WordPress Fun: A Free WordPress Theme
If you have been following Smashing Magazine for a while you know that we love high-quality freebies. Over the last years we’ve featured a number of designers and developers who released their work for free — among other things we presented high-quality free fonts, free WordPress themes, free wallpapers and, of course, free icons. You can find many of them in our section Freebies.
Every release helps to make the Web a nicer place which is why we support designers and challenge them to release something for free in order to be featured on Smashing Magazine. And the results are quite often pretty impressive.
Today we are glad to release a wordpress.fun — a free professional WordPress-theme. The theme has 2 columns, thumbnails integration, a “featured” post section as well as a nice grungy design. The theme was designed by Maleika Attawel from Germany, purchased by Smashing Magazine and is now released as a gift for our readers.
Download the theme for free!
You can use the theme for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. However, it’s forbidden to sell or redistribute the theme without both designer’s and Smashing Magazine’s permission — please link to this article if you would like to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish, but if you are planning to release your modification, please ask our permission first.
The main illustration (Teen Blogger (Punk Boy)) was created by ChinHang Chung and purchased by Smashing Magazine from iStockPhoto with the extended license “Electronic Items for Resale (unlimited run)”. Therefore the illustration is redistrubited legally.
- Preview (0.56 Mb)
- Download the theme (.zip-package, 2.2 Mb)
- Download PSD and EPS (.zip-package, 5.1 Mb)
Motivation behind the design: the idea
What do you generally do when you want to create a WordPress theme without having an actual client? The initial reaction would be; you despair. All the things we have learned as good web designers such as evaluating a client’s specific needs, doing proper field research, wireframing, finding the proper grid concept for content placement, selecting a colour scheme and visual elements to support content, choosing good type, tailored to … oh wait … this is just a theme.
A theme, by definition, is a subject of discourse. In the case of a WordPress theme, it can be anything. And in the delicate case of my humble theme, the subject is fun. Plain and simple. The idea was to create a theme that is fun and usable, heavy and light, eye-catching and robust, specific and yet generic enough to be used in a variety of ways. The theme is not designed to replace true and proper web design, ergo it is not tailored to suit a specifc niche, nor complement distinctive content. However, depending on your explicit or non-explicit purposes, the design might find a good home.
The prerequisites
Like all creative processes, it started with an idea. While I am a great fan of minimalistic designs, I also admire complex and graphically intense web compositions. The only prerequisite was that it doesn’t take ages to load and that the total size of the graphics doesn’t add up to an enormous sum that would only enable those with mighty speedy internet connections to work. That was the only aspect I had to keep in mind to get started.
The design process
I had decided on going with a simple two column layout. No fancy modular or column grid, but a simple hierarchical grid like the majority of blogs use. As a page’s length is variable, it was clear that only the content that is extra but not mandantory could reside at the bottom of the page. So all navigational aids (such as categories or friends’ links) as well as a “most discussed” feature would take their position at the very end of the page.
Because I wanted to keep it as elementary as possible and void content clutter, it was clear to me to do away with too many features that would blur instead of sharpen the reader’s perception when visiting the site. Hence, I kept it rather simple and thus set aside the left column for featured content and the right column to display the newest blog entries.
Here you have the result of my humble efforts (preview) and here you can download the theme for free.
Special requirements
The theme is built with WordPress 2.5.1 and is only partially backwards compatible. The theme also works with WordPress 2.6. As this theme uses a few .png files, it is recommended that you make sure that the image paths to these are correct (for IE6). You find the two CSS rules in the ie.css file inside your theme folder. The theme can be used with or without widgets (below the fold).
Last but not least…
We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists. You may not know it yet, but we might feature you in one of our upcoming posts.
If you would like to release a high-quality free font, a WordPress-theme, some wallpapers or an icon-set please contact us — we would like to support you (both financially and with the broad coverage on Smashing Magazine).
Josh Gutteridge
July 18th, 2008 8:57 amThis is amazing! Thanks
dogday
July 18th, 2008 9:15 amWow !!! very hard work.
I will try to rebuild the image using the images in /themes/WordpressFun/images folder. After that I wil use fireworks to try to make a template.
