So, if you’ve just shown up to the site, you’re probably looking at a whole lot of red and brown and wondering what happened to the white, maroon and grey that you’re more accustomed to. Well, after following the How To Create A WordPress Theme tutorial on the Themeshaper blog, I’ve delved into the realm of creating my own theme. It’s probably still a little rough around the edges, and likely to be a little inconsistent in places, because I’ve rushed it through to get something up.
Screenshot of the new theme for the lazy RSS readers out there.
There are a few things you might want to be aware of, and possibly might need to let me know if they become an issue for you, oh devoted readers:
- Like the pretentious snobby geek that I am, I’ve selfishly ignored the fact that if you’re using IE6 then chances are the picture above, and what you see on your screen don’t come close to resembling one another. This is because a) I’m lazy and b) IE6 is stupid. Or for a more technical reason: IE6 doesn’t support transparent PNG images. If you are one of the people who does use IE6, consider this a cordial invitation into the world of using a nicer browser. Update your computer. Please.
- I’m also aware that the header image is pretty big. In fact, I’ve probably got too many images that are too big in size. I’m actually interested to hear if that does become an issue for people, and I plan on doing what I can to “optimize” those images. No promises.
I actually started the “look and feel” part of this theme with the idea of going for a Communist propaganda look: thus the color scheme. But after some nasty words from my wife about how what I was trying looked crap, I eventually came up with this. Now that I’ve done it once, I feel like I could probably do it again pretty easily. So, feel free to let me know what you think.
That’s far too many words for a non-theology GeoffRe(y)port post. My apologies.
PS. There’s not a good reason the theme is called New Broom. But it is.
PPS. The whole theme works a lot better if you have a font called “American Typewriter”. I realise most people don’t, but it really does make it look much prettier.
Geoff is a 25 year old Database Administrator Consultant. He was a volunteer youth leader at Yarra Valley Vineyard Christian Fellowship for 6 years, but doesn't do that any more. He is cursed with barracking for Richmond. His favourite number is 17 and his favourite song is Last Goodbye by Jeff Buckley
Good general first impression. I still haven’t decided on ease of reading. Some of the red against brown bothers my eyes and the font is just a little small … but I’m getting old too. Overall however it has a good look to it.
That aside, I’m still waiting for your offer to rebuild my site for free.
Yep – I’m still a little bit worried about the red link colour. Might have to look at that in the near future.
Funny is that the RSS feed comes with an ad for THESIS theme (which I am using)!
Like the new look and comes through on Safari and NetNewsWire fine.
Bah – what can you do? (Of course if you do click on the ad, I get 20c or so). That’s the price for prostituting myself to the almighty Google.
I wish I had internet so I could take a stab at designing my own theme.