New Theme: Twenty Ten
Over the weekend, we turned on a new theme called Twenty Ten. Twenty Ten is a big deal for us — it’s our first update to the “default” theme (the one you see when you start a new blog) on WordPress.com. Our goal with Twenty Ten was to create something stylish, customizable, simple, and most of all, readable. Since every new WordPress.com user will be seeing Twenty Ten, we wanted to design an example of what a WordPress theme can do — that meant inventing some new features as well as utilizing a few that you may not know about yet.
Custom Headers
Twenty Ten comes with a selection of great header images. It’s easy to switch between any of the included header images or upload your own. You can even use a different custom header image for each post by including a Featured Image when you publish a new post.
Custom Backgrounds
One of the easiest ways to customize a theme to your personal style is with a custom background image or color. Twenty Ten is the first theme to use WordPress’ new custom background feature, so it’s easy to pick a new background color, upload an image, and tweak its tiling and positioning. If you’ve ever had to write CSS or muck about with code just to change your background color, we think you’ll really dig this new feature.
Drop-down Menus
Twenty Ten neatly organizes your pages into a menu right in your blog’s header, and includes drop-down menus for multiple levels of nested sub-pages. There’s more coming with the menu, but give us a few days.
Special styles for Asides and Galleries
Twenty Ten includes special styles for posts that you file in the “Asides” or “Gallery” categories. When viewed on an index page (like your home page or a list of posts from a particular month), asides get a simplified look that seamlessly fit between full-length posts, while galleries give a peek at the photos that lie within. If you don’t already have those categories on your blog, just add them and start assigning posts to them. Twenty Ten will recognize the category name and start applying the correct styles automatically. For an example of what inspired us here, check out Matt’s blog and how he intersperses shorter posts and galleries.
Editor Styles
If you’re like me, you constantly find yourself hitting the Preview button while composing so you can see what your post will look like with your theme’s styles. Twenty Ten aims to break that addiction by using the editor styles feature of WordPress. Now, the Visual Editor in WordPress can mimic the look of your theme, so you get a perfect visual representation of your post while you’re writing. I think this will be a really popular feature with new themes once people try it out.
One and two-column templates
By default, Twenty Ten uses a two-column layout with lots of room for widgets. If you’d like to hide the widgets and focus on the writing for a particular page, just choose the “One column, no sidebar” template.
Widgets Galore
Because we know you can’t get enough widgets, we’ve included two sidebar widget areas (extra-useful for those of you who customize your CSS) as well as four footer widget areas. It’s easy to load Twenty Ten up with lots of widgets without sacrificing your blog’s design.
Beautiful in Print
We’ve all experienced unpleasant surprises when trying to print an article from a web site. Twenty Ten includes special styles for printing, so you’ll get printed copies that are just as easy to read as the original.
To see more of Twenty Ten in action, visit the theme demo blog. If you already have a WordPress.com blog, you can find Twenty Ten under Appearance → Themes. If you don’t yet have a WordPress.com blog, just sign up and Twenty Ten will be waiting for you when you log in. Twenty Ten will be default for WordPress.org users when WordPress 3.0 launches in May. (What’s the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com?)
April 26th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Woww,, a very nice theme. i will try it. thanx.
keep the good work :
April 26th, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Woe, thanks Matt. I’m waiting for this.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:12 pm
Saw it this weekend and switched… 2010 is AWESOME! WordPress is the best!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:15 pm
Nice! Great to see that this theme will help expose users to some of WP.com’s new features. It looks a bit too cold for my taste though (as compared to Kubrick).
April 26th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Are other themes going to be utilizing Asides, too?
April 27th, 2010 at 1:44 am
Sure, if you guys like them.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:30 pm
Excellent fonts, excellent layout. Thanks. Question, what is the difference between primary widget area and secondary widget area? They both appear to be same to me. Also, on the theme demo site, I see the first post highlighting with different background color, but the same isn’t the effect on my blog’s first post.
