The interface has gotten a huge and much needed update. The layout is still simple and clean but now is more polished and modern. Customizing the CSS and the look of theme is even better, the entire site was coded with the end user customizing the site in mind.

Download Checkmate 2.0

• View the Demo Site
• Checkmate 2.0 (3675)

Theme Options

There has been a total redesign of the theme options page, and also new theme options to make customizing Checkmate even easier. Checkmate 2.0 has the ability to automatically detect uploads for CSS, logos, and backgrounds, which can easily be changed via the theme options page.

Layout Options

I mentioned the layout has been updated, well now it is also more flexible. Several users wanted a true 3 column layout(columns on each side of the content), now this is possible along with a single right column, a split right column, or a combo right column. All this is controlled using theme options and widget areas, no code editing!

Ad Management

Ad management remains in Checkmate 2.0 unchanged. It is the same simple and flexible widget and theme options combination which gives you a quick and easy way to get ads on your theme.

Support

Support for Checkmate has always been a strong point and something I’ve strove to provide the best support a free theme offers. Alas WordPress comments and email aren’t the best solution, so all support will now be handled via Tender. Where you can ask questions, read documentation, and contribute to discussions.

Features

Checkmate already had a big feature list, now it is even bigger:

• Optional background header images controlled by theme options and uploads are automatically detected
• User defined style sheets, easily changed and uploads are automatically detected
• Auto detected logo controlled through theme options
• Optional featured categories
• Feedburner integration
• Drop down Page menu, with theme options to control which Pages show in the menu
• Optional footer widget areas
• Option to use Checkmate’s previous rounded corner look
• Ability to insert code or content into the header, after a post, or footer, without editing theme files
• Ad management
• Checkmate comes with 4 color themes for you to build on: grey, brown, cake, and dark.
• Custom widgets built for Checkmate.
• Tabbed Content Box – widget enabled
• Two, Three, or Split Column Design
• Feedburner Integration
• Optional Widget enabled footer
• Custom Icons
• Gravatar support for authors and comments(WordPress 2.5)
• Custom author, archive, tag, category, and search pages.
• Widget Enabled Sidebars

Updates

• Version 2.0.1
• Updated for WordPress 2.7
• Threaded Comments Enabled
• Utilizes post_class()
• Automatically Checks for Updates
• Version 2.0.2
• Trackbacks/pingbacks style change, automatically hidden
• Comments navigation for 2.7 fixed
• Upgraded theme to use jQuery 1.3
• disabled auto check for update for now due to server load
• Version 2.0.3
• Added Localization
• Changed title structure for single post pages
• Version 2.0.4
• Converted widgets to 2.8 API
• Fixed bugs in widgets

License

Checkmate is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. All I ask is that you link back to my website somewhere in your site.

• Checkmate 2.0 (3675)

Really Like It?

If you really like this theme and would like updates, more features, and new styles, why not grease the wheel and make a donation?
PayPal takes $0.35 commission for a $1 donation. Please enter at least $1.35 , thank you! Please enter the amount you wish to donate and try again. Transferring to PayPal, please wait...

Note: A new version of Checkmate has been released. Get the new version now!

I told you earlier I was going to release it, and here it is! The Checkmate WordPress theme. It is a classic blog style template with a minimalist design packed with features and customizing options. This is one to definitely download and try out and includes a quick start guide to show you how to use some of the features.

Checkmate Demo – The demo is a bit messy looking because I tried to show off as much of the theme as I could.

Theme Options

Checkmate has a lot of options so you can get the most out of your theme without knowing any code.

• Optional Header Image
• Optional Featured Categories
• Feedburner Integration
• Menu Customization
• Optional Footer Widget Areas

Features

• Checkmate comes with 7 color themes. Grey, Red, Blue, Green, Purple, Brown, and Grey/Red.
• Custom widgets built for Checkmate.
• Tabbed Content Box – widget enabled
• Two, Three, or Split Column Design
• Feedburner Integration
• Optional Widget enabled footer
• Custom Icons
• Gravatar support for authors and comments(WordPress 2.5)
• Custom author, archive, tag, category, and search pages.
• Widget Enabled Sidebars
• Includes the TimThumb script for resizing post thumbnails located under the post meta information.
• Tested in Firefox 2, Safari(Mac), IE7, IE6. (IE6 has a problem with post thumbnails, if this concerns you bug me to fix it).

Ad Management

Checkmate has two forms of built in ad management. One form built right into theme options panel and another more advanced customizable form. Both forms of management are controlled by widgets for easy placement and you retain the ability to turn them on or off via theme options panel.

License

Checkmate is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license. All I ask is that you link back to my website somewhere in your site.