Its much more easy to make changes this way.
Thanks again for your support.
Horst Schulte
July 18th, 2008 1:13 pmSehr schön gelungen. Vielen Dank für die tolle Arbeit!
Ronaldo
July 19th, 2008 7:07 amSorry don’t understand how to put in the archive page :(
javi
July 19th, 2008 7:19 amHi, I love this theme for my new personal blog. However, I want to translate the titles to spanish and change the image and the logo. I’ve tried to edit the PSD but I can’t find the text layers, so I don’t know how to do it. I use Pixelmator and not Photoshop but it’s more or less the same.
I hope anyone can help me or send me those text layers at fesjav a gmail dot com
thanks a lot
jack
July 19th, 2008 10:29 amOMG! i can’t believe this theme is free! Thanks
Gustavo Lemos
July 19th, 2008 11:05 amI won´t use it, but it´s a great theme
Omar
July 19th, 2008 11:50 amif you interested in this theme but 2 column only you can get it at slimmity.com
gr8pixel
July 19th, 2008 7:59 pmwow this is absolutely a great WP theme! love the textures and the line patterns! :)
Thanks!!
Min Thu
July 19th, 2008 11:48 pmVery nice and creative WP theme! i like it.
Yasir Imran
July 20th, 2008 5:43 amThis is very nice theme, but it needs own hosting, how can I add to wordpress blog
Nikhil
July 20th, 2008 11:21 amThanks for this beautiful theme. The illustration of the cartoon on the header is superb.
Friso
July 20th, 2008 2:00 pmHey Maleika Attawel,
First of all, great theme, just what I was looking for (sorta hehe). Amazing skills you have :)
Now to my little problem…Its about the categories section. I use it and i use it with hierarchy as true. Problem is, that it puts huge spaces between child categories…
Here is my blog : My Blog
I dont really know what i am doing wrong..Without hierarchy thingy it works. I hope you reply.
Thnx, and again well done on the template!
gr.
Friso
Friso
July 20th, 2008 2:17 pmHey Maleika Attawel,
Another wee little thingy, i dont understand what you guys mean by selecting the archives page? Sorry. Can you explain?
Gr.
Friso
Mizake
July 20th, 2008 11:58 pmHi. This is very nice stuff. I’m working to convert it into blogger xml layout. I’m doing it for my reader, sell it, or maybe for I use in my other blog.
Thanks to share it..
Maleika Attawel
July 21st, 2008 4:34 pmFriso,
the unordered lists in the footer area (below the fold) have a fixed height, meaning if you nest another list within it, it will inherit the height of your parent unordered list. So, if you want to have a hierarchical list, change the code in the stylesheet (/themes/themename/style.css). Alter the following code:
.sub-container .category ul {padding:0;
height:20em;
}
To this:
.sub-container .category ul {padding:0;
}
That should fix it.
If you create a page, you can choose which template you want to use with it. In the dropdown, there is a page entitled “Archives”. Use that one. :)
Friso
July 22nd, 2008 12:07 amHey Maleika,
Thank you for replying with the solution, exceelllentt! Both problems are fixed now. I do however now know that i wont be using the fix for the categories thing, cause if i have too many categories… it will mess up your beautifull design :) But thanks !
its always nice to se a designer give some support :) Thank you for this!
Greets,
Friso
luquerias
July 22nd, 2008 7:06 amgreat for your part!!!!!!!!!! thanks a lot for be there!! saludos desde españa!!
Ronaldo
July 22nd, 2008 8:57 amGreat WORK !!!!
But can someone explain why in de index the template display the normal link and in de singlei press a item, the Colum-one.php gets messed up and the url get outside the box
Cant see the sollution over here?
Victor
July 23rd, 2008 7:25 amAwesome theme!!! Does anybody know where I can see a live preview of it and not just the image?
Eliu
July 23rd, 2008 5:39 pmPerfect theme, Tank you!
SoulDork
July 23rd, 2008 9:22 pmWhat a beautiful WordPress theme and it s free! Props for that, Smashing Magazine!
