Dave's Serendipity themes - Themes

S9Y-Bulletproof

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:29:35 +0000

It's some months since I updated this site - sorry to all you regular visitors, my difficult personal life has really got in the way of my themes and template work this summer. I've not completely neglected Serendipity but what time and energy I've had had been devoted to developing the Bulletproof template that's now part of the Serendipity v1.2 installation package.

For those of you who don't know, Bulletproof has been developed by Yellowled (Matthias Mees), myself and Don Chambers over the past few months as both a standalone template and a framework to build new templates for s9y. Bulletproof has been designed and developed to work in all browsers and comes with three coloursets to use or get you started on the way to design your own Serendipity template.

I'll not write too much about Bulletproof here as it has it's own website - go and take a look (if you've not already) at s9y-bulletproof.com.

New themes and templates in progress

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 16:29:15 +0100

Not all the work of the past few weeks has been commercial. I've been busy on the collborating with Matthias Mees (Yellowled) and Don Chambers producing a new 'Bulletproof' template which we have designed to make template configuration easier. We're hopeful that this template, when released, will form part of the Serendipity v1.2 default install package. I'm currently working on a couple of coloursets for the template whilst Yellowled and Don are doing the final IE bug blasting.

I've also had another theme in progress for some time which I hope to be able to release soon. You can take a look at it, in it's unfinished state, by selecting 'Depth' in the template chooser dropdown.

Joshua Nino 3 column template

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 15:55:15 +0000

Another user request and another 3 column variation. This time I've given my Joshua Nino variation a 3 column layout.

It's the same as the original Joshua Nino but wider with an extra sidebar. You can check it out in the template chooser or download 'Joshua Nino 3' from my download area.

3 column 'Coffee Bar' template

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 11:26:16 +0000

At the request of a user, I've produced a 3 column version of my 'Coffee Bar' theme which I've imaginatively named 'Coffee Bar 3'

It has all the same features as my original 'Coffee Bar' theme - it's just a little wider to fit in the extra sidebar.

You can download 'Coffee Bar 3' from my download area.

SPLAT! - new grunge template now available for download

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 11:35:53 +0000

SPLAT! my new grunge theme and template is now complete and available to download.

SPLAT! uses standard the system fonts 'Impact' for XP users and 'Helvetica Neue condensed' for Mac OS X users and features Dynamic Text Replacement in the header - thanks to Stewart Rosenberger for his article on A List Apart. The DTR font is 21005 EURO from junkohanhero.com. The ink splats came from Tom Tirins' excellent collection. Thanks also to Suzanne at work for the input during development of the theme and for scanning all the other grungy bits and pieces!

SPLAT! is a Serendipity 1.1 theme with the navigation configurable in the style manager and is fully backwards compatible through v0.9. Static pages and special pages are also fully styled.

You can download SPLAT! from my download area. Comments and feedback welcome!

SPLAT! - new grunge theme in progress

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 17:32:03 +0000

Some of you will have noticed a new theme in the template chooser.

SPLAT! is a new 'Grunge' theme that is still a work in progress. I'll be posting on the Serendipity Forum when it's finished but in the meantime I'll be interested to get some comments and feedback.

Update 23 Jan 07
Finished!
Dave

New theme - multi-column

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 13:41:55 +0100

'Multi' is a new theme that uses the CSS3 'columns' properties for dividing the 'entries div' into 2 columns. These new properties are only implemented in Firefox currently but the theme works well with a single column for the entries in Safari and IE6.

Each entry title in the 'Multi' template is preceded by it's category in a 'filepath' style with white space replaced by underlines as are the homelinks in the header. As in my 'Square' theme and template, I've used the blockquote element as a 'pull quote'. The 'pull quote' highlighing is achieved by enclosing the blockquote contents in a span which has a separate class.

'Multi' also features a re-designed calendar

I started with the basic calendar code from ceejay's 'Chocolate Fudge' template and added a little style and inspiration from Veerle Pieters' excellent article on her blog 'A CSS styled calendar'.

'Multi' for Serendipity has a restyled admin interface, is configurable through the v1.1 style manager and is backwards compatible to v0.9

'Multi' is available to download from my download area.

In addition, I've also made a zip available for download here of the banner image as a .psd file with the text layers active, along with the font I used - Benny Blanco from dafont.com

I'd be interested to get some feedback on this style from other Serendipity users.

New Theme - Square

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Thu, 28 Sep 2006 11:50:40 +0100

Square is a new Serendipity 1.1 theme inspired by the Design Observer - one of the many excellent design blogs out there in the ether.

Square is a 2 column, fixed width design with 2 sidebars on the right hand side. I've used the 'blockquote' element as a magazine style 'pullquote' as I feel this design lends itself to well to a magazine style blog or website. The menus are fully configurable in the admin interface for Serendipity 1.1 users and in the index.tpl for users of Serendipity v1.0 or less.

Select 'Square' in the tempate dropdown to take a look.
You can download 'Square' from my download area.

