Theming WordPress
Published at 08:22 on 19 April 2021
Executive summary: It’s not that easy, but it’s not really all that hard, either.
The main complication is, well, complication. WordPress is a mature and very full-featured software system, and web layout itself is intrinsically a not-so-simple thing, because the same layout must work well on both a big desktop screen and a tiny smartphone screen.
If you start by editing the existing WordPress default theme, you will quickly get lost in the complexity. It is far better to start with a simplified, bare-bones theme like Tania Rascia’s untheme and work from there. The rub is, such bare-bones themes tend to be too simplified, so you will then be compelled to add the missing features you desire.
This still is working out quite well for me, because I am getting a theme that has the features I want and none of the features I do not want, resulting in a very clean layout overall.
The design itself is based loosely on mid-twentieth century newspaper typography. The typefaces come pretty close, and I justify my body text margins, but column width and paragraph style follows more typical Web standards.
This is yet another stage in the process of moving this blog off of its current host and onto the virtual host where the rest of my online presence is kept.