Never have so many power features been so easy to use. Forget about having to use custom fields or editing php. Like all our themes, Blend is designed to be flexible and straightforward, opening up many great features to non-technical users.
Whatever you want from your theme - a static site, a blog, or both, Blend lets you quickly and easily change the way your site is presented.
- Power without fiddling with php hacks
- Switchable sidebar - on, off, left or right
- No pain configuration
- sIFR support - use any font on headlines
- IE support for transparent pngs in your logo spot
- Works straight out of the box in standard blog mode
- Works with standard WordPress functionality
- Options on a page by page basis allowing you to hide pages, or choose navigation locations
- Highly compatible, tested on every modern and quite a few ancient browsers too!
- MU Compatible and tested
- We’ll support the theme for a minimum of two years
Blends features include sophisticated admin controls, sIFR fonts allowing stronger branding and a smoother more professional look to your headings, drop down menus coded without javascript, a configurable contact form, a sidebar that can be hidden by page or moved left or right, page menu options and so much more that we think your best option is to try out the demo and read more there. We’re sure you’ll be stunned.
Not only that, but you get the source images in Fireworks format, meaning that if you use this excellent software you’ll be able to easily change the look and feel of your Blend theme in an astonishingly short time. We’ll be releasing a how-to video soon.
With Blend you’ll have a theme that’s already in use in a number of professional sites, helping to promote businesses and which is famous for its search engine performance.
Blend Variations
It’s not a case of getting what you’re given. Blend comes with a number of styles straight from the box, and we’re adding more as time passes:
To find out more about Blend, view the Demo site.
DemoDownload
To see Blend in action visit http://5mcoffee.com/coffeeblog
The skin is very easy to configure and has tons of easy to use functions.
I have added widgets and plugins to the site with no fuss and am pleased that the wordpress autoupdate module also works, picking up all of the settings along the way.
Blend is a highly recommended blog skin.
[...] a bug with the Search widget in Blend. Release 1.2.1 is now available for download from the official Blend page. Posted on December 12, 2008 by Dave Coveney Categorised as: [...]
Just a quick heads up that the download link for this theme is broken — I was able to grab it by guessing though.
Thanks for making these themes available for download!
Hi Kevin - thanks for pointing that out. The link’s now been fixed.
Is there a possibility to make a “frontpage slider for top spot items” in Blend please.
Is there also a possibility to make the right sidebar wider.
Many thanks.
[...] 预览地址 │ 下载地址 │ 作者地址 [...]
Hi Robert - there is, but once we re-open for membership we’ll see if there’s enough interest and money to do it. Basically, that’s how it has to work as we’re a business rather than doing this as a hobby.
However, if someone would like to contribute such a change we’d be more than happy to test it and include it if it’s robust. I can see real benefits to Blend having a larger sidebar (perhaps as an option?) as well as a highlights slider spot.
[...] Un superbe thème très paramétrable. On peut choisir d’afficher ou non la barre latérale, de la mettre à gauche ou à droite et on a le choix entre toute une série d’harmonies colorées toutes plus réussies les unes que les autres (voie ci dessous quelques exemples). Page du thème : chez Spectacu.la. [...]
It appears the Blend them is not compatible with Wordpress 2.8! I upgraded to 2.8 and everything comes up blank, front page, admin, etc… I speculated a plugin could have caused this, but confirmed it is the theme.
Fresh base install of WP 2.8, works fine. Upload Blend via FTP to wp-themes, activate theme and the site goes blank across the board.
Hopefully you will look into this? It would be greatly appreciated, if not that is understandable as well…
I apologize, let me clarify… the theme was uploaded to /www/wp-content/themes where is should be, teach me from citing folders from memory…
A new version will be uploaded within the next day or so, both to the WordPress.org repository and here.
And you’ll be getting an exciting new update to the threaded comments too…
Thank you for your continued work and support!
this is an awesome theme. you’ve really inspired me
Blend 2.0, with WP2.8 fixes and improved threaded comments is now available from the WordPress.org repository, and the one with original files will be uploaded here in the very near future.
Brillant theme, love all the colour options too - thanks for making it available!
For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to change the header to a custom header image - I’m using Wordpress 2.7.1 - have looked up a few forums on this - does anyone have any tips?
Hi Charlotte - there is no custom header image facility with this theme, I’m afraid. All you have is the option to upload a logo.
However, we can see the benefit in such functionality and may consider it for the future.
Thanks for fixing this theme.
I noticed 1.5 is double the size of 1.3, very curious to know why.