April 27th, 2010 at 1:46 am
The primary and secondary areas can be used interchangeably. They’re for the benefit of folks who want to customize their theme with CSS — the primary and secondary widget areas can be positioned independently, making things like 3-column layouts a possibility.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Just tried it out, works great, thank you for this new theme.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:32 pm
Very classy, simple and neat. Congrats!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Wow! You guys are really on a roll now! I will try this one out and see what it looks like. Keep em’ coming Theme Team!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
plain but pretty : D
April 26th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
I think this is WordPress’s best theme yet!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
i love it…
April 26th, 2010 at 2:40 pm
Neato bandito. Looks like one of the best new themes yet. And now to play…
April 26th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
It’s amazing. Thanks.
April 26th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
Looks great
April 26th, 2010 at 2:42 pm
thanks very good
April 26th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Brilliant. I was actually watching Matt’s blog some time ago wondering if wordpress.com will ever get these “aside” and “gallery” posts features. And here they are, you’re reading my mind!:)
April 26th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Sweet! Really nice theme. Nice work. Thanks!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
Wow, this is exactly what I want! Can’t wait for tomorrow to select this theme for my other blog. Thx WP!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Cool theme. I’ll use it! Great job guys, keep it up!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Wow it looks beautiful!!! Can’t wait to try it out. I haven’t found a theme I’d like to use long term since INove came out
April 26th, 2010 at 2:56 pm
This is the one!
April 26th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
So cool! You just might get me to try this one…
April 26th, 2010 at 3:00 pm
Sweet. Changed to this now; already had it on my mess-about blog.
Is there anyway to get a link to a post on the dropdown menu or can it only link to pages?
April 26th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
More cool stuff is coming soon with menus — and not just for Twenty Ten. Stay tuned to this blog.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
clean and elegant; beautiful! nice work, guys! i’m definitely trying this out!
April 26th, 2010 at 3:03 pm
oh. yeah. this looks way good. just about what i could have dreamed up only already done and with a few added things i hadnt thought of which are ideal advances as well. yes. all of it. sounds great. outstanding. ya know i’m going for it. … okay, i just want to explore the links you have in this post and then i’m going for it. cool on WP Theme Teamers.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:07 pm
I’d been hoping for a theme that allows for custom backgrounds. That’s awesome! Will we soon see a theme with both Custom Backgrounds and selectable font colors? That wouldn’t just be awesome. It would be sublime.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Very nice, a new theme
April 26th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Wow! Thanks guys. Just taken a look at the demo blog and this theme seems to contain all the features I’ve been looking for in a theme for ages. And it’s gonna come as the default theme? Unreal!
Right, off now to start giving it a trial run… cos I can’t resist the temptation.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
How can I pick the one-column template? I can’t find it in the list?
April 26th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
It’s part of the Twenty Ten theme – you can select the one column template for pages right from the page editing screen.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:12 pm
it looks amazing, i tried to view it in preview, it’s not displaying my custom widgets in preview? can you confirm is that only a preview problem or would all my widgets get disappeared if i apply twenty ten Theme. Many thanks.
April 27th, 2010 at 2:57 am
I believe that’s just a byproduct of the preview, Yasser — but do contact Support if you have trouble with your widgets.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Amazing <3 can't wait to try it out.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Beautiful! I just switched my theme, but may have to try this one on . . .
April 26th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Thanks for the quick reply Yoav, so I can’t have the blog itself in one-column in other words?
April 26th, 2010 at 3:58 pm
That’s right — You can turn on the one-column template on a per-page basis. If you’d like to remove the sidebar entirely and are comfortable writing CSS, it’s quite easy to do with the Custom CSS upgrade.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:21 pm
wow! very cool theme!!!
April 26th, 2010 at 3:22 pm
I really like this theme and its adaptability. I’m particularly excited by the printing styles option because I’ve often thought I would like to have a hard copy of my blog. I use Mistylook which looks terrible when you go to print – is there any chance that other themes like Mistylook will acquire this printing option?
April 26th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I agree that all our themes should look great in print, Gerry. I’ll be sure that we take a look at printing in our other themes and see where we can improve things.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:23 pm
Aaaah!!! This is just what I was looking for!!! Thank you, Matt.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
Awesome. But of course I was just done tweaking the previous one
April 26th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
wow–looks fantabulous!!
