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Smashing Freefont and Wordpress-Theme
September 7th, 2007 in Fonts | 235 Comments
As our Smashing First Anniversary celebration ends, we’d like to wrap up our event with two further presents for each and every one of our readers. In August we’ve asked Jos Buivenga, a Dutch typo-designer who has created professional freefont Delicious to design a special typeface dedicated to the Smashing Magazine First Anniversary. Jos has agreed to get a “smashing” freefont done just in time.
We’ve also asked Elena Gafita from the DesignDisease team — well-known for its professional Wordpress theme Blogging Pro — to design a special Wordpress-Theme dedicated to our anniversary. Despite deadlines Elena agreed and promised to get a “smashing” Wordpress-Theme done just in time.
Both typeface and Wordpress theme were done in time. And we’re honoured to give both of them away - for you and for free. Thanks to Jos and Elena for participating!
Smashing Free Typeface:
Anivers by Jos Buivenga
Anivers page (with download) | Sample: .pdf specimen
Here are some insights from the designer himself:
“When I was asked by Smashing Magazine if I wanted to make a free font for their anniversary I was really thrilled. With a combination of some earlier sketches and some tweaking I managed to hook on to the spirit of a nice new font: Anivers. The name Anivers — as you might have guessed — is derived from the word anniversary.
I’ve developed some particular things I’d like to have in a Smashing Magazine anniversary font. For instance, I wanted it to be a robust and rigid typeface, forgiving and yet flexible and elegant… and also suitable for a broad use: from a stationery to a poster headline. From an intro in a (smashing) magazine to… well… we’ll soon know. :-)
For now it’s only regular, but anivers italic, bold, bold italic and maybe small caps will follow soon. Apart from ligatures, contextual alternatives, fractions and oldstyle/tabular numerals Anivers also has a ‘case’ feature for case-sensitive forms. Anivers also supports CE languages and Esperanto. It has over 1.600 kerning pairs.”
Smashing Free Wordpress-Theme:
Smashing Theme by DesignDisease
Test Page | Download Smashing Theme!
How to develop a stylish Wordpress-Theme from scratch? Some insights from Elena:
“Creating a Wordpress Theme isn’t easy but I can’t call it yet a NASA Job. The theme I created for Smashing Magazine was a special task for me because I read this magazine every time they have something new so I wanted to give something back.
After I found out what Smashing Magazine team expects from this theme I got started by selecting the color palette. After this point I created the layout style and placed the background straps modular along with the layout areas. This choice was motivated by the fact that Smashing Magazine is a feed, a flux of information represented by the size and colors of the straps. Colors are — of course — inspired by the Smashing Magazine logo.
Every designer who creates a free theme must know the importance of the AdSense integration in the layout; therefore I’ve divided the content area in 3 sections (columns). Each of them for a specific AdSense unit (468 x 60), (180×150), (160×600).
In my themes I always try to make a clear visual separation between the Posting area and the Widget zone (2nd and the 3rd column). In this case I achieved this effect by creating a strong visual contrast: white for the written post (to ensure the optical silence for readers) and colorful/darker areas (active vibrant content motivates users to click on those surfaces) for the numerous categories, links etc.
Another fact which I care about is the space around the main content (posting area). The flux of information must breathe, so a 20/30px white space between information units is necessary. The space left between the different areas must be used as a module, repeating the spaces in key zones of the layout.
One of the most difficult tasks in designing a theme is to find a style for it. A unique style helps a blog to stand out from simplistic and minimalistic designs. I don’t have anything against minimalist style, but as a designer I feel I can express myself in a more colorful way.
The Smashing theme has a plug-in integrated into the functions.php, so modifying this file you should have some basic knowledge about PHP. The theme is Widget Ready.
I could have done more for this theme, but I am in hurry, I am leaving to a 7 days holiday into the sunny Greece. Have fun using it and a Happy Anniversary for Smashing Magazine!”
Maruder (September 7th, 2007, 9:29 pm)
I feel like it’s Christmas :)
Zul Azman (September 7th, 2007, 9:30 pm)
This is nice man..
Thank SM…
Jason A. (September 7th, 2007, 9:38 pm)
You guys kick ass!
Keep up the “Smashing” work!
Bart (September 7th, 2007, 9:54 pm)
Nice
Will (September 7th, 2007, 10:01 pm)
Both the font and the theme are fantastic - thanks for your input and thanks to Smashing Magazine for giving us this!
Ricky Irvine (September 7th, 2007, 10:12 pm)
SMASH HITS!
Steve B. (September 7th, 2007, 10:17 pm)
Wow! Thank you Jos, Elena, and Smashing Magazine. You are very generous!
