The new official Theme Team at WordPress has brought us yet another gorgeous free theme created by bizzArtic. Let me introduce you to Inuit Types. Just take a moment to look around my new blog design.
There is so much I like about this theme that I had to try it on right away. Here are some of the features I personally appreciate:
- Elegant and highly readable serif typeface
- Spacious white background
- Subtle gray accents and subtle hover color
- Overall professional look
- 6 possible color schemes, including a dark background option
- Graceful drop down menus
- Magazine-style front page with post excerpts and bordered thumbnails, gives readers a quick glimpse of your topics
- One or two column front page excerpts.
- An introductory block under the title where I snuck in a header, which I can change from time-to-time to refresh my blog look
- Two extra page templates (archive and site map)
- Stylish RSS feed option in upper-right corner
No doubt there are several other fine features I have yet to discover or remember to report. I’ve noticed that everything seems to work well and easily in this theme, as opposed to my last theme which had some glitches.
The theme also has an option for featured posts, but I find the frames too thick and chunky and the titles don’t always fit. I’ve seen the featured posts option look great on other sites, so it’s entirely a matter of preference and content. I may use it from time to time.
The only feature I don’t like is the dark background color to the widgets on the sidebar. I would prefer white, white is nice! But as someone smartly pointed out, without the contrast it would look quite flat and boring. I find keeping the length of the widgets small and interspersing them with the smallest widgets (like the search or email subscribe box) allows for the most white space instead of one long black, heavy feeling sidebar. I also used the category cloud with smaller font sizes instead of a long category list and used avatars in the comment widget. This all provide more white space around the widgets, which makes a big difference to the look I find.
Inuit Types is my theme of choice for the moment. A big round of applause for the new WordPress Theme Team and many thanks too.
You might also like this list of others using Intuit Types theme.
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Magazine-style front page with post excerpts and bordered thumbnails, gives readers a quick glimpse of your blog topics
I don’t see these when I use this Theme…
Can’t change this in the settings either
Can someone help me with this?
Thanks in advance
Hi there, I went to your blog and see you have figured this out. Congratulations and nice new look too! If anyone else has this problem, you need to activate the two column feature under Theme Settings in Appearance and then use the new ‘Thumbnail’ option midway down on the right column of ‘Edit page’ below the categories section- this will bring the media pop-up and there’s a new ‘use thumbnail’ option below the other usual size options (including the one you use to post a thumbnail on your page). The WordPress Forum is a great resource for help if you encounter any other challenges.
Hi Samenwerk and everyone else, I am glad you were able to rectify your problem with the three columns. However I have been pulling my hair out trying to achieve the 3 columns. I have tried the way Sandra Lee suggested but I have a “theme option” and no” theme setting”. I have searched through all the catagories and still have not found away to set up the three columns. I have also tried in the settings area and I am at my wits end here as well.
Can you offer any advice?
Hi there,
Go to Appearance, under Appearance click on Theme Options. At the Theme Options page, I have Featured Post Entries on 0 and no ticks in the boxes for the other options. Sorry if I used the word “settings” and confused you. Hope this helps. If not, you can go to the WordPress.com forum to ask for help. All the experts are there. Good luck!
Thanks for the advice however it did not work. I had set all my theme options as you suggested , then I went to edit page and again on my page there is no catagories option…to click on thumbnails.
HI Sandra,
I love your new look. I had noticed you were using neutra prior to this…right ..
I like the whole look…but like you i find the side bar colors too dark. I will wait for a much lighter or pastel option or yes white is good in my world too :)
And I love vigilance so much for now…the wide side bar…just right for all my widgets etc…But i have an itch to try this theme too…:)
Who knows…you might see a new theme soon :)
Love your blog content too!
Much Love,
Z~
Hi Zeenat, I am so happy you stopped by. I love your blog – Positive Proclamations – and your life aspiration so much! Yes, I was using Neutra just before this. I liked the simplicity, but I didn’t like the gray, sans serif font and super narrow sidebar, nor the Dodger blue esp. on all the links. Before that it was Vigilance which is a great choice in so many ways. It works wonderfully on your blog, which has such a colorful flair.