Hi Rashid - not sure either. Could just be more got included with one version (eg, source files) but it’s not something we’re going to worry about. On the list are far more pressing concerns, such as getting the themes properly up-to-date on here! We’re in the mad situation where the repository is more up-to-date than our site.
Hello:
I’m really liking the simplicity of the Blend theme.
Is there any way for me to add an image to the footer?
[some code to insert into footer.php, to display an image hosted somewhere in my WP or root directory I would guess]
I don’t have any PHP/CSS knowledge…
Thanks,
Charles
Hi Charles - unfortunately without some knowledge of CSS and PHP you’ll find it tricky to add an image in.
You do have three widget spaces at the bottom, however, into which you could add images, which might suffice?
Hi Dave:
Thanks for the widget tip. But how do I insert the image?
I don’t see a widget for ‘images’ in WP admin/Appearance/Widgets to drag into the footer bar area.
Maybe the text/html widget, not sure how to make HTML ‘invisible’ and only display an image…
Thanks Dave for your reply!
Hi
Thank you for creating this awesome theme. I have a question for you, if you don’t mind: do you know how to change colors of the default skeen Coffee and Cream? I tried to change them in style.css but when I saved the file, nothing happened. Did I miss something?
FYI, I use WP 2.7.1 and my website is: http://www.unlivresurleseuil.org
Thanks
Fred
This is a great theme, thank you for making it available. I’m having some trouble, though, and not being very knowledgeable regarding programming, I’m not sure where the source of the problem is.
On my home page, there is a link for comments at the bottom of the post. If I click on that link, I’m taken to a 404 error page. From what you can tell, is this part of the program or have I goofed something up?
Thank you,
Mike
I posted a question yesterday about custom colors, but it suddenly disappeared… ?
@Frederic, colours are defined in a folder for each style, rather than in the main style.css.
@Mike - make sure you have comments.php there.
For more detailed help you can join the club and ask within the forums where we can take a little more time to deal with your enquiries.
thanks for your reply. helpful!
Hi!
Great theme! I uploaded it yesterday and I love the clean look. However I was wondering if there was any way I could add the current date to the little calendar pad and for it to automatically update everyday?
Thanks very much in advance.
Hi Julie - I’m glad you like the theme.
I wouldn’t really recommend changing the date display on posts as it could get confusing. However, any change like that will involve digging into php - there’s no option from the back-end to let you do this.
We can modify the theme for you as a custom piece of work, or we could give a little more advice from within the forums, but you’ll need to join up for that.
Thanks very much Dave, I shall leave it as it is then =) Keep up the great work.
Hi Dave,
I’m having problem trying to hide some pages from the header bar.
I use the “hidden” attributes for pages, but it doesn’t seem to work (I’m on a 2.8.4 WP)
In fact in the top menu, I would like to see “A propos” and “Listen” and “See” and on the side bar, I would like to see all pages.
I tried with “Exclude pages”, and no success.
I use Blend 1.5 and I read you talk about 2.0 but couldn’t find it.
Thanks for your help (best theme to me)
Philippe - France
Hi
I’d like to know if Blend 1.5 is compatible with WP 2.8.5. Thanks.
Frederic
Blend has got to be one of the best themes going !
I cannot believe it is a free theme , there are hundreds of themes out there for $50 or more that do not even come close to this !
Thanks for such a great design , simplicity in using this theme and thanks for making it free, I really appreciate it !
cheers
Have you added capability to customize header? If not, how to change image in header? Thanks!
Hi Marsha - you can change the logo in the theme’s admin pages. If you need more help than that, feel free to join up
Hi Blend! I am in LOVE with how incredibly easy Blend is to use.
Is the checkbox option at the bottom of the Pages and Posts Sections (for excluding from menus) - a Plugin I can get for other themes?
Can we purchase that plugin for another site? I’m starting a business and need a little Blend Help!
MaryCary
Hi Mary - I’m glad to hear you like the theme. Sadly no, it’s not available as a separate plugin but is, instead, part of the theme.
There are plugins available from WordPress.org that can do this, however. We’d be more than happy to help members find such plugins through the forums, but we can’t really help much in the comments, sorry.
Excellent theme, however I’ve encounter a bug with the horizontal drop-down menu. When hovering over menu categories, the drop down menu gets “lost” behind page content titles.
This obscures navigation and creates havoc for the UI.
Is there anyway to fix this?
Hi Christopher - you can’t use drop downs and the sIFR fonts at the same time. One or the other, I’m afraid.
I appreciate the information, thank you!