Brian (September 7th, 2007, 10:27 pm)
Amazing work!! Thank you again for an incredible job.
HastaRuh (September 7th, 2007, 10:31 pm)
great!
Doug Stewart (September 7th, 2007, 10:39 pm)
Wow! Beautiful theme! Why don’t you guys use it yourselves? A little extra flair on this site would go a long way!
Ybian (September 7th, 2007, 10:41 pm)
Thank you so much for these!I just loved the fonts,thank you guys!
Cheers
Y
Niels Teunis (September 7th, 2007, 10:50 pm)
Beautiful both of them. I will use the theme for my blog. I love it right away.
pleja (September 7th, 2007, 10:52 pm)
Great stuff!!
J Maxfield (September 7th, 2007, 10:53 pm)
obrigado!
Gerd Wippich (September 7th, 2007, 10:57 pm)
Wow! Nice stuff, thanx a lot!
evan (September 7th, 2007, 11:05 pm)
Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but how do you use these free fonts? Smashing has pointed to several free fonts, but I don’t know how to use them, for example, on my web page. Also, it seems like some of these fonts are only good for Windows. Can we have a Smashing article on how to use free fonts?
Kai (September 7th, 2007, 11:05 pm)
The Font is great, but the template would never make it into one of your lists;) By the Way: Happy Birthday
Renata Teixeira (September 7th, 2007, 11:07 pm)
The font is gorgeous! I love smashing magazine free fonts!
mudz (September 7th, 2007, 11:09 pm)
thanks for the supercool theme! im changing from Brajeshwar to SMASH theme NOW!
Robot (September 7th, 2007, 11:24 pm)
What a smashing theme, the way the middle column relates visually to the content on either side of it is quite nice. Simple but very well considered. Great job.
shery (September 7th, 2007, 11:32 pm)
this is a great theme, thanks guys
Carlos Cortes (September 7th, 2007, 11:49 pm)
Niels Teunis got a point you should do a REMODELATION because of your first anniversary giving some use to the theme and the font… it would look just awesome!!!
Bryan Migliorisi (September 7th, 2007, 11:50 pm)
Thank you for the gorgeous font! I cant wait to use it!
kevin (September 7th, 2007, 11:50 pm)
very cool. thanks.
Angel (September 8th, 2007, 12:22 am)
Love the font. :D
Simen Granerud (September 8th, 2007, 12:36 am)
Nice font, indeed.
Jonas Strandell (September 8th, 2007, 12:48 am)
Whoa… this is very cool. Christmas this soon?!
gr8pixel (September 8th, 2007, 1:39 am)
really cool stuff!!
Prasanth (September 8th, 2007, 1:56 am)
This is good. I like it. Yes. Very much.
Romit (September 8th, 2007, 2:33 am)
Thank you very much, SM is awesome ..
Seo ve Dizin Makaleleri (September 8th, 2007, 2:39 am)
it’s very good i’m downloaded my archive
Phil (September 8th, 2007, 3:51 am)
Those are great! I may even have a blog I’m about to launch which could be using the smashing theme (I already have it on the blogging pro theme and I think the smashing one is even nicer)!
Happy Anniversary Smashing Magazine!
Francisco (September 8th, 2007, 4:02 am)
Felicidades!!!
Que buena forma de celebrar!
Melissa (September 8th, 2007, 4:37 am)
The font is awesome, the theme more so!
Razvan (September 8th, 2007, 6:18 am)
The theme looks very good! :)
Robert (September 8th, 2007, 6:46 am)
Thank you very much for the giveaways :)
JFQ (September 8th, 2007, 9:35 am)
WOW! you guys ´re awsome, I love the WP template and the font is lovely, thanx 4this amazing website
dB (September 8th, 2007, 9:49 am)
radical… :)
Vix (September 8th, 2007, 10:18 am)
Excellent font and a beautiful theme!
Connie (September 8th, 2007, 2:07 pm)
a web magazine from Germany offering a free font without umlauts?
Or did I miss something?
Malcolm (September 8th, 2007, 2:57 pm)
Thanks a million..
Stian Jacobsen (September 8th, 2007, 3:09 pm)
I love the font!! But that theme.. well.. it’s not “smashing”.. sorry..
Andy Gongea (September 8th, 2007, 4:28 pm)
Nice font and WP Theme. Nice work guys. Keep up and happy birthday!
Zhonk (September 8th, 2007, 5:49 pm)
the font is very cool
Giancarlo.D (September 8th, 2007, 6:33 pm)
Great font and the theme is simply outstanding.
