications is a welcome addition to the collection. Magazine themes are generally few and far between, because they have to…
Sven Lehnert, CEO of Themekraft, published his company’s experience migrating from a custom theme options page to the theme customizer. He describes how difficult it was to move between the two and how it caused user frustration. “I’m sorry for the trouble some users are experiencing. We receive positive as well as frustrated feedback and…
The Theme Review Team’s controversial decision to require the use of the Customizer API for building theme options unearthed a wave of criticism and concern about the capabilities of the customizer. In response to more than 150 comments debating on the topic, Nick Halsey, who has worked extensively on the feature in WordPress core, stopped…
In March 2014, WordPress.com opened its marketplace to new theme authors. Prior to that time, new sellers were added via invitation only. A year ago there were only 300 themes available to WordPress.com users, but after having the marketplace open to new authors that count is up to 345. Recently the submission form disappeared from…
Toivo Lite is a new theme on WordPress.org that features a bold minimalist design that really shines on mobile. Sami Keijonen created the theme to be suitable for both business and blog sites. Toivo is Finnish and it means “hope” in English. It’s one of a very small number of WordPress themes listed as accessibility-ready…