You could try this theme (Inuit Types) on a test blog and see what you think. I think the landing page with excerpts would suit your content well, but you might have to manually add in all the thumbnails to the extracts for former posts; haven’t found an automated way. The heavy black bar is definitely the challenge. I am trying to lighten it up by adding white photos. An experiment… All best wishes. Will keep visiting and perhaps see a new theme!
Hi Sandra. I noticed a query of yours on the wordpress forums which lead me here. Having just had a look at the new theme myself so I thought I’d read what you had to say about it. I too like the colours and the extra options it gives you. I think the openness and minimalist approach suits your blog well.
I dabble a bit in CSS so if you want to see what it would look like if the sidebar colours were the same as your posts then here’s some code that you can preview from the Appearance tab of the admin panel. Unfortunately if you want the change to be permanent you’ll have to buy the CSS upgrade. Personally, I think the contrast with the different text colours is probably a good thing, it helps keep the two sections of the page clearly defined. Here you go:
.widget, .widget a, .widget h2, .widget h3, .widget li, .widget p {color:#000!important; background-color:#fff;}Luke, how kind of you! Thanks for your input on the way the look fits my blog. I’m warming up to the white/black theme now, as you might have guessed, but I will also give the code a try on a test blog to see what I think of another option. Thanks for commenting. Good luck on your blog too. Looks like you do a little more than “dabble” with the CSS but maybe all that code is for another purpose.:-)
Like, You’re right, it does look quite flat without the contrast. It would need some perking up that’s for sure. I’ll continue with the white/black scheme for now. Thanks again. It’s amazing to get a taste of how CSS works for someone who is technologically challenged.:-)
All the confusing code posted on my blog is music/multimedia based but I do enjoy diving into CSS and the webby side of things too. My blog is custom styled! If you do ever decide to jump in and get the CSS upgrade and need some assistance then drop me a line. I’m always happy to help.
Thanks! That’s very kind of you to offer. Stay well.
Sandra (same name as me!) I too am using this theme but how do I get all those drop down tabs at the top? I only have about! Do I have to create some pages and then what? if you create a page (such as for example, my photos, does that automatically create a tab or do you have to do it? (sorry for being such an idiot!) I mean those that you have called ‘wellness’ ‘illness’ etc at the top.
Thanks
Technogran
You got it, whenever you add a page, it will add the page name to the menu bar across the top. If you add a ‘child’ page under a parent page, then it will add the name of the child page in the drop down menu for that parent page. Also, if you want, you can add thumbnails for each post on your landing page, but using the ‘Add thumbnail’ (or use thumbnail) option on the Edit Page menu in the right column below the categories options. Good luck. I’ll be checking in to see how your look develops.
Thanks Sandra for your help. I KNEW you’d be helpful, all of us Sandra’s always like to help others. I like tthis theme just wish it was a wider writing area, and I also would love the sidebar ‘blocks’ to have rounded corners. (would sort of ‘soften the look’ if you know what I mean. Still, now we have the theme team on the job we should soon see lot’s of choices in themes!
Thanks again.
You’re welcome! With your computer savvy, you could probably make your wishes come true for the wider writing space and the rounded corners in this theme with a CSS upgrade. Then you would have to learn CSS, but it sounds like that would be a snap for you. I’m technologically challenged so it’s not a route for me. I wish you successfully blogging.
Hi sandra… I’m a young student:) I want to use your same theme but i don’t know what i have to change in the css of the theme for having a white sidebar!
May you help me?
Thank you very much!
Hi Dario,
This is the CSS code to change the sidebar to white (#fff). The #228b22 I believe is the green color I’m using. You will probably want to change that to another hex value.
.widget,.widget a,.widget h2,.widget h3,.widget li,.widget p {
color:#228b22!important;
background-color:#fff;
text-align:center;
line-height:18px!important;
}
Warning! It’s not so simple. When you use the code to make the change, it may look a little boring and bland. I also had to decrease the space between the widgets and make some other changes to make it look OK. I’m quite busy this week, but on the weekend I will try to post all the CSS adjustments I made for my blog and then you can see what might be relevant for you.
You can get basic information and help by visiting the WordPress.com CSS forum.
Good luck! Sandra
Thank u so much!!!! ;)