Logesh (September 8th, 2007, 6:41 pm)
Very Nice theme…
My Congrats for the Smashing’s 1st Anniversary
Bart (September 8th, 2007, 9:44 pm)
I like the font :)
Jason (September 8th, 2007, 10:52 pm)
First off. LOVE both the smashing theme and Typeface. Great job and major thanks for each. I am however having only one small problem with the smashing theme out of the box. After activating and viewing the smashing theme on a brand new wordpress installation, each post and page only displays the first character of that post or page. For example, on the default HELLO WORLD post on a fresh Wordpress install, I only see the “W” in the actual “Welcome to Wordpress” post. I have tested this on 3 different servers with fresh Wordpress installs and get the same problem only with the Smashing Theme. Any thoughts.
Sherlock Asimov (September 8th, 2007, 11:45 pm)
the theme seems to be buggy.
Dustin (September 9th, 2007, 12:03 am)
Is it my brithday? No its yours! lol
Chris (September 9th, 2007, 1:00 am)
Congrats again and thank you!
Алексей (September 9th, 2007, 1:42 am)
Спасибо! thank you from Russia! Good job!
Thomas Brunoli (September 9th, 2007, 8:00 am)
this is why i love smashing magazine. absolutely smashing!
Mohamed (September 9th, 2007, 9:03 am)
Very nice font i like it .
dbomez (September 9th, 2007, 4:56 pm)
I can’t wait to see what these guys will prepare us for christmas :-)
Peter Mičuda (September 9th, 2007, 6:06 pm)
Great stuff!!! Big thanks :-)
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz (September 9th, 2007, 6:07 pm)
@ Connie
The font has umlauts - and much more.
Smashing is not a German magazine.
ficOd (September 9th, 2007, 9:47 pm)
Hi… great contents as always. Here @ SM you mantain nearly the best quality freefont list. Keep up!
PS: keep an eye to: Link [www.stefano-picco.de] for free-fonts huntings ;-)
Chatmandu (September 9th, 2007, 11:27 pm)
Thanks for the great freebies although I’ve tried the theme at my site and the styling on the columns doesn’t appear yoo be working properly. See Link [chatmandu.niallwalsh.net]
Has anybody else had this problem?
Connie (September 10th, 2007, 4:56 am)
@Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
Greetings to Ahrensburg in Germany!
Ahrensburg is not in Germany?
huhuhu… I misunderstand a lot …
Justin (pusha) (September 10th, 2007, 9:04 am)
The theme is great but the font is super Great! :)
jayhan (September 10th, 2007, 11:39 am)
The font is elegant and the theme is superb! great color scheme!
Rockvibes (September 10th, 2007, 12:38 pm)
Thanks a bunch ^_^.
Sigurd (September 10th, 2007, 3:37 pm)
Thanks a lot. I have a question - do you distribute sources (eg psd) of theme?
Photoshop Tutorials (September 10th, 2007, 8:24 pm)
That proves that Smashing Magazine rocks. Its the best free wordpress theme on internet.
Peter A (September 10th, 2007, 10:15 pm)
Smashing Magazine is one of the best designer resources I’ve seen so far. And it proves again with those amazing giveaways - the font is very nice and Wordpress theme? Pure sweetness.
Randolph (September 11th, 2007, 4:40 am)
sorry don’t like it. too many colors.
Natalie (September 11th, 2007, 1:30 pm)
Love the font and all the birthday celebrations!
exljbris has a number of absolutely stunning free fonts - I really recommend the fontin family :D
Robert Marbun (September 11th, 2007, 2:07 pm)
we have to make celebration once a month!
租車服務 (September 11th, 2007, 3:38 pm)
That proves that Smashing Magazine rocks. Its the best free wordpress theme on internet.
Troy (September 11th, 2007, 3:47 pm)
I’m a designer, and I must say, I’m very tempted to use the Smashing Theme on my blog. Or at least use some of the elements. Of course the Smashing credit would remain though… Not sure if I want to make the switch yet. It’s so tempting!
Carol (September 11th, 2007, 10:50 pm)
I love it! but i just blog in blogger :(
Marcelo Barbosa (September 12th, 2007, 6:18 am)
Thank you for the Gorgeous Theme and Fonts!!!
The best e most important reference site.
Marcelo Barbosa (September 12th, 2007, 6:19 am)
Thank you for the Gorgeous Theme and Fonts!!!
The best and most important reference site.
Bikram (September 12th, 2007, 3:40 pm)
Hey, i just loved this theme. But the downside is, I am using Blogger and not WP. Can you please release a blogger version of the same theme?
Emily (September 15th, 2007, 3:45 am)
I concur, nice WP theme… thanks Elena!
milenski (September 16th, 2007, 3:58 pm)
Thanks for the lovely theme, guys. Nice work!