I’m teaching a college summer school writing class where the students will blog. I look forward to seeing what they do with this template–so much easier on MY eyes than a sea of Kubrick until I show them how to change it!
April 26th, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Does this mean the Twenty Ten theme is finalized, even on the WordPress 3.0 code?
April 26th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
There’s always the chance that there may be some last-minute additions before WordPress 3.0 is finalized. Part of the process is responding to feedback on WordPress.com, you guys get to help us make Twenty Ten ships as good as it can be.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
Hmmmm. Now what would it looks like with tweets posted as asides?
Otherwise, kudos, looks great.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:39 pm
My thanks to the Theme Team much for this lovely addition. I appreciate it and spent the weekend playing with it in my test blog. Although I like it, I prefer Inuit Types and have been a happy blogger since it was introduced.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:47 pm
Up and running on my primary blog for the past two days when I happened upon it in Appearance>Themes. Looking forward to exploring all its features.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
Really good work.
I like it.
April 26th, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Love it, new themes are rowing out so fast.
I could not even make up my mind
April 26th, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Cool! Maybe I think it’ll soon become my long lasting theme! :-p
April 26th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
Great theme! I love it. However, some users might find the default size of the font too large for their taste. i worked around it by selecting the content and using the style ‘heading 5′ instead of ‘paragraph’. (http://obhrm.wordpress.com). Would there be any other easier way to change the default font size?
The editor feature and the hosts of widgets are especially awesome.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
The funny thing about web design is that basically all desktop browsers use 16px as their default font size. We’ve all been trained to make the fonts smaller when we design web pages. But my colleague Ian Stewart had a good idea — what if we used that default font size, as big as it is, to try to make a really readable theme. So Twenty Ten is that theme if you dig it. If you don’t, there are lots of great themes with smaller fonts, but there’s also the Custom CSS upgrade if you’re comfortable creating your own stylesheet.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
This is like the theme from dreams!
April 26th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
You guys, come on, take a break (Well, I mean, don’t ). I love this theme. By the way do you confirm that from now on this theme will be the default on every new wordpress.com blogs and wordpress.org 3 installation? If you confirm then I could write a post about this amazingly exciting theme on my blog, http://www.aisajib.com
Thanks.
One more question, does this theme allow to upload multiple custom header images to rotate on each refresh?
April 26th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Thanks, Sajib! This is now the default theme on all new WordPress.com blogs, and when WordPress 3.0 is released next month, it will be the default theme for all self-hosted WordPress 3.0 blogs, too. Sorry, no way to rotate between a set of images, but if you choose a “Featured Image” while composing a new post, you can set it as a custom header just for that post. We’ll have more information available about Featured Images soon.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
1. I notice that I can’t add comments to the features discussions shown by links off the new Twenty Ten test blog – all of the pages have comments but there is not add comment that I can see.
2. Like the dropdown menus very much. Are these only for Twenty Ten now or will they be added to other themes later?
3. Could not figure out what the discussion on WYSIWYRG visual editor. I certainly understand the need for such an editor – single most frustrating thing on WP, easily – but php, CSS, and the comments off Ozz’s “tip” are baffling. I’m just happy that someone at WP understands the need for a WYSIWYRG editor.
Now, if you could just simplify vertical positioning with text and images, I’d be a happy man.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
Hi Terry. I’ve turned off comments on my older development blog posts so all Twenty Ten comments come to one place — just helps with my sanity. Dropdown menus will be increasingly popular with our new themes, and could be added to our existing themes where the design supports it. I’ll pass that idea along to the rest of the theme team.
Regarding the WYSIWY”R”G editor — it’s a highly technical discussion for now, for sure. It’s something that all theme developers should be considering, for the benefit of the people who use their themes. Most bloggers shouldn’t need to know anything about it — they should just have a Visual Editor that works really well! We hope Twenty Ten’s use of this existing feature will spur on more theme developers to make use of it.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:16 pm
First thx for all, then, i can just say sorry. because vigilance still rules.
but this could be the only option to become my next theme if i am bored of vigilance in the future.
why its ranked 2nd for me; dark borders of header makes it cold. and also main page is not listed on drop down menu.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Count me also as a fan of Vigilance.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:29 pm
You mean image related to particular post will be shown in the header? :O DAMN You guys rock!