Alen
July 26th, 2008 3:20 amThis is why I love you guys ;)
Problem with Theme
July 26th, 2008 4:20 pmHello, I love the theme, but I’m getting an error message under the most discussed area:
Fatal error: Call to undefined function: get_mostcommented() in /….removed…./wp-content/themes/WordPressFun/extra-content-two.php on line 7
Is there another plugin needed or something I need to enable somewhere?
Problem with Theme
July 27th, 2008 2:19 amYea im receiving same error,
Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_mostcommented() in wp-content\themes\WordPressFun\extra-content-two.php on line 7
Can you help me?
stephen
July 27th, 2008 3:28 amThat’s a great theme, I love it very much…
thanks for sharing~~
ELIU
July 27th, 2008 4:59 pmProblem with Theme (July 27th, 2008, 2:19 am)
Yea im receiving same error,
Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_mostcommented() in wp-content\themes\WordPressFun\extra-content-two.php on line 7
Can you help me?
Hey you must use the plugin wp-mostcommentedposts and add tag in the first line of file extra-content-two.php
apologise for my English because I am Brazilian and I do not know about the language. I hope I have helped!
Yoon Ho Um
July 27th, 2008 7:17 pmHi Peeps,
Thanks Maleika(she makes awesome looking themes, check out the ones on Sitepoint) for making this theme, ChinHang Chung, and Smashing Mag for giving it out for free!
How do you get an image to appear in the Featured section…? Can’t make it work. I put one @ the beginning of my post but that didn’t work…
The contact form is not aligned… is there an easy way to fix this? And I have those “bookmark me”(Social Bookmarks Plugin) graphics/links… under Featured they balloon up and show up vertically… check out http://yoonhoum.com and you’ll see what I mean. Guess I’ll go with ShareThis or use the other bookmarking plugin…
Thanks again
God Bless,
Yoon
Fabio
July 29th, 2008 4:46 ami changed something in the colors and got a new mascot, this is the result: [http://www.tvsuperhero.com]
alexandra
July 30th, 2008 2:54 amthanks a lot!
Valentinaolini.com
July 31st, 2008 10:32 amomg is wonderful!! thank you very much!
Miley-Cyrus-Fan
August 1st, 2008 8:49 amhmm.. thank you very much. usefull information
Janet24
August 3rd, 2008 11:11 amSuper. It took almost a day to find this info. Thanks, great job. :)
Christy
August 3rd, 2008 5:23 pmI love this theme – I’ve played with it a lot to get it looking more like I want, but now I have a major problem – there’s no “Leave a Comment” or any way for readers to comment on my blog! I’m not sure what I messed up, but is there a way to fix it?
http://www.motherhood-unscripted.com
Brenda Nicholson
August 5th, 2008 6:53 pmHow do I replace “wordpress.fun” with my blog name? Sorry I didn’t understand the instructions regarding the logo (above).
BTW – I love this theme, and overall have found it very easy to install, and I am not techy at all.
whitehousebo
August 5th, 2008 9:23 pmbusy dog sun trust tree yahoo ocean see sun
Liam
August 6th, 2008 4:29 pmI don’t think the designer has bought an extended license for the use of the illustation on this theme, Why? because if he or she was planning to sell it or actually sold it at Sitepoint, he(she) must be selling it as a single templates full rights obviously but not for mass distribution and SmashingMagazine Didn’t notice this ;)
You might want to ask and clarify this guys because if not someone is going ot get into trouble ;)
Just my suggestion.
Kari L.
August 6th, 2008 4:40 pmWell I do want someone to clarify this before using the theme, because if it’s Violating copyright laws then I dont want it, but I love it actually.
kari, there is no violating of copyright laws. please don’t post false accusations. (Editor)
blogcini.org
August 7th, 2008 12:39 pmthat is really cool… maybe i will change my theme to this.. thanks…
Vitaly Friedman & Sven Lennartz
August 10th, 2008 12:14 am@all: for clarification: The main illustration (Teen Blogger (Punk Boy)) was created by ChinHang Chung and purchased by Smashing Magazine from iStockPhoto with the extended license “Electronic Items for Resale (unlimited run)”. Therefore the illustration is redistrubited legally.