I should be able to figure this out, but it’s just confounding me. Can you show me how to display replies to comments on first load of a post page? I still want the ability to toggle hide/show for them, but I want it to start without the “display: none” and the replyshowtext instead of the replyhidetext. The code is so tight and efficient, I can’t really tell what to alter for that to happen.
Hi Scot - that’s really a question for the support forums I’m afraid. We can’t give support here on the page any more.
My bad. Sorry!
Thanks for a great theme - just wanted to add for anyone else that’s looking: page content titles will also get lost behind most photo gallery plugins unless you disable sIFR fonts. The post above about drop down menu’s tipped me off, and I figured I’d share.
Thanks again for the theme - it’s fantastic!
Hi Dave, I’d like to do a test with 125×125 ads in this theme, I’ve downloaded a plugin that cab do the work (wp125). I would like to have 2 ads on 2 or 3 rows, but the thing is that Blends’ sidebar is too narrow to display 2 125×125 ads on the same row. Is it possible that I make the sidebar wider myself. I couldn’t find the option to yweek this, so maybe you can help me out.
Kind regards,
Frank
… can do the work…
… sidebar wider myself?…
…option to tweek this…
Sorry, was a bit in a rush…
Hi Frank - you’d have to work on the CSS to change the sidebar width. We can offer some pointers to members in the forums if you’re in there, otherwise all I can say is, get Firebug out and start experimenting! Let us know how you get on
I’ve searched through the web after a WP-theme that looks more like a website than a blogg, and Blend is the only one that fits my need! Thanks!
Now I wonder if you could help me change the colour scheme to yellow (black or dark grey background) if I join the forum? I don’t want to pay the money and then discover that I don’t get the help I want.
I’m from Sweden, by the way, but I do my best the grab all the English WP-developing words…
Hi and thank you for a great theme. I have bee trying to tweak it via the stylesheet. Could you point out where I can change the colour of the light brown border around the content and the padding around the header image.
Thanks,
Orrin
i would highly reccommend this theme to anyone on wp, great job guys…
The blend theme appears to be broken on the latest build of Firefox (3.6). The front end of my site (in maintenance mode, please e-mail me for screenshots) - Blend theme, after midnight color scheme - appears all white, with just the sidebar and header images, as well as the body content visible. A firebug inspection reveals that the stylesheet is somehow not connected to the content - however this seems very strange considering that the site works fine in IE8, Safari and Chrome.
Any ideas?
Check that - I’ve found the issue. Something to do with embedded font support. I had added the following CSS:
@font-face { /* For stupid IE */
font-family: “Orator Std”;
src: url(’http://www.lineinaudio.com/fonts/OratorStd.eot’);
src: local(’Orator Std’), local(’OratorStd’), ;
}
@font-face { /*For the rest of us */
font-family: “Orator Std”;
src: url(”http://www.lineinaudio.com/fonts/OratorStd.otf”) format(”opentype”);
}
It appears that the first bit, for IE, is the issue. Any ideas why this would be the case?
Hi,
i have a question regarding the colour settings in the style.css.
I changed different colours (e.g. only another hex code at $nav_back) but there is no change on the site. Do i have to change something else to get the navbar in another colour?
Thanks!
You really have to change the graphics.
Technically I’m not supposed to give support in comments - only to members, but I’ll let you off this time
Hi
I’m using your Blend-theme and is very pleased with it. But I’m having problems with IE, of course. Can ou tell me how to make IE use the colors I wont on It’s links and not the IE default.
Im at my its end right now.
Sinserly Gun
Dave,
Great theme!
I found the skin is very easy to configure and love all the easy to use functions. No problems with plugins or widgets I highly recommend!
Hi - I’ve recently installed Blend - and it’s got some really great features!
I really want to keep it - but I find one aspect very annoying. This is the white space (maybe colored on some theme options) surrounding the uploaded banner header. Can you tell me please how to customize to get rid of this - so there’s no border at all and the banner blends into the sides, top and bottom?
Thanks,
Steve
Steve - we can’t go deeply into support for the theme for non-members.
But here’s a little help:
The theme was designed really for a logo in the header, rather than a large image. You could set a background image on the header using css and tweak some other css which would help you remove or hide the title text if you so wish.
Have fun!
Thanks Dave - will try this. I really love the control you get over which pages show - and where. This is invaluable control for marketing purposes.
Thanks, Steve
Thanks so much for creating this great template! Blend is very easy to use, functional and attractive. One question: I don’t want my blog categories on every page, just the blog page. Is there a way to edit what goes in the sidebar? I can just seem to activate or move the sidebar, not really edit it.