Updates

• Version 1.01
• Added wp_footer hook for plugins
• Version 1.02
• Fixed Header Image Bug
• Added browser detectable RSS Feeds (RSS2, RSS1.0/RDF, RSS0.92, RSS2 Comments, ATOM)
• Version 1.03
• Added page template with comments enabled
• Version 1.04
• Fixed sidebar error when requiring users to be registered and logged in to comment
• Misc. code cleanup
• Version 1.05
• Removed query_posts from index.php for pagination support
• Version 1.06
• Changed “1 Comments” to “1 Comment”
• Fixed the multiple categories as “featured” categories error

Download It Now!

• Get the new version here!
• Download the old version Checkmate (4594)

Really Like It?

If you really like this theme and would like updates, more features, and new styles, why not grease the wheel and make a donation?
PayPal takes $0.35 commission for a $1 donation. Please enter at least $1.35 , thank you! Please enter the amount you wish to donate and try again. Transferring to PayPal, please wait...

Check out the demo page now!(offline)

Solid Features

• Simple, clean design for any blog.
• Widget ready sidebar that includes a search bar and RSS subscription options.
• Custom Archives Page template
• Ad Management and custom ads widget
• Almost all default wordpress widgets have Silk icons
• Comment striping
• 3 color schemes
• Gravatar support with WordPress 2.5
• Feedburner Intergration
• The ability to wow your friends and family!
• Separated comments and trackbacks

Theme Options

A free theme with theme options? Ofcourse. Solid comes with 3 color themes: Red, Grey, and Seafoam. You can switch the color theme to whatever you feel like through the theme options page.

You can also enter your feedburner feed address for your full feed and comments feed in the options page. Your sidebar will then link to your feedburner feeds, otherwise it links to the default wordpress RSS feed.

Ad Management

Solid also comes with ad management. The sidebar can hold two 125px by 125px ads, and you can use the theme options page to manage them. But thats not it, you can control where your ads show up in the sidebar with a custom widget just like all your other widgets.

Known Issues

Theres always a few right? Most of these are minor inconveniences: IE8 isn’t even out yet, and really who cares about opera users.(just kidding opera users, I love you).

• IE8 breaks the footer
• Looks better on a mac
• Opera will hide the pages menu at the top
• Pages menu is at different heights in different browsers (only a problem if you are anal…like me)
• Hasn’t been tested in IE6 yet

Download It Now!

• Solid Wordpress Theme (475)

Heres a wallpaper for you from me! I call it Sunrise and its a cut down version of a poster I did. There are three versions of the wallpaper which are pretty much different levels of color. I call them “Early Morning”, “Sunrise”, and “Mid Morning”; you can call them “dark”, “original”, and “colorful” if you wish.

The wallpapers are 1280×1024 only right now, but if you want a different size leave a comment and I’ll post up the size you need.

• Sunrise - All 3 Versions (482)

Techno Boxes is a different type of wordpress theme. The theme has a liquid layout and image heavy front page. Check out the demo. Download at the bottom of the post.

Note: This is an experimental theme and hasn’t been tested with WordPress 2.5. It is definitely not plug and play, and is somewhat outdated code wise.

Features

• Liquid layout
• Widgetized footer, can be edited to hold as many widgets as you want.
• Change the color of icons with only CSS (uses transparent PNGs)
• Custom archive page utilizes images from home page.
• Widget capable sidebar.
• Uses Blueprint CSS typography framework.

A few notes

Any size images may be used on the home page. But watch the size of your titles, categories and tags. If your images are too small you might get unexpected results(or desired results?). You should also keep the width of the users screen in mind. Part of the theme is the ability to use whatever sized images you want, you could even use extremely long images.

If you don’t want the categories or tags showing up on the homepage you can easily comment them out in the home.php file.

• Techno Boxes (344)

This theme was released on my personal blog crackedshell.net but I’ve decided to move it here.

First this wordpress theme is free to use on your blog, I would appreciate a link back in your footer but it is not necessary. If you have any problems or comments please leave a comment or email me so I can improve myself and the theme!

Second I built this theme on the Blueprint CSS framework. Whats this mean? Well if you are familiar with CSS then you can completely change the look of this theme very easily. Even if you aren�t comfortable with CSS but like to get your hands dirty this is a great theme to play around with. This is somewhat of an experiment to see how people will use the framework within a theme. If you change it, I would love to see what you do with it.

There are two widgetized sidebars: the right sidebar and the bottom of the home page is also widgetized for easy customization.

Crits and comments are always welcome. I hope you enjoy Horizontal Grind!

Demo Site(my personal blog)

• Horizontal Grind (325)