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Notepad Chaos: A Free Wordpress Theme
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 Notepad Chaos — a free professional Wordpress-theme. The theme has 2 columns, a quite vibrant design including “personal” design elements such as handwritten headings, stick-it-notes, clips and pins. The theme was designed by Evan Eckard especially for Smashing Magazine and its 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.
- Preview (0.4 Mb)
- Download the theme (.zip-package, 0.5 Mb)
- Download PSD-sources (.zip-package, 5 Mb)
- Notepad Chaos 2.0: Official Release and Download page
The theme has been updated to version 1.5. It’s now up-to-date with cleaner code and includes a lot more functionality (gravatars, dynamic sidebars, etc.). You can find the files and demo here.
Motivation behind the design
Here are some insights about the design process and development from the designer himself.
“I had recently stumbled upon many websites with gorgeous, gigantic, illustrated backgrounds and wanted to try my hand at creating a site that shared that similar element. This theme was an experiment into layering multiple images and having everything line up and flow with the site’s content.
Among other things, the Notepad Chaos theme has handwritten search box and navigation at the top of the layout.
It was quite a challenge to develop the design after creating it, but in the end it helped me gain more experience in CSS and what we designers can do to try and create sites with plenty of visual depth. On the technical side of things, the theme doesn’t use any plugins or extras, and focuses simply on the design.
Sidebar in the Notepad Chaos is designed as a post-it-note and clipped at the top.
The themes uses a custom field called “thumbnail” where the user can add an image to their post. The instructions are within the readme file along with how to set up the menu links.”
Thank you, Evan. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.
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).
You may be interested in the following free Wordpress-themes as well:
The team here at Smashing Magazine. Mostly Sven & Vitaly.
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
Loading ...- 305 Comments
- 251
- 252March 19th, 2009 9:31 am
Great theme, thanks for sharing this. I’ve modified it a little to use in my blog. :)
- 253March 19th, 2009 11:36 am
Beautiful! However,
It doesn’t work when I install it! No preview, just blank gray. I have re-downloaded, reinstalled 3 times. I even downloaded some other themes and they work!
Im on WP 2.7.
Any ideas?
- 254March 19th, 2009 12:12 pm
The issue with the theme not working was due to permissions. I chmodded the folder to 777 and all works like a charm.
- 255
- 256March 21st, 2009 5:30 am
NICE MAN
- 257March 22nd, 2009 3:02 am
NICEE !!
thanks a lot - 258April 8th, 2009 7:11 am
wow
- 259April 16th, 2009 4:25 pm
Gosh! your template is really great, congratulations.
Greetings,
Marcelo - 260April 21st, 2009 2:56 pm
Hello can you help me?
I had this template in my blogger and was WONDERFULL I love the template, but since 3 days ago something hapened because there is a lot of links and images from a photobucket and I had to change the blog. Know I have horrible template because when I put the template again comes this message :Confirme a exclusão dos itens a seguir. Toda a configuração dos itens será perdida.
* HTML5
* Text2
* HTML3
* TextList1
* TextList2
* HTML2
* HTML4
* Text3Is possible for you to help me?
Thank you - 261April 22nd, 2009 1:26 pm
Could someone help me ? I downloaded the package but I can’t open it, could someone send me the HTML code ?
Thank’s ! - 262April 23rd, 2009 8:51 am
niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice
how can i put it in my free worspress
- 263April 23rd, 2009 9:09 am
Hey,
first your Layout ist awesome. I’m using the Blogger-Version from allblogtools.com.
But I have the same problem as Lilith, with the photobucket-images instead of the original images.
Can you help? - 264April 23rd, 2009 11:55 am
YAN: I can send you by mail if you want, send me your mail
- 265May 1st, 2009 12:55 am
Hi, just wanted to say thank you to all the people who left comments as to how to fix the Archives link so it would link to the archives page. I’ve been wondering how to do that, and now I have a fully functioning (albeit a little ugly!) archives page. :)
- 266May 3rd, 2009 7:44 am
nice theme.
