Smashing WordPress: Beyond the Blog, 3rd Edition

Appendix B: Starter Themes

There IS an abundance of themes for WordPress out there, of varying quality. Chances are most of these themes won’t interest you, either because you don’t like the look and feel of them or because they just aren’t good enough for your needs. By now you know a thing or two about working with themes as well and how they are built, and you are capable of creating your own themes tailored to your needs. That means that you’ll most likely want to create or modify a theme.

This appendix lists a select few themes that might save you time or inspire you to create better themes for your needs.

This appendix covers only free themes. There is a huge market for commercial themes out there, some good and some bad, just as with the free ones. If you go the commercial route, be sure to read up on the terms for using the theme and make sure that the theme is GPL compatible.

How To Pick The Right Theme

Picking the right theme isn’t easy. What you need to figure out is what you actually want and need. For example, if you’re just looking to launch a site really quickly, maybe an existing theme is good enough for you, perhaps with some minor tweaks. On the other hand, if you want to build a theme framework, you might be looking for something completely different, something that matches the needs you have for this particular framework’s use. Different situations call for different themes, so that is something you need to take into account.

If you want to build your own ...