I am very proud to announce that the Core Blog theme for WordPress has officially been released. This is something that I’ve been coding for quite some time, and finally have had a chance to sit down and get it fully developed.
If you want to download it, feel free to test it out and take it for a drive and provide any feedback here. Or visit the official theme page in the WordPress theme directory. (yes, that means this theme carries the GPL licensed and what not…)
Traveling Back to My Find My Roots
A little about Core… as much as I enjoy developing premium commercially supported WordPress themes, I also really enjoy the simplicity of creating a free theme. After all, it was free themes such as Blue Zinfandel, Vertigo, Whitespace, Silhouette, Downtown Java, Tapestry among others, that really allowed me to build my business to what it is now, StudioPress.
In a weird way, I kinda miss the good ole days of releasing free themes and seeing what people can do with them. And besides, there are millions of people who are now using WordPress – many of which are relatively new to blogging and only want a simple theme.
Anyway – the primary reason behind Core is that I wanted to create one core (for lack of a better term) set of blog theme files that I could use to develop additional free themes. I figured that by building this set of files, it would then be easy to generate a number of high quality themes, and would be able to include some features that have been included in our themes on StudioPress.
Here’s a screenshot of the Core Blog theme (click to enlarge full size):
One of the coolest features inside the Core Blog theme is the choice between a Sidebar/Content layout, a Content/Sidebar layout or the traditional Sidebar/Content/Sidebar layout for your blog. This can easily be changed in the theme options page.
Another cool feature that I added was the SEO options block is available for the blog posts. Here you can enter a custom title tag, custom keywords and custom description for each post.
Here’s a screenshot of the SEO Options block:
That is a great feature for those who are just starting our with their blog!
How Cliche, but Sometimes Less is More
As I was developing this theme, I also wanted to do it in a way that only required an additional stylesheet to change the way it would look – in other words, instead of having X amount of free themes all which have their own theme folders, there would be one theme folder with many stylsheets inside. Why have 20 different themes sitting in your themes directory on your server when you only need one?
Having said that, the intent is for a user to simply select which style they want to use in the theme options page. They’ll still have the ability to customize the stylesheet in the theme editor section of the dashboard as well. So just like that, 20 themes become one. (and for those of you faithful original Brian Gardner theme users, the early ones just might be ported over as styles to Core)
Here’s a screenshot of an additional style I’m working on (click to enlarge full size):
This additional stylesheet is not available yet, but I’m hoping to release it along with a number of other styles as well. (gotta leave something to be desired, huh?)
Great job Brian! I’m loving the simplicity and elegance of the whole design. *applauds*
Dan
Thanks Dan – appreciate that. I know most folks nowadays want the full loaded-optioned magazine theme style homepages with rotating images, flashing banners, etc… but there are millions of people who don’t.
Sounds like a terrific theme -is it really free?! Purr-fect for most blogs.
Hey Cathy – yes, it really is free. The download link is there for the taking!
Another great theme, Brian. Love how you’re giving users so many more ways to customize with options built in vs. changing stylesheet and other .php info. I’m a forever fan and maybe getting almost a bit geeky about my StudioPress themed websites. Any other themes/sites have to measure up to you. And they rarely come close. Thanks for your dedication and love to this WP community!
Thanks so much Debra – it’s very easy to love what I do, and to love developing WP themes.
Can’t wait to load this one up and give a go Brian.. will report back.
Cheers
Sue
Please do Sue, whether it’s good feedback or negative feedback!
Love the new theme….free themes are great. Keep up the great work – I look forward to seeing the other styles…
Thanks Adam – appreciate that… I’m hoping to offer up more than traditional or corporate looking styles, so keep your eyes peeled for something grungy and relevant to our culture!
Brian -
The thing I am most excited about this release is having a rock solid base to customize as needed. Sometimes I worry about the free themes not having the best/optimized coding, but I am sure yours wil be the best it can be, because of the pride you take in your work. Thanks for providing this!
Dave
Dave, I can assure you that this theme is rock solid – it’s optimized for SEO (even includes the ability to include keywords, description, etc per post)
Brian, people are tweeting me asking if the theme will be a free or premium theme after the test drive download. Want to clear that up? Thanx.
The Core Blog theme will always been a free theme, as it’s already listed in the WordPress free theme directory. There may be at some point a time where I take a style, and spin that off into a completely independent theme that becomes a paid theme on StudioPress, but this basic blog version is free.
Excellent! You are so generous. AND once people find this one, they will no doubt want paid themes from StudioPress. Amazing that you get all this too: optimized for SEO (even includes the ability to include keywords, description, etc per post).
Can’t wait to unlock this baby and put her through the ringer. Starting a new site next week anyway, so this will be my choice. Thanks, Brian.
Yep, take a look at the post again, I just added a screenshot above that shows the SEO Options block!
This theme looks great Brian specially the functionality. We might review it on our site in the near future
That would be great if you chose to review it!
Great theme Brian and I really love the idea of multiple layouts using one theme. Really cool!!
Thanks Mitch – it is probably one of the biggest requests that I get, so I figured why not build that into the Core theme and always have it as an option.
Will this essentially work like child themes? Where do you place the extra style sheets?
The extra stylesheets will just need to be placed in the theme’s root, as with the other theme files and default stylesheet. Then, any corresponding images that are associated will need to go in a folder which is in the theme’s images folder. Pretty straightforward.