Added 8-10-06
Yellowled on the Serendipity forum suggested I make the sidebars equal heights and extend them the full length of the page. This seemed like an excellent suggestion so I have implemented this in the theme and updated the zip. Thanks Yellowled - and thanks also to Carl for his helpful suggestions.

New theme - Coffee bar

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Thu, 03 Aug 2006 13:09:05 +0100

A Serendipity user emailed and asked if I could make a fixed width version of my 'Coffee Cup' competition entry theme. So here it is 'Coffee Bar' - my competiton entry but fixed width with a single sidebar and a navigation bar.

I named it 'Coffee Bar' as it has 3 CSS variations. 'Coffee Cup' - in all the original colours as you see above, and two new colourways 'Cappuccino' and 'Espresso' shown below.

'Coffee Bar' is fully configurable in the Serendipity v1.1 style configurator and is fully backwards compatible defaulting to the blue 'Coffee Cup' stylesheet in version 0.9 and 1.0. Thanks to Már Örlygsson for the menu code. You can download 'Coffee Bar' from my download area. If you're using Serendipity version 0.9 or 1.0 you can use the 'Cappuccino' and 'Espresso' CSS files and configure your menus by editing your index.tpl file. Click on the 'Continue reading' link for instructions.

Continue reading "New theme - Coffee bar"

New theme - Mondrian

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 14:53:09 +0100

Some of you may have noticed a new theme on the site 'Mondrian'. As a student I was intrigued by the work of Mondrian and he had a great influence on the world of modern art and design . His geometric style lends itself really well to the modular style of Serendipity.

Mondrian works well, in Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari.

Mondrian v1.0 'Menu Navigation' and 'About box' contents can be edited in the index.tpl file. In anticipation of Serendipity v1.1 I'm already working on 'Mondrian' v1.1 where the 'About box' and 'Menu Navigation' will be configurable in the configuration manager and I've produced a number of style sheets of colour variations.

My Mondrian theme is now complete and available to download from my download area.

Any comments - welcome as always.

Matrimony theme complete

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Wed, 10 May 2006 12:21:57 +0100

Matrimony - my Serendipity theme designed for a wedding or couples blog is now complete.

You can download 'Matrimony v1.0' from my download area. As always, if you would like to customise 'Matrimony' for your own blog and need a little help - just get in touch.

Wedding Themes

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 17:20:05 +0100

I've been developing a new Wedding theme for a Serendipity web journal user, Faith, who's getting married next year. I've decided to make this an 'exclusive' theme which will only be used on Faith's website as she sent me photo's of her rings and her favourite flowers to include in the theme. Faith wanted a 'Ladybird' style theme so I've designed 'Faith' and 'Faith White' using Carl Galloway's competition winning 'Default' theme as a basis. You can see Faith's themes in the template dropdown

It seemed to me that a wedding theme might be quite a useful addition to Serendipity so I've decided to design one for general release. It's named 'Matrimony' - select 'Matrimony v1.0' in the template dropdown to take a look and see the post 'Matrimony theme complete'.

Competition update

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 11:42:03 +0100

I've made a small update to my 'competition' theme at the request of a user. The titles in the header now have a maximum length of 30 characters followed by … I've updated the zip in my download area and sent the file to Garvin to commit to Spartacus. It does occur to me however that some of you may want your titles to be longer than 30 characters. If you do, then continue.

Continue reading "Competition update"

New theme - Canvas

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 12:27:29 +0100

My latest theme - Canvas - is designed for the artist in us all.

It's a fixed width, single sidebar design. For Mac users, it uses the 'Zapfino' font that comes with the standard OSX installation. Windows and Linux users will see their standard 'Cursive' font.

To view 'Canvas' just select it in the template chooser dropdown. If you don't have 'Zapfino' and would like to see 'Canvas' as intended you can checkout a full size screenshot.

For those of you without Macs who would like to use 'Canvas' with 'Zapfino' you can download 'Zapfino' free from Fontica. You just have to register on the site first then 2 versions are available to download. Use WinRAR or or JustZIPit for unzipping the files - NOT WINZIP!. Zapfino is no longer available to download from Fontica. You could, however, download ' Scriptina ', which is a free alternative from Fontica. You'll then have to change any reference to 'Zapfino' in the canvas/style.css file to 'Scriptina'.

You can download 'Canvas' from my download area.

New theme - 'Jitterbug' in progress

nospam@example.com (David Cummins) — Tue, 11 Apr 2006 10:22:10 +0100

There was a request on the Serendipity forum recently for a 'dance' theme. 'Jitterbug' is my response to that request.

'Jitterbug' is based on Jude Anthony's 'Ladybug'. It's a fixed width layout with left and right sidebars. Thanks to Jude for his help in making the fixed width layout centre in the browser window. It is most definitely a Firefox optimised layout as it uses both transparency and radiused corners - although it still views well in Safari. If you don't use Firefox yet you can get it by clicking on the link in the sidebar.

You can check out my progress on 'Jitterbug' by selecting it in the template dropdown. In Firefox, Safari and Opera it renders fine but I'm having problems getting it to render as intended in Explorer - typical!