Ten Free WordPress Themes

IN THIS CHAPTER

check Finding good WordPress themes

check Using popular WordPress themes to style your website

The list I present here isn’t exhaustive by any means. Chapters 8, 10, and 11 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. 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 them in Chapter 9.
They’re free. Some very nice premium themes are 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 (http://www.w3.org) standards won’t cause errors in browsers.

Hybrid Core

Theme designer: Justin Tadlock

http://themehybrid.com/hybrid-core

Hybrid Core 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 description intimidate you! The theme is crazy-easy to use and very user-friendly.

By default, the Hybrid Core theme is very plain and simple, but it encompasses all the WordPress features and functions you might want:

It’s SEO-ready. Hybrid is completely ready for search engine optimization (SEO).
It’s highly customizable. Hybrid has 15 custom page templates for you to choose among. 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 drop content into, making your WordPress theme experience easy and efficient.

You can read about the Hybrid Core theme at developer Justin Tadlock’s website at http://themehybrid.com/hybrid-core. You can also download and install the theme directly on your WordPress website by using the automatic theme installer built in to your WordPress Dashboard.

Check out options for installing and tweaking WordPress themes in Chapters 9, 10, and 11. Those chapters give you information on CSS, HTML, and theme-tweaking, as well as guide you through working with parent/child themes.

Hestia

Theme designer: Themeisle

https://themeisle.com/demo/?theme=Hestia

Hestia (see Figure 16-1) is a one-page theme built for use on a small-business website. The theme works on all devices: computers, tablets, and smartphones.

The features of Hestia include

A drag-and-drop interface for building content
SEO optimization
A customizer that allows you to make changes on the fly and view those changes live
Support for WordPress menus and custom navigation menus
Support for custom background colors and images
Built-in social networking links and sharing

Responsive

Theme designer: CyberChimps

https://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 uses to view it. The Responsive theme by Emil Uzelac features nine page templates, including Blog, Blog Summary, and other static page templates built on a fluid grid system that adapts to the user’s browsing environment.

Theme options include webmaster tools, logo management, Google font typography support, social media icons, navigation menus, and multilingual support.

P2

Theme designer: Automattic

https://wordpress.org/themes/p2

You can easily see the Twitter-esque inspiration behind P2 by looking at the post text box at the top of the theme. As on 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; visitors aren’t required to click through to a different page of your site, locate the comment form, type, and submit the comment.

The P2 theme features the following:

Live tag suggestions for posts and updates
Threaded comment display
A show/hide feature for comments
Real-time notification for posts, updates, and comments
Keyboard shortcuts

Annotum Base

Theme designer: Annotum

https://wordpress.org/themes/annotum-base

Annotum Base is a scholar’s blog theme that provides 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 the following:

Customized color options
Custom header images
Custom background image/colors
Navigation menus
Post thumbnails
Multilingual support

Blackbird

Theme designer: InkThemes

https://wordpress.org/themes/blackbird

Blackbird, shown in Figure 16-2, is a responsive theme (mobile-ready) with extensive customization options. The theme allows you to

Use your own logo.
Include your analytics code.
Customize featured text with an easy-to-use widget.
Customize background colors and/or images.
Incorporate post thumbnails by using the WordPress featured image feature.
Customize the header image.
Use the navigation-menu features of WordPress.

iTheme2

Theme designer: Nick La

http://themify.me/themes/itheme2

iTheme2 (see Figure 16-3) 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.

Esquire

Theme designer: Automattic

https://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 creative design elements such as the date format and content styling.

Esquire supports all the expected default WordPress features, such as featured images, custom background, custom header, navigation menus, and post formats. The theme’s design was inspired by the art direction of Esquire magazine.

Nisarg

Theme designer: Nisarg

https://wordpress.org/themes/nisarg

Nisarg is a beautiful theme for a blog. It features a nice, clean layout with easy-to-use navigation menus, a large area for you to insert your own custom header image, and support for custom backgrounds and colors.

The Nisarg theme provides custom page templates (such as no-sidebar templates, portfolio, and blog) and allows you to use default WordPress features such as custom headers, custom backgrounds, navigation menus, featured images, and post formats.

Optics

Theme designer: Graph Paper Press

https://graphpaperpress.com/themes/optics/#demo-desktop

Optics is a minimalist WordPress theme featuring a grid layout. (See Figure 16-4.) The theme has clean, simple, light elements that let your design focus on content rather than appearance. The theme uses black, white, and gray tones and a two-column layout, with content on the right and sidebar on the left.

This free theme is offered by a commercial theme company, Graph Paper Press, and to download it, you need to register for a free account on the Graph Paper Press website.