Well done, Brian! I don’t how you keep crankin’ out consistently awesome themes…but thanks!
Thanks Tracy, and if you want to know how I do it, here’s the secret.
I always liked your original “free” themes and I think this is one of the best. It actually stands on its own compared to many other “not free” themes (thus avoiding the whole premium thing). As always, nice work and you always seem to give back to the community.
Have you ever contemplated working with child themes? I don’t know much about them but it seems to have some advantages in that you work with a core set of files and then make changes to the child theme instead of the core files. I’m sure you know way more about this.
Hey Michael – thanks for the comments and kind words – definitely appreciate that!
As for child themes, this in essence is what we’re doing – although we’re not calling them child themes per se, but each additional style will only require a css stylesheet/images associated with it. Thus the name Core, which is a core set of files that any number of stylesheets (or child themes) can be applied to.
Yeah, I thought that it seemed similar. Actually your way may even be superior in that it reduces directory clutter.
I’m a totally clean freak and hate clutter – one set of theme files and 20 stylesheets is the way to go in my opinion!
Its wonderful Brian! I gotta tell you Downtown Java is what started my addiction to your themes, and ever since then I haven’t gone back! NO regrets!! I love to design with them, makes me want to open new blogs just so I can design another one LOL. Great work and very generous of you! Thank you, I will pass on to a few I think would find it very helpful!
Thanks Brian, I still use Blue Zinfandel for my companies intranet, and this could be a great up upgrade (along with updating wp).
Thanks again. And thanks for being a strong supporter of the wp community.
Thanks Jack, and glad to hear that Blue Zinfandel is holding up for ya!
Hi Brian,
Its a very good theme you have designed, I have just downloaded it. I’m gonna use it in my new blog. Most of the all your themes are FREE!!
regards
John Bent
Thanks John, shoot me a link when you’re done customizing it – would love to see what you’ve come up with!
This theme has great functionality and feature was this available for a free download or I need to purchased it? Thanks
It is a free theme and can be downloaded by using the link that is given in the first paragraph.
Amazing news, been using your themes a long time (not the commercial ones, can´t afford them) i will wait for the additional style, it´s just what i need for my personal blog.
Muchas Gracias Brian!
I love minimalist designs. Thanks for the release.
thanks for you theme.
Very clean look, I like it. Actually I didn’t even know you had free themes, but we’re happy with the one we purchased anyway
Great work, Brian. Thanks for this. I hope you get Blue Zin updated. I love that theme and use it for our family blog.
Hey Brian,
Finally something like Revolution Blue but better! Congrats
Here are the translation files to pt_BR (Brazilian Portuguese)
http://ze20.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/pt_BR.mo
http://ze20.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/pt_BR.po
Cheers from Brazil!
Brian,
Wondering if I could hire you to do me a big, big favor. I’d like you to set up a new folder for a new site I need a.s.a.p., using my GoDuluthSchools.com domain and using your new News theme (which is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!). I’d also need Feedburner. This is the big break I’ve been looking for (a small contract with the local schools), and my family and I are very, very excited. I’m a little under the gun timewise on this. OK?
Howie
I love CORE! its a simple yet modern theme, easy to customize, and very lightweight. Thanks for offering free of charge. I’m using it to design my new flat fee real estate website http://flatfeepro.com and I think it’s going to work out perfect!
Hell Brian,
I found an error in the CORE style sheet. #subnavbar (line 287) you spelled “Height” wrong. I came across this when I was making mods.
Thanks Fred – can you tell me block of code it is? I’m having trouble finding it since I have made updates to my stylesheet since then.
It’s in the SubNavBar section… 2nd item down, #subnavbar. You will see the typo.
I love minimalist designs. Thanks for the release.
I’ve put it on one of my tech blogs now. Did some tweeking and it’s awesome. Very classy and certainly ideal for tech blogs.
Woo! New Brian Gardner code to play with!
I’ve done very little to trick it out yet. I added the four-column Vertigo footer and widgetized it just for kicks.
I tried to open the template, but it didn`t work.,
Did I something wrong ??
nice theme, i very like this theme..
thanks brian
Hi Brian,
Thanks for providing this theme free. This is the theme that I need for my new site! I am looking forward to the additional style one as I like it better.
Cheers,
Tutyana
Hi Brian, this is a great theme. I just came across it. I was not sure if you would be releasing simple theme like anymore, especially free. Glad to see it. Most of my blogs still use your old simple themes. The SEO options are really good. Thanks again.
This looks like a great clean theme. I’d like to try it out. I’m relatively new to blogging, but don’t mind rolling up my sleeves and figuring out how to do some customizing. Mainly I want the ability to change colors and add a custom header/banner. Is this something I can do fairly easily.
It looks simple but nice. Simple is elegant by definition
Congrats for the good work, it’s on the list of themes to replace the one I have now.
Just wanted to say thanks for making a killer theme. I’m just getting in to blogging and have been frustrated with the themes I’ve been trying. ‘Core’ nails it for me. Simple, flexible, stylish and professional!
Rock on! Great job!
Just wanted to update you an let you know we re-launched our flat fee real estate site using the Core theme. I love how easy it is to work with! You can check it out here… http://flatfeerealty.com
p.s. I am an “all themes” member too!
Brian on the WP site it says it can be 2 or 3 columns, how do I turn it into a 3 column theme? thanks.