April 26th, 2010 at 4:35 pm
This is beautiful! Wow! Thanks guys!
April 26th, 2010 at 4:37 pm
I just changed a few weeks ago to the Dark Wood theme, but I may still go ahead and see if this is better for my needs. Do the custom backgrounds work for behind-the-text stuff or just the surrounding area (like Vigilance’s colors). I kind of like the wood backdrop, but the text is kind of small and the custom headers will definately work to my advantage creatively.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Just adding that the best part is that the theme will let me see what the final product looks like without hitting Preview all the time.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
I love it too but I agree with Mr. Singh, the font is massive! That’s the only thing stopping me from switching though it’s a great theme.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:52 pm
i reviewed it before you did
Been using it for two days now and i am loving it.
http://codejotter.wordpress.com/2010/04/25/twenty-ten-new-default-theme-for-wordpress/
April 26th, 2010 at 4:54 pm
a gaming clan template would be perfect for me (and those people, who want to set up and use a template easily). That would be a profit for wordpress, because many clan-leaders are looking for something like that. (sorry for my bad englisch)
greets
April 26th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
great choice. several years ago, when wordpress started, it was known for the readable type. as people started using larger monitors with greater resolution, that was lost – but is now regained. thumbs up.
April 26th, 2010 at 4:58 pm
You people are great. All those new themes totally rock. Keep it up, I can’t wait to see what’s coming
(sugestions: I’d like to see more flexible-width themes, as well as some with customizable colors. That way, we can personalize what we chose or make a change, but not a major one. I hope you see my point:) )
April 26th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Sweet! I’m using Twenty ten right now and I have to admit that this is the most awesome WordPress theme that i have been used. The most feature I like is background option, which I can change the back ground I like:P..aajaja . Need to edit the CSS to make it better though:),I love the see my background is blinking and the header works perfectly with the its color:)
April 26th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
i love you Matt! oh my lawd! I’m in love!
April 26th, 2010 at 5:11 pm
Problem report: Please visit my blog and you’ll see that my bio isn’t shown properly. I don’t know what happened. I’ve written a few lines about myself in “My Profile” page and saved it. But at the end of the post, the complete bio isn’t shown. Suggestions?
April 27th, 2010 at 2:56 am
It doesn’t look like you’re using Twenty Ten at the moment Sajib, but don’t hesitate to contact Support if you find you need more help.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
I love it! I was considering switching from iNove to Vigilance to allow for a custom header and for briefer results from category and search results, but I think this one might just be a better choice. I am concerned about what will happen when my posts that have a lot of formatting html code are displayed in a theme designed to create those effects for me.
April 27th, 2010 at 1:50 am
I’d try to preview the theme first, but if things don’t look right you can always switch back to your previous theme without affecting the formatting of your posts.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
You guys just get better all the time with the design of new themes. It’s like going shopping every day with these awesome choices we have to express ourselves. The focal point is the theme of blogs and the more eye catching…….the more people are apt to stay and read what the blogger has to say on their site.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
Ooooh! I like it! I may end up using that if I decide to update from what I’m on now! So far the nicest alternative, I may have to experiment.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
You’re really cranking out the new themes – and it’s much appreciated in this 24/7/365 world where a New York Minute is now a lifetime!
April 26th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Outstanding! This has all the elements I’ve been looking for. Will look forward to seeing how this applies to my content.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
cool. i am happy wordpress’ new themes are frequent now. blogging is new experience.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Looks great! Too bad its default; too many people will be using it, hehe
April 26th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
This theme is the best so far and very flexible and clean. The only thing I want is a nicer look with the links color. But the rest of it is WOW!
Thanks for all your work!
