Free HTML 4.01/HTML5 WordPress Theme: Spectacular
Today we release Spectacular, a free WordPress theme that aims to provide a warm and pleasurable atmosphere for personal musings and ramblings. The theme comes in two flavors: HTML 4.01 and HTML5. Also, both German and English versions of the theme are included in the download package. The theme is cross-browser compatible and supports Opera, Safari, Chrome, IE7+, and FF. Support for IE6 is not available, though the theme works in IE6, too.
The theme was commissioned by Smashing Magazine and designed by Maleika Esther Attawel exclusively for Smashing Magazine. As usual, the theme is absolutely free to use in private and commerical projects.
Download the theme for free!
The theme is released under GPL. You can use it for all your projects for free and without any restrictions. Please link to this article if you want to spread the word. You may modify the theme as you wish.
- live demo
- large preview (.jpg, 1.2 Mb)
- download the .zip-package (zip, 21.1 Mb, including instructions)
Screenshots

Front page area (large preview)

Table and content (large preview)

Front page area (large preview)
Thank you, Maleika. We appreciate your work and your good intentions.
Feel free to suggest your ideas for the freebies you’d like to see on Smashing Magazine in the comments area below.












Marco
May 20th, 2011 10:58 amHi,
I think the download theme’s link is broke, can anyone to tell me where can I download the theme? Thanks
Cole
August 2nd, 2011 8:22 pmHello,
I am attempting to format the into logo of my website. I want to have more control over how the text is displayed. I want the words “Entering the Profession: Wisdom for Emerging musicians” to be more artistically formatted.
Can anyone tell me where in the code I can alter this?
Any help is hugely appreciated. Please see my site at enteringtheprofession.com.
Thank you!
Cole
August 3rd, 2011 9:42 amNevermind. I fixed it.
Jerome
August 4th, 2011 11:53 pmTo reset alignment of images and smiley, add the following code, line 552 :
article img.wp-smiley {
float: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
}
article img.alignright {
float: right;
margin: 0 0 5px 15px;
}
article img.aligncenter {
float: none;
text-align: center;
}
Brent
August 7th, 2011 11:11 amAgreed, this theme is entirely broken in WP 3.10 and above. Too bad, because it’s visually very attractive. I have the feeling the creator of this theme is more a designer and not a developer.
Karen
August 18th, 2011 7:19 amWhat a gorgeous theme!!!
Tony Tracy
August 21st, 2011 8:21 pmI am really super impressed with this theme, but am having issues with the latest full release of WordPress which are similar to those outlined above.
I would absolutely *love* to see a revised version of the theme(s) (both the HTML 4 & HTML 5 versions, if possible) which would be compliant with WP 3.1 and above…
Or perhaps there is someone out there who has discovered some work-arounds that they’d be able to share with us!
Thanks for putting this gorgeous theme out there for folks!
official cheap tory burch sale
August 24th, 2011 10:18 pmI am really super impressed with this theme, but am having issues with the latest full release of WordPress which are similar to those outlined above.
I would absolutely *love* to see a revised version of the theme(s) (both the HTML 4 & HTML 5 versions, if possible) which would be compliant with WP 3.1 and above…
Or perhaps there is someone out there who has discovered some work-arounds that they’d be able to share with us!
Thanks for putting this gorgeous theme out there for folks!
Chuck Reynolds
October 18th, 2011 11:05 amAN AMAZING ONE-OF-A-KIND Get Paid Plan..!
Colleen
October 19th, 2011 9:31 amHi,
I can’t seem to find the “Uploads” folder, could someone please tell me where it is located?
Thanks!
Jamie
October 20th, 2011 8:05 amI think I need to start using wordpress a little more. I see many websites having them but I am still using a static html site. I feel it is easier but I do like the fact that wordpress has like 1 million plug ins that I can us…lol
Anyway thank you so much for this article.
Jim
November 15th, 2011 8:31 pmThis theme is not broken, read the readme.rtf file, the contents of the zip file need to be put into specific locations and then it works fine, even in 3.1.2.
العاب اون لاين
November 24th, 2011 12:07 pmPerfect mind from you to us keep going to us ..
Jennifer Fox
January 10th, 2012 4:58 amI have followed the instructions in the readme file (I could not locate the “Uploads” folder but did transfer the “images” folder) and have everything working… EXCEPT the ampersand “&” in the phrase “Slightly older musings & ramblings”. The “&” image is not showing. Help anyone??? Thanks
Jennifer Fox
January 10th, 2012 2:52 pmI also just realized that my background boxes (on the homepage behind my posts) are not showing. What do I do? Thanks
Andy Plank
January 19th, 2012 7:22 pmWow, I love the look of this.
I write for a magazine and maintain its Web site. Is there a way to put basic photos along a sidebar that will act as ‘ads’ linked to our advertisers sites?
How customizable is the template without tampering with the codes behind it? I’m not quite that smart.
Ramit Walia
February 13th, 2012 12:48 amHello guys. May I know if what plugin was for the images ? And how can i edit Slightly Older Musings and Ramblings ? Thanks
Sam Ingersoll
February 15th, 2012 7:29 amWhile the use of texture and color is nice, the overall design is horrible for at least one reason: the body text font size is so small that it is unreadable.
Frankly, anyone who designs a website without using at least the size that these words are written in for the body text has zero clue about usability or design.
I’ve skimmed through SmashingMagazine’s wordpress templates and most of them are really embarrassing.
Do not use this theme. If you do, none of your readers will stick around to read what you say.
Dean Franchette
February 24th, 2012 11:06 pmI must show some thanks to this writer just for bailing me out of this circumstance. Because of exploring through the online world and coming across strategies that were not helpful, I was thinking my entire life was done. Being alive devoid of the strategies to the issues you’ve fixed as a result of this guideline is a crucial case, as well as the kind that might have in a negative way damaged my entire career if I had not noticed the blog. That skills and kindness in handling the whole lot was tremendous. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I hadn’t discovered such a thing like this. I am able to now relish my future. Thanks a lot very much for your high quality and result oriented help. I will not hesitate to refer your blog to anyone who should get assistance on this issue.
Brad
April 13th, 2012 4:15 pmGreat theme, love the layout and look. I know some have commented about the font being too small, but that’s ridiculously easy to adjust by making some small changes to the css file.
I’m having a weird issue with Adsense. For whatever reason, all that shows up is the “Your Ad Here” piece on the side of the ads, but none of the ads themselves show up – and it’s not just the text, the box itself is missing. I’ve tested on the Twenty Eleven theme and it shows up fine, so it’s not an issue with the ads. Any idea what’s going on?
Lisa
July 23rd, 2012 2:42 amMore theme problems with the latest WP 3.4.1 release. Custom menu feature doesn’t appear to work and the nav bar completed dropped down from the top. The & is missing in the image folder so it doesn’t appear. As far as previous complaints about font size, that can be remedied by going into the CSS and changing it to something larger.
Snufkin
September 10th, 2012 1:35 pmI run my blog with WP 3.4.2 and SPECTACULAR theme – everything fine.
There was a problem after theme installation, but i have read help and configured WP as was described there – everything fine!
About & – you should move ampersand.png to root of WP to images/ampersand.png
or change theme header for full path to image: /wp-content/themes/spectacular/images/ampersand.png
cengiz
February 9th, 2013 2:59 amI have the same Problem here with the navigation bar, help needed! :| Where can I change the Nav bar position?