If you take a look at most of the Wordpress themes available for download on the net, you might notice that a lot of them look very similar. They are all designed to be usable by the most people, and while this may allow more people to use the theme, it isn’t really the unique special design that sticks out of the crowed you want for your website. This means you are going to have to get your hands dirty and design your own theme, but where do you start?
Should you just start creating files and start from scratch so you can get all the functionality in right where you want it? You could, and it would be a great learning experience for almost anyone, but honestly all the core functionality of Wordpress is going to be the same no matter what type of site you are planning to build. What we want is something that has the foundation in place for us to build and place our elements in place. We want a Wordpress theme framework that will let us bring our design to life quickly.
Many theme frameworks take advantage of child themes. Usually a child theme is one or two files that you can input all your design aspects to change the theme. This way you can have several child themes, and you never have to edit the core theme files.
There are many Wordpress theme frameworks available for download from the net, most of them free of charge. Once you have these basic themes in place, you can start adding your own stuff with ease. The themes purpose is to be a bare base to unleash your website upon. There are different types depending on what type of site you are looking to design, so look through them all and figure out which one best fits your website design ideas.
1.Sandbox Theme
The sandbox theme is a basic two theme layout that can be modified by editing just the CSS if you fear digging into the PHP files. It focuses on semantic markup that makes it easy to modify quickly. It also includes support for hAtom and hCard microformats so advanced readers can take advantage of that easy to read code. This theme bloats that it’s real beauty is on the inside with semantic classes in each element of the layout, making modifications easy and pain free.
2.Thematic Theme
Thematic is open source framework that offers a grid based layout, many different widget ready areas, and a entire community behind it to provide support. It is SEO optimized, and can be quickly customized to your liking.
3.Hybrid Theme
The Hybrid Wordpress theme is free and open source, and provides you with 18 templates ready to go with 9 widget ready areas that give you the ability to create any type of site on the fly. It also uses a system of child themes so you never have to edit the core theme files, and can make portable child themes with ease. Child themes may have a small learning curve, especially for those who are use to normal Wordpress themes, but in the end they are much easier to use, and will keep you happier down the road once you learn to use them.
4.Carrington Theme
The Carrington theme focuses on making it easy to create different looks for different categories on your site. They also offer different versions of the theme depending on what you are creating the site for. They have a normal blog theme, a text only theme, and a theme design especially for mobile devices.
5.The Buffet Framework
The Buffet Framework is a open source theme that offers many features for the advanced developer, and a simple set up for the novice to mess with. It also features an extension ability that allows you to code extras in, and users will be able to turn your created extensions on and off in the admin panel.
6.Starkers
The Starkers Wordpress framework strips all the unneeded code from the original theme, and resets the browser defaults to give you the perfect starting place for your design. It is the ultimate in barebones and includes no styling elements what so ever. It is your complete blank canvas to make your own.
7. Whiteboard
The Whiteboard framework is very similar to the starkers theme, but with a slightly different starting feel and layout. It was built because the author felt that the Starkers layout didn’t really fit him, and so he created this. So if you feel the same way this may be the best basic starting Wordpress framework to use.
8.Imagination Theme
This theme is a combination framework meets traditional Wordpress theme. It comes pre loaded with 9 styles you can use straight out of the box. It also comes with basic settings for all the elements on the page so you can customize your theme. This is perfect for the beginner looking for something that really shines, but doesn’t take a lot of work.
9.OnePress Framework
The OnePress framework is designed to allow you to integrate a phpBB forum into your Wordpress site. This allows you to build a community, and have your users post their own topics. This is great for a community type site where you want a lot of interaction with your users. It also offers several preset themes with a big wow factor.
So as you can see there are plenty of frameworks to get you started designing your theme. They can help you start with a solid foundation, which will keep you from running into problems later on down the road.
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