Matt
August 10th, 2008 1:10 amThis is a brilliant theme! Well done.
Just wanted to let you know I’ve added it to http://www.bestwpthemes.com, a collection of the best of the best WordPress themes available today.
Gomi
August 10th, 2008 5:45 amHaving problems with this theme not loading some background images (bg, and div bgs), I’ve checked and double checked the files uploaded properly and CSS links are correct. Hmmm… :-/
The_Beatnik
August 11th, 2008 6:16 amHello,
I’m using this theme and i have little problems, maybe because i’m a newbie.
1) My main problem is that the codes are displayed on previews. Normaly, you don’t see them.
2) I have read the readme.txt but i don’t succed to display the thumb in the small square.
You can see that in “Ceci est un test” on my website: http://www.wakatrip.com
Regards for your help and thank you ;)
The_Beatnik
myadlan
August 11th, 2008 7:49 amwow.. nice theme. i luv it.
but the featured post section looks dull.. unlike the post on the right section..
thanx for sharing! :)
The_Beatnik
August 11th, 2008 8:38 amHi myadlan,
I don’t finish to change the skin but the more important is to resolve bugs of display for the moment. http://www.wakatrip.com
Regards.
The_Beatnik
Rodri
August 12th, 2008 1:39 pmThanks for share it :)
The_Beatnik
August 15th, 2008 7:44 amOk that’s fine i resolve it.
Is anyone having problems with the thumbs?…I don’t succed to put a picture in the square.
Thank you.
THe_Beatnik
david
August 15th, 2008 10:14 pmI seem to have the same issue as Beatnik. I just cannot get the thumbs to work.
I have followed the instructions in the readme file and
1) created a custom field withe the key thumb
2) created the following value:
And when i go to the page i only see the alt text “test” in thumb area.
What do i do wrong here?
Thanks in advance
David
david
August 15th, 2008 10:46 pmOuups, in the post above the value disappeared. Sorry. Here it is.
”
The_Beatnik
August 15th, 2008 11:35 pmHappy to not be alone David ;)
I’ve try a lot a things and no thumb finaly….The guy who find the solution will be the king of this topic!
Ruben Badaro
August 17th, 2008 3:31 pmTo show the image create the custom field named “thumb” and as a value we have to put an image tag with the path, but the src attribute has to be with single quotes instead of double quotes, that just get escaped. I tried it and it worked.
The images should be 82 x 82
I have however another problem. The sections at the bottom of the page aren’t growing (I have a lot of categories) so the text overflows those boxes.
Has anyone surpassed this problem?
Dario
August 18th, 2008 5:52 amWell, I use this theme, but when I come to the page 2 the thumbs already me do not turn out to be alone the bottom(fund), the images thumb disappear can see it, give click here
http: // psdcreativo.com/page/2/
But in my principal page
http: // psdcreativo.com/here if the thumb appear
Which can be the problem?
محمود
August 21st, 2008 6:29 ami like it
rafal
August 26th, 2008 7:00 amI have the same problem as Dario.
my thumbs dissapear when going to older entries – page/2
how can one fix that?
thanks a lot, i love this theme
wowwwow
August 26th, 2008 12:28 pmwow what a nice looking theme. By far the best designed free theme available on the web. Nice job guys.
Neil
August 27th, 2008 7:00 amFor the images beside the posts, do we have to use custom fields? and if so how? are there any specifications etc? cheers for sharing guys, its a great theme!
TJ
August 27th, 2008 4:26 pmHey there,
Amazing theme, I’m going to begin using it shortly here. I do have a small question to ask, do you mind sharing the header image font type?
For example, the font you used for the “featured” image, or the title text in the header? I’m looking into changing one of the boxes at the bottom, but I’d like to keep the header image consistent .
Thanks for your time, and the awesome theme.
Chris Baitinger
August 30th, 2008 4:30 amReally thanks to you! Beautiful theme! I enjoy it…)
John
August 31st, 2008 10:01 amHow in the world do you edit the guy typing on the computer in the template…like what if I want to replace him with another vector? How do I do that…the source file doesn’t have any splices in it. Is there an easy trick to this?
