Yesterday I finally got around to scouring the Theme Viewer site for possible themes to use. I really like how they allow you to select on the number of columns, liquid vs. fixed width, color scheme and widget readiness. Best of all, Theme Viewer lets you run a live test of a selected theme. Schweet!
I’ll be installing these themes on my server, and will update the lists below with comments and thoughts as I test them. [Update] I’ve added (*) to ones which I find useful or inspirational.
Oh, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.0.4.
Liquid width, 2 column themes
- anarchy 1.1. Hm, there seems to be quite a few themes with this layout under different names. I like the colors, but would be useless to someone with red-green color blindness. Also wish the Search field is on on individual post pages.
- (*) BlueQ 0.6.4. I really like the use of grey, but would prefer a smoother texture, perhaps. (Recommends but doesn’t require the following plugins: Ultimate Tag Warrior, Related Posts, Gravatar and Brian’s Latest Comments). Includes an additional theme options tab (About Me, asides, etc.).
- blog-txt 1.2.
- Boxy But Gold 1.0. Hm, thought I’d like the color scheme, but upon viewing it for my site, it doesn’t really work (NWIHIM).
- City Nightlife 1.0. Hm, the color and layout is not what I had in mind (NWIHIM).
- Cub Reporter. The font and font color are nice.
- DarkPad 1.0. Competes well with BlueQ for fine, gloomy use of grey. Nice faint grey grid in the sidebar and page bottom. Altough I’m not so sure about how the divs are visually displayed as blocks.
- Dent 1.0. More blocky than I want, so NWIHIM.
- Elvgren. I like the use of the tiny thumbnails in the left sidebar. But the layout is NWIHIM.
- Flex 1.0. I like the blues and grey, but the layout at the top of the page is a bit stern.
- Gentle Calm 1.0. I do like the color scheme and fonts, but perhaps too similar to wedding site. Unordered lists don’t have any bullets or indentation. No search field.
- (*) Giraffe 2. Many theme options (something to consider for theme customization), but default appearance NWIHIM.
- (*) Girl in Green 1.0. Really like the green color scheme, and while the girl image and flowers are cool, they sometimes give me that “just a passing trend” feeling.
- (*) Ice 1.0. Really like the blue scheme. But the grid (while cool) background makes it difficult for me to read the post content; the sidebar grid is more subtle.
- (*) In Business 1.0. Widget ready. While the layout and colors are NWIHIM, this does include an additional theme options tab for meta keywords and meta description (useful!).
- (*) Netopia 1.0. Another nice dark theme; good combination of grey, yellow and blue. Really like the use of lines within the sidebar sections, and line spacing differences between post paragraphs and lists (unsure about the fully justified margins for paragraphs). Lacks search field.
- Klate 0.6R154. Actually, it’s only the left column which is liquid. The right column, which contains the main content, is fixed width. The site title gets clipped, too.
- Minimalist Fever 1.1. Too sparse and too pale, NWIHIM.
- (**) Newsday 1.0. Lovely layout, though I’d widen the margins a bit and perhaps increase the left column width on the homepage. Also displays spam trackbacks (in spite of comments being off), which is good for testing and debugging. [Update] The “3 trackbacks” text I see on each single-post page might be a bug, since the original single.php file for this theme has that text hardcoded. A single-post page doesn’t display the article’s categories in its details section.
- Relaxed 2.2. Lovely colors, but the main font is too small. Lacks search field.
- (*) Sandbox 0.61. This one has great potential for customization. Widget and AJAX (I think) ready.
- Slate 1.0. Hm, perhaps too dark for reading.
- Sparanoia 1.0a. Fun shades of orange, but the layout and fonts NWIHIM.
- Tuned 1.00. Widget ready. Layout issues at the top of pages; would need to change (personalize) the image on the right. Overal NWIHIM.
- v4ny3 1.0. Too pale for reading. Use of boxes and line to busy for me.
- (**) veryplaintxt 2.3. Widget ready; v2.2 was part of my WP installation, but I’ve replaced it with this newer version. I really like this one! Again, would prefer that the search field is on each post page; note that single post pages have just 1 column. Static pages are listed under Contents (good header!), but I’d to set it off more visually to clearly indicate site navigation. I like the font, but I shoulds increase the size for post content. XHTML 1.0 Strict. Includes theme options for many font and layout choices. The content added by Spam Karma 2 and Bad Behavior is invalid XHTML.
- White and Clean 1.0. A bit too stark, NWIHIM.
Liquid width, 3 column themes
- Aconyte 0.4. Clickable sidebars interfere with content, so NWIHIM.
- (*) Nearly Sprung 1.0. Not from Theme Viewer, but a theme by Richard Maxwell. When testing this,I noticed that I would need to add widgets in the sidebar(s) for searching, archives, categories, etc. I would prefer getting rid of one of the sidebars…
Interesting fixed width themes
- Beast-blog 1.1. Strict XHML, Section 508 compliant, 2 col. Whoa, still uses Mike Cherim’s name and graphics. Overall layout and style NWIHIM.
- Greenery v2. 2 column. Navbar at top is interesting. Otherwise, font too small, etc.
- Refresh! 2 column. Interesting top navbar and sidebar layout.
- (*) Sca4ered w/K2 2.15. Has quite a few theme options with some AJAX bits.
- (*) Vistered Little 1.6. Wacky, but I really like how the user can select a different background from the swatches at the top of the page. Perhaps a way to allow something like theme switching?