April 26th, 2010 at 5:41 pm
WOW Looks great! I like the readable part and custom headers fun. I was call them banners but headers OK. LOL It’s nice that you guys are working so hard on all the new themes it is appreciated.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
I like this theme. Thanks!
IMO the default size of the font is oversize but luckily I have Custom CSS upgrade…
April 26th, 2010 at 5:42 pm
Looks really neat!! Look forward to more tidy and neat themes with more widgets and stuff!! (:
April 26th, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Cool, coool! Oh and cool! You seem to have thought of everything with this theme.
April 26th, 2010 at 5:52 pm
Do you need photos for your custom headers? Just wondering, I have lots of Montana photos. I do like the ones you have chosen so far. How about some digital art headers? Just thinking out loud. How about some with bright neon colors?
April 27th, 2010 at 2:32 am
Those all sound cool! We’ve got our final selection for Twenty Ten, but you should consider making your custom headers available on your blog! You could even design a Child Theme for WordPress.org users that include them. That’s got potential.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:15 pm
Snapped it up immediately – really appreciate the readability of it and the size of the header. Would prefer a clear blogroll, though.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
Beautiful!
April 26th, 2010 at 6:27 pm
I think I will stick to the Inuit with black background…don’t know how to describe the style I have, but it gives only a SHORT synopsis of each blog, not the only shabang, which would give someone a head ache. Also, I have one short row going horizontally(signle column), and another longer one going vertically (two column) and my sidebar is on the left. I like how it’s not all going in one direction and how the blog posts are abbreviated until you click on one. It makes all the content I have seem more organized and visually appealing. I wouldn’t want someone to click onto my blog and get seizures from all of the pictures and youtubes and flashing stuff from each post…I wish you guys would get more themes with three columns and those columns going in different directions to break up the monotony! COLOR! We need more color! I love customizeable headers…the Inuit allows me to post a picture below my title.
April 26th, 2010 at 6:33 pm
Great nesting and other features, very professional and clean. Good work!
April 26th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
I’m a big fan of the new customizable background and header in this theme — I work with many nonprofit clients who want to develop a simple website that 1) will be easy to update and 2) reflect their visual identity in a professional way; this leads some of them to use Microsoft Publisher or similar tools to produce sites full of spaghetti code. The additional flexibility here in Twenty Ten will make it much easier to point them in a more accessible, more professional direction.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:12 pm
How do you get that, I guess we can call it “feature post”, post in the blue box? Perhaps, sticky post is a better term.
April 27th, 2010 at 1:59 am
It’s a sticky post — check out this support article on sticky posts from WordPress.com Support.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
I love it, too, except for the serif font.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:19 pm
Amazing. High fives all around!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:21 pm
That’s really classy looking
April 26th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
How lovely thank you
April 26th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
Looks very good. Does anyone happen to know what the maximum pixel width is for images though? I never want to switch a theme in case the image sI already have burst the page. I
April 26th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
Very nice!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
I just found a theme better than Vigilance!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:36 pm
I’m soooo excited about 2010. You have just given me a wonderful present, especially the editor where I don’t have to preview the page all the time! Thank you!!!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Congratulations WordPress on introducing a new, elegant default theme with such a diversity of features. The ‘asides’ feature is great. I will experiment with this one on a test blog, but will probably stay with Inuit Types, which really tickles my fancy.
April 26th, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Thats One Cool Theme!!!!!!!!!!!!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:50 pm
You guys, I hate you! Well, I don’t, but each time I think I have found the perfect look for my blog, you come up with another design which makes me wanna go change it all over again!
Not complainin’! Loving it. Go Wp Team!
April 26th, 2010 at 7:58 pm
Fantastic! Really like the idea of being able to customise headers for different posts. And drop down menus have been on my Pony list for quite a while.
Any chance you could organise an extra day in the week so I can get enough time to really play with this one?!
April 26th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Oh I like this one a lot! I have to try this out, once I have some time. Again, beautiful job!
April 26th, 2010 at 8:06 pm
Hmm…. I do like the look of this one. I also really like it that you guys made a demo blog for it. It’s nice to be able to actually see the theme, instead of just from pictures.