- 267May 3rd, 2009 3:11 pm
Hey All – I’m working on the next version of this theme for Wordpress. There’s been a huge demand for an update, so I’m going to go ahead and make time to revamp some parts. Look for dynamic sidebars, advertising space, better page navigation, and any other bells & whistles I can come up with.
I’ll be forwarding the new files over to Smashing when ready. Thank you all so much for the theme popularity, and please feel free to comment with any additions/requests at my site evaneckard.com.
Thanks all!
- 268May 3rd, 2009 7:40 pm
can this theme be made into a plugin for “elgg”? i really like it!
- 269May 4th, 2009 12:38 pm
I would like to know if this theme is “widget ready”. I am new to configuring wordpress templates. I wanted to add some RSS feeds on the right and I am not sure how to do that without going to the “widgets” section and adding the feature there. I believe this template does not have right sidebar to add/modify/move widgets on the right??? Correct me if I am wrong.
- Humble Inquiry
- 270May 5th, 2009 10:23 pm
brilliant
- 271May 7th, 2009 6:49 am
brilliant, i love it … but my problem is that i’m under DRUPAL : any plan to port it to drupal 6 or 5 ? Does any one know any similar Drupal theme ? I’d really love to have it but i’m not good enough at theming to startch from scratch.
Please let me know. - 272May 8th, 2009 2:09 am
The theme was a little difficult to customize, but we found our way around it.
We changed the background colors a bit as well, to make it more neutral. You can check out the customized version here: http://blog.silkfair.com
Thanks
- 273May 16th, 2009 10:09 am
Hi All, how to upload this theme into word press? thanks =)
- 274May 18th, 2009 8:53 am
Very Nice thanks :)
- 275
- 276May 21st, 2009 1:20 am
the awesome-est ever !
- 277May 22nd, 2009 7:02 pm
I adore this theme. Thanks.
- 278May 27th, 2009 10:33 am
I think these guys called it their own. Interesting…..
http://whitelabelgraphics.com/etsy-item-of-the-day/BTW, i really love this theme!!
- 279June 3rd, 2009 5:14 am
süper bir template çoook güzel tşk….
- 280June 7th, 2009 2:10 pm
When inserting a picture, it doesn’t recognize left, center or right align with word wrap. Anyone know how to fix this?
- 281June 7th, 2009 10:43 pm
tx very much
- 282June 9th, 2009 1:17 pm
Hey! Great Theme! but anyone have any fix for “IE7″ alignment problem?
- 283June 12th, 2009 3:53 am
DGFDGFD
- 284June 12th, 2009 3:54 am
Awesome theme… good job
- 285June 17th, 2009 11:34 pm
Looks really cool. Excellentt job!
- 286June 25th, 2009 4:08 am
Hi. Could you do a widgetized version of this??
- 287June 27th, 2009 9:42 am
merci
- 288July 8th, 2009 3:21 pm
First off, I love this theme! I have tried to download it and upload it onto my blog, but for some reason it isn’t showing up in my available WP Themes… I am wondering if there are any ‘hints’ that I am missing, or if the theme only works with certain versions of WordPress.
Any and all help is appreciated!
- 289July 9th, 2009 8:30 pm
Hi,
I have my movies blog already several months with this template, the only version I am aware of and I have gone through all this thread and still could not get an answer on:
1. How do I make this version theme, that I like a lot, more flexible so I can use widgets, plugins, etc,…
2. I have red that the new version is coming up and supporting this elementary stuff, Does anybody knows if is has already been released? where? = Location? I really dont want to change this template but it I need also functionality.Thanks everyone for answering. :)
- 290July 12th, 2009 11:02 pm
Hello All
I like Your site. It is interesting. Do You have RSS I would add to my favorites.
