Choosing a WordPress-dot-com theme

The theme viewer in the WordPress.com admin area displays thumbnail screenshots. By clicking on a thumbnail you can load a preview without actually activating the theme on your site (introduced on 2007/08/15). Theme templates cannot be modified, but a low-cost upgrade allows style sheet editing.

At the time I signed up there were 59 themes to choose from and I spent quite a bit of time experimenting. While trying them out, it occurred to me that it might save new members a lot of time if full-size screenshots were available, so I captured a selection as I was working my way through. Below, there’s an alphabetical list of themes with links to the screenshots. In the list, I highlighted themes with customization options. There are some I didn’t try out, mostly the ones with elaborate graphic designs. In the end, I chose the MistyLook theme.

Fluid layouts or fixed width?

In my opinion, fixed width designs are the safest choice, because floating columns can overlap in small resolution displays — e.g. mobile devices using the ‘PocketPC’ operating system. I checked how robust the themes were by resizing the window to 640×480. WordPress.com themes which stretch or shrink to fit the screen width include Fadtastic, Garland, Rubric, Sandbox, Shocking Blue Green and WordPress Classic. There’s more information about these themes in the alphabetical list. Click on the images to view full-size:

Dark themes:

I looked at 4 themes with light colored text on a dark background — ChaoticSoul, Emire, Hemingway and Sunburn. There’s a new post for Redoable Lite and others which were added later.

Number of columns:

All are 2 column themes except:

• 1 column: Ambiru and Day Dream.

  

• 3 columns: Andreas04, Andreas09, Fadtastic, Garland and Twenty-eight Thirteen. The sidebars in 2813 look bare until you add widgets. There’s a new post for Digg 3 Column.

  

• Configurable as 1, 2 or 3 columns: Sandbox.

  

• 4 columns: Fjords04 and Neo-Sapien (the layout breaks at 800×600).

  

Themes with no graphics:

These are themes with no images at all — no headers, no small icons:

• Sandbox
• Shocking Blue Green
• Twenty-eight Thirteen (2813)
• White as Milk
• WordPress Classic
• The Journalist - Black on White. Fixed width: 950px.

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List of WordPress.com themes — April 2007:

There’s a new post for Ocean Mist and several others which were added after April 2007. New theme announcements appear in the admin dashboard.