Mahalia
August 31st, 2008 10:14 pmI have problem with stylesheet missing too…
Bill
September 1st, 2008 2:01 pmI am new to this. How do I change the links in the “friends and links” section.
thanks!
Bill
September 1st, 2008 2:16 pmI can not get posts to appear in the left hand side featured section to appear either. I created a category called “Featured”, and assigned three posts to that category, and I am using the default code in the column one php:
but nothing is appearing. Anyone know whats up?
Bill
September 1st, 2008 2:20 pmmy code didn’t get published on the last post…but I am using the default code…. ‘category_name=Featured&showposts=3′ …I didn’t change the code at all.
Bill
September 1st, 2008 2:29 pmforget post 164 and 165…I figured it out…I had a punctuation issue. but not sure about #163
john
September 1st, 2008 4:51 pmhow do you display pictures in the left hand featured section like the picture of the website shows?
John
September 1st, 2008 8:27 pmAlso, I have been working on this for awhile and can not figure it out. HOw do I limit the number of posts ont he home page. I want to have a limit of 5, and then a button to go forward to page two, and a button backwards as well. Any advice on how do I do that?
rafal
September 2nd, 2008 12:17 amJohn – you can set this up in your admin section – settings – and then some of the tags there (publication or sth)
John
September 2nd, 2008 5:38 amthanks Rafal….I knew that had to be easy. Any odea how to get images to display in the featured left sidebar with the featured posts?
Emz
September 4th, 2008 7:11 amGreat theme – I’m using it on my site but I hope you don’t mind I modified it quite a bit and changed the colour scheme etc.
نويل
September 4th, 2008 8:08 amThanks guys! Great, great theme… easy to modify to fit my needs, and just beautiful! As a designer I never even take the time to work on my own personal site, so I’m always so very happy when I find a theme that I like enough to change things up!
Thanks again!
Sam Johnson
September 7th, 2008 8:23 amI read the instructions for setup and cannot get the images to appear, can someone hear layout the steps from the beginning to the end. I would love to get this to work.
Thanks
Sam
Kazim
September 8th, 2008 4:55 pmHi;
How can be display the thumb image?
I did all the steps, but the thumb image for all posts, not showing?
can anyone help me?
thanks.
نويل
September 8th, 2008 8:10 pmI had to do a few steps to get the images to work. If you’d like go to my site, email me, and I’ll send you the revised code I used along with plug-in info (when needed).
Kazim
September 9th, 2008 3:42 pmHi نويل
What is your site address?
Onur
September 10th, 2008 10:12 amblogger version here
http://gosublogger.com/2008/09/wordpress-fun-blogger-template/
Tinh
September 10th, 2008 6:38 pmGreat theme. Thanks for sharing
Гинеколог
September 11th, 2008 6:08 amUpdate! WordPress 2.6.2
Johan Niemi
September 11th, 2008 11:06 amI just started at Digital Design at my local university, and my group is using your theme. It’s pretty cool, good job. It’s a bit on the heavy side, but it looks good.
john
September 16th, 2008 5:16 pmDoes anyone know how to put thumbnails on the left sidebar where the featured content posts are located??
Angie
September 17th, 2008 5:30 amGreat theme, but … (you take criticism right?)
Now that I have used it, I think it was only the graphic and layout that drew me to this wordpress theme. If it’s going to be called a “pro” theme, can you make it compatible with widgets? Also, this theme never executed the wp_footer() action. As a result a few important plugins didn’t work without my intervention.
Still, I love your magazine!
Angie
September 17th, 2008 5:34 amDoes anyone know how to put thumbnails on the left sidebar where the featured content posts are located??
1. Upload your picture,
2. Copy the URL to your uploaded picture,
3. On your post, add a “Custom Field” with key “thumb” and value being the following:
<img src=” (place your URL here) ” >
john
September 17th, 2008 6:55 amthanks for your replay angie. I do that, and I DO get the little thumbnail on the main home page, BUT there are no images in the left column one left sidebar. IS there a different key for that?