Let me know when it will be ready. Kee it UP.
regards Szczecin Hotele - 291July 14th, 2009 1:05 am
this is brilliant! really adorable
- 292July 16th, 2009 5:44 pm
well guys i really like this theme but im a widget dude in WP, and this one fail in that… i find this for fox the widget thing…. the dude of the webside made it… he write the code to everybody else.. but for me is not working, maybe im doing something wrong but he made it for real, anyways.. i share the widget fix….
http://www.khattam.info/2009/05/18/add-widgets-to-notepad-chaos-wordpress-theme/
i will be working on it… any progress i let u know guys… thnx for all the comments, help my reaserch in this pain in the ass…
- 293July 16th, 2009 6:41 pm
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG I DID IT I DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID ITI DID IT :) :) :) :D :D :D GUYS I MADE IT YEAAAHHHH!!!!!! ok i didn’t do it with the last link i gave…. but with something really EASY so EASY the logic bit me :)… ok this is what i did… i have a lot of themes of Wordpress and i was playing with the codes of FUNCTION.PHP and the SIDEBAR.PHP for this theme. i was really disappointed because it wasn’t working the widget fix.. then i just drag and drop to the theme folder the file function.php and the sidebar.php FROM ANOTHER THEME.. then i refreshed the blog and there it was,,, the widgets :)
u can see my blog with the widgets. http://precious-ink.net/
if you need more help just email me ;) tane883@gmail.com
hugs n kisses from puerto rico :) remember Apple Rules!!!! XD
- 294July 22nd, 2009 1:48 pm
Hi
I just found this theme posted on another website and i was curious because it contains a functions.php file that is encrypted – i downloaded the theme from here and it has no functions.php file in the zip.
So what are this site doing? Try it yourselves;
http://wordpressthemesbase.com/detail/484.html - 295July 24th, 2009 4:54 pm
Nice theme, I’ve try it, I just wish it could enable the gravatar icon view on the commenting section… :D
- 296July 27th, 2009 5:05 pm
Hey!
Hi!
The work is incredible, wonderful, thanks for sharing with us this theme!
I just change some minor things to adjust to that I need in my blog, but your theme is perfect! Beautiful! Beautiful! - 297July 29th, 2009 11:16 pm
MAK NYUS TANTE….
Thanks for all…… - 298August 2nd, 2009 7:31 am
love it.. applied to my new webbie..modified it abit… but i’m having problems on the background color.. and also.. the alignment of the footer… arggh….
looks ok on windows.. but if u open my webbie with MAC.. OMG.. u could see the color difference… it’s soo obvious…..will try again… will try again…
- 299August 5th, 2009 12:30 pm
Notepad Chaos has been updated. Feel free to download here: http://www.notepadchaos.com/?p=5
- 300August 12th, 2009 4:34 pm
Complete novice here…new to wordpress and adore this theme!!! Great for my classes…please tell me how to upload…not really clear on the instructions provided.
Thanks!
- 301August 15th, 2009 11:54 pm
I translated it to spanish. I changed the background, colors and more changes.
I use it for a blog of Fans of Fausto Miño.
Fausto Miño is a great singer, he’s from Ecuador.
Thanks for the theme, I like it.
http://www.fansfm.co.cc - 302September 13th, 2009 7:37 pm
Hi, I’m new to Wordpress, so I apologize if this is a dumb question, but…does this theme that supports sidebar widgets?
Thanks!Emily - 303October 23rd, 2009 10:23 pm
It doesn’t look like it supports widgets :(
- 304October 24th, 2009 5:31 pm
303 comments and nobody seems to notice, that the style.css contains an error everywhere where serif fonts are used. there’s no “s” in the “serif” definition :) great theme anyway!
- 305October 28th, 2009 7:53 pm
LOVE this theme. Love it!
But I’m having problems with the latest 1.5 version that I’ve downloaded. My Archives page now contains my About Me information.
It is widget-aware now but they are not formatted to match the rest of the graphics of the theme so they look out of place.
Also, the tab at the bottom titled What Is This Place also pulls my About Me info as well. How do I edit that info???
Thanks for any help you can offer!Alyssa
- 00
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it is really nice theme