1. Almost Spring
   Two columns. Sand colored gradient as the page background.
2. Ambiru
   One narrow column with tiny text. Custom header image.
3. Andreas04
   Three columns. A silver theme with two sidebars on the right.
4. Andreas09
   Three columns. Customizable colors.
5. B·anana S·moothie
   Two columns with a header image you can’t change.
6. Benevolence
   Two columns with tiny text. Custom header image. White, black & red.
7. Blix
   Two columns. Custom header image. Strong colors used sparingly.
   I found a site which offers free Blix custom headers.
8. ChaoticSoul
   Two columns. Custom header image. Black background with pale gray text in the main column and tiny white text in the sidebar.
9. Connections
   Two columns. Custom header image. Serif font. Theme contest winner.
10. Contempt
    Two columns. Custom header image. White, blue and shades of gray.
11. Cutline
    Two columns. Custom header image. Serif font.
12. Day Dream
    One narrow column with 4 color schemes. Custom header: 527×273.
13. D·usk
    Two columns with a dark blue page background. The main column has a light background.
14. Emire
    Two columns. Sage-green header on a black background with white text. I had some problems viewing this one in Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9, although it worked fine in Firefox 2.0. Maybe it was a fluke.
15. Fadtastic
    Three columns. Stretches or shrinks to fit the screen width, but the main column is around 120 pixels wide/narrow at 640×480.
16. F·auna Beta
    Two columns with a vivid green header you can’t change.
17. Fjords04
    Four columns with a split custom header.
18. F·leur De Lys
    Two columns. Fleur De Lys as decorative elements.
19. F·lower Power
    Two columns with a vivid red header you can’t change.
20. F·resh B·ananas
    Two columns. At 640×480, the layout breaks.
21. Freshy
    Two columns. Custom header: 780×95. From the screenshot in the admin area I thought this was a theme with light text on a black background. It turns out that only the header section is black. The rest is (tiny) black text on a white background. In Firefox 2.0, Internet Explorer 7 and Opera 9 the header is out of alignment at 800×600 screen resolution, and in Opera 8.5 it’s misaligned at all screen resolutions!
22. Garland
    Three columns with customizable colors. Stretches or shrinks to fit the screen width, but the middle column is unusably narrow at 640×480. It’s quite narrow at 800×600 too.
23. G·irl in Green
    Two columns.
24. Greenery
    Two columns. Custom header image. Bright green page background.
25. Green Marinée
    Two columns. The amount of green is not overdone. The sidebar has a gray background.
26. Hemingway
    Two columns at the top and three columns in the footer. It has a black background by default, but you can change it to white/gray. Tiny font.
27. I·ceburgg
    Two columns. Custom header image. Blue and white Christmas theme.
28. J·entri
    Two columns. A light background to the main column. The rest is dark. Uses a tiny serif font. To look right, the page background image needs to load successfully. At 640×480, the layout breaks.
29. K2-lite
    Two columns.
    Use a custom header image or leave it plain.
30. K·ubrick 1.5
    Two columns. The WordPress default theme.
    You can customize the header colors or upload an image.
31. Light
    Two columns. White, black and green, with a pale blue gradient behind the body text within postings.
32. MistyLook
    The theme on this page.
    I used the custom header option.
33. Neat
    Two columns. Custom header option. Blue and black on white. Black page background. The search field doesn’t use a button. You have to press Enter instead.
34. Neo-Sapien
    Four columns. Custom header option. At 800×600, the layout breaks.
35. O·cadia
    Two columns.
36. P·ool
    Two columns. Custom header: 600×150. Pale blue and white.
37. PressRow
    Two columns. Custom header option. Nicely crafted serif typography.
38. Quentin
    Two columns. Large serif font. A similar look-and-feel to the “Scribe” theme at BlogSpot, but nicer. If the text background image fails to load it still looks fine.
39. Regulus
    Two columns. This theme has several customization options: sidebar placement on the left or right, configurable sidebar content, 8 header images and 6 color choices for the elements at the top of the page.
40. R·ounded
    Two columns.
41. Rubric
    Two columns. Custom header option. A white main column with a gray gradient as the page background. The layout is fluid while the sidebar is narrow (14em), so at 1280×1024 resolution the main column would occupy most of the width.
42. Sandbox
    Configurable as one, two or three columns — with the sidebars floating left or right. The link colors and font are unstyled.
43. S·apphire
    Two columns. Custom header option. Serif font in the main column, sans-serif in the sidebar. If the text background image fails to load you end up with black text on black.
44. Shocking Blue Green
    Two columns. Less shocking than some other green themes. A clean, uncluttered design. The layout is fluid while the sidebar is narrow, so at 1280×1024 resolution the main column occupies most of the width.
45. S·ilver is the New Black
    Two columns.
46. S·impla
    Two columns.
47. S·olipsus
    Two columns.
48. Sunburn
    Two columns. Black background with pale gray text, but links in the body text are dark gray. It’s difficult to see them until you mouse over them, whereupon they turn red. The search field doesn’t use a button. You have to press Enter. If JavaScript is turned OFF the text you type is black on black! With JavaScript ON the text is white on black.
49. Supposedly Clean
    Two columns. Customization options are a sidebar on the left or right and three pre-defined headers.
50. S·weet B·lossoms
    Two columns.
51. Tarski
    Two columns. Custom header image. A white background with dark gray text and icy blue links.
52. T·hirteen
    Two columns.
53. T·oni
    Two columns. Four color schemes with pre-defined header patterns.
54. T·reba
    Two columns.
55. Twenty-eight Thirteen
    Three columns. Basically, this is a plain text theme — no header image, no decorative graphics. The sidebars look bare until you add widgets.
56. Unsleepable
    Two columns. Black and white, with a gray shadow.
57. V·ermilion Christmas
    Two column theme for the Christmas season.
58. White as Milk
    Two columns — both narrow.
59. WordPress Classic 1.5
    Two columns. Stretches or shrinks to fit the width of any screen.

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Related article: WordPress and Blogger compared.

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