I will definitely use the “smashing” theme for one of our next non-commercial projects.
Cheers
Milenski
ege (September 19th, 2007, 12:56 am)
great themes, thanks. I will use it.
Rob (September 23rd, 2007, 8:43 pm)
Am I the only one having a problem with the Smashing theme, it seems, for whatever reason, that only the first letter of each post is being displayed, even though with other themes it works perfectly, I can’t seem to get my head around why this is happening, any ideas?
Thanks alot, it is a fantastic theme, I wouldn’t have bothered coming here to try and find out what’s wrong with it if I wasn’t desperate to use such a beauty :D
rajhesh panchanadhan (October 1st, 2007, 7:43 pm)
How did you create the colors behind Categories, Archives and Links. I like your theme and I am using it in my blog. However I am not able to get those colors/background behind categories, archives and links
Poxline (October 8th, 2007, 12:29 am)
Very nice theme.
thanks for the supercool theme!
Jenny (October 24th, 2007, 11:44 am)
Beautiful theme. I’d really love to use it on my site.
marco (November 15th, 2007, 5:58 am)
very cool man. jos you rock.
thanks
Black History (December 10th, 2007, 4:02 pm)
Your site is great. I am a history buff and always love reading from various perspectives.
Luigi Salas (December 28th, 2007, 4:46 pm)
Very good job! excelent! thankyou fot the contribution :)
Regards,
KhUI (January 3rd, 2008, 1:50 am)
感谢你分享，新年快乐。
THANSK FOR SHARE.HAPPY NEW YEAR.
TNC-Mexico (January 6th, 2008, 9:58 pm)
Nice, Thanks.
Happy New Year.!!!
VideoDump (January 11th, 2008, 5:40 am)
Great work… “smashing”
HAPPY NEW YEAR too..
Chajm (January 13th, 2008, 3:34 pm)
You should know, the theme makes use of spam injection! I don’t recommend it to other users of WordPress until you want to be deleted from major search-engines. My blog is now hacked. Thanks folks.
Çanta (January 15th, 2008, 10:01 am)
THANSK FOR SHARE
Canta (January 15th, 2008, 10:08 am)
Beautiful theme. I’d really love to use it on my site.
Cristian Ventura (January 17th, 2008, 10:26 am)
I also have the problem of the “first character”/”first letter” in this theme; but i solved it.
The solution is very simple:
This is the original code of “menu.php”
” href=”/”>Home
]+)>%U’,’‘, $pages);
$pages = str_replace(’‘,’‘, $pages);
echo $pages; ?>
if you remplase “menu.php” for this code:
” href=”/”>Home
]+)>%U’,’‘, $pages);
$pages = str_replace(’‘,’‘, $pages);
echo $pages;
unset($pages); ?>
the bug is solved.
Maybe is a Wordpress or even PHP bug… im new in PHP, but this works for me… ;-)
Azeem (January 27th, 2008, 12:39 am)
Simply great!…U guys rock really…Professionalism!!
Casitecenter (January 27th, 2008, 10:04 am)
thanks for designing this theme and shearing it with us
thanks
:D
mesiu (January 27th, 2008, 6:14 pm)
there are umlauts alright, as well as the ß
Shaik Amjad (January 28th, 2008, 2:56 am)
Excellent job………
Jimmy (January 29th, 2008, 10:23 pm)
Perfect its great sharing! thanx for sharing
Nadia Dxb (January 29th, 2008, 10:34 pm)
Well its nice sharing thanx for sharing!
Pendrive (February 6th, 2008, 3:10 am)
It’s very good article. Great site with very good look and perfect information.
Michelle Greene (February 9th, 2008, 10:48 am)
I love this theme…thanks so much for making it available…
forma imalat (February 13th, 2008, 12:29 pm)
forma imalat uretici
Martin (March 7th, 2008, 5:57 am)
Very nice theme, now I have dilema ;-)
Ray (March 9th, 2008, 2:30 pm)
I love the stripes!
Sukhdeep (March 15th, 2008, 1:49 am)
Very nice theme
Dest1ned (April 1st, 2008, 6:24 pm)
I recreat the red smashing theme into bule. I hope you don’t mind :D
here Link [www.dest1ned.cn]
musri (April 7th, 2008, 7:27 am)
very lucky bumped to this site
pergam (May 4th, 2008, 10:57 pm)
First of all thank you very much for making this theme open source. I am using it on my blog right now, and I’ve been making a few colour tweaks here and there. Thanks!!!
gokhan (May 6th, 2008, 5:42 pm)
hi nice theme but,
when using wordpress 2.5 pagenavi for tags page is not working :(