It appears that is controlled by “.asides .featured-post img {” in the css.
dave
September 17th, 2008 9:36 amFatal error: Call to undefined function: get_mostcommented() in …..
content\themes\WordPressFun\extra-content-two.php on line 7
Why is this appearing and how do I make this theme work properly…thanks….with wp 2.6
john
September 17th, 2008 1:53 pmdave, when does this occur? when you access the web page, or when you access a certain function?
jothiek
September 20th, 2008 5:50 amThe header is a png file. How do I modify it? Does photoshop work for creating the file?
Salwa
September 24th, 2008 1:47 amAwesome theme. Love this!
Richard
September 25th, 2008 2:27 amExcellent theme!
Can anyone recommend which plugins and widgets are best compatible with these theme?
Richard
Richard
September 25th, 2008 2:28 amThe header is a png file. How do I modify it? Does photoshop work for creating the file?
The source files are available for download at the top for Photoshop.
sophie
October 7th, 2008 12:55 amHello, I have the same problem :
Fatal error: Call to undefined function get_mostcommented() in /wp-content/themes/wordpress.fun/WordPressFun/extra-content-two.php on line 7
using wordpress2.6 any idea ? thanks !
John
October 7th, 2008 3:24 amTry *reading* the *readme* file…. you need to download a plugin to get it to work
Ruy Adorno
October 7th, 2008 8:11 pm@sophie I’ve got the same trouble, but I solved it, the point is the theme uses a plugin that not come with the wordpress default distribution, you can get this plugin here: http://ja.rafi.pl/2006/05/01/wp-most-commented-posts/
Jason
October 10th, 2008 2:44 pmHas anyone figured out how to get the image to show up in the Featured column on the far left?
The ‘thumb’ custom field only works for the middle column. Is there another custom field we can use to make the image display in the Featured column?
john
October 10th, 2008 3:43 pmJason, I asked that awhile back and have yet to figure it out. Does anyone know how to add an image to the left featured column? If so, I really would appreciate the insight. Thanks!
Wayne
October 13th, 2008 2:56 pmThe featured column only shows the excerpt by default so you would most likely have to embed it or edit the template file to include an image from a custom field.
Jayden
October 13th, 2008 6:16 pmIs it just me or is there no readme file in this? There is a “readme.html” in the root, but this is just the standard WordPress readme. The license.txt doesn’t have any help either. I’m just trying to work out how to make custom Post thumbnails…
Awesome template by the way!! Thanks very much :)
Jason
October 13th, 2008 6:43 pmJohn, I finally got it to work!
The only thing you need to edit (I think) is column-one.php
After this line:
?php the_time('l, F jS, Y') ?>or actually, just as long as it is with the div class “featured-post”
You need to insert this code:
?php $key="post"; echo get_post_meta($post->ID, $key, true); ?>Then, in your post, create a custom field with the key “post” and make sure it is 300px wide and everything should work!
also check your style.css file to make sure you have this code
.asides .featured-post img {width:300px;
padding:6px;
background:#6f5931;
border:2px dashed #826a3e;
}
let me know if this doesn't work and you need anymore help.
http://www.countrymusicgoodness.com
ps. you also need to make sure you have the carrot before the ?php, I just couldn't get this comment to include it. if anyone has advice on how I can make sure the full code is included in a forum post I would appreciate it. Thanks!
Jayden
October 13th, 2008 10:21 pmJust found the readme… it was in a higher directory than the rest of the working files :|
Moazam
October 17th, 2008 9:50 amHi,
Thanks for great work. Theme is amazing. I have a question, when I add categories, tags or ads (160×600) under the featured section using sidebar1 and sidebar2 none of the widget is appearing. I don’t want to put them in bottom section.
Any suggestion?
Thanks again!
Jason
October 20th, 2008 6:32 pmi’m trying to figure out how to decrease the length of the post preview both in the main column and the featured column.
i’m not talking about the number of posts showing up, but the length of each post that is previewed. For the main column it looks like it is set to 5 rows of text and the featured column is set to 9.
does anyone have any idea where this can be controlled?
thanks!
BillyG
October 21st, 2008 11:11 amThis theme needs a wiki it’s so damn complicated!