After (possibly) months of development and endless Twitter updates, my new WordPress theme framework, Biblioteca, is here. I’ve got a heck of a lot to say about this, so first we’ll have a look at the features.
The features
Biblioteca is a theme framework. But it’s not like Thematic of Hybrid, nor is it trying to be. I like to think of Biblioteca as a theme framework for designers. And developers too. How? Biblioteca is based on the WPShout theme, which in turn was based on Mimbo. I took the WPShout theme and added a whole host of advanced features, making it great for the average end user but also great for designers and developers. The original aim for the theme was to “provide rapid developnent for future themes” with a ton of options for the end user. Let’s delve into the features:
- A practical theme framework that offers a solid starting point for any WordPress theme.
- Plug and play – works out of the box, with an extensive options page.
- Awesome SEO. Everyone talks about their theme having ‘awesome SEO’, but Biblioteca doesn’t just let you believe it, it has options for setting the post title and description.
- Featured content gallery – Biblioteca uses Chris Coyier’s jQuery slider.
- Extensive options page – pictured below, the options page lets you change a ton of options, from the width of the sidebar to the contents of the footer to the ads in the sidebar to your Analytics tracking code.
- Magazine look – you want a fancy featured content gallery? Biblioteca has one. Enable/disable it from the opions page.
- Tech blog look – you want a couple of posts featured below the main featured content gallery? Biblioteca has got one of them; it’s widgetised too.
- Bloggy look – you just want a blog? Biblioteca can do that as well. Just set the options in the options panel.
- Drop down navigation – Biblioteca has some rather nice drop down navigation.
- A ton of widgets - Biblioteca has an ever expanding number of widget ready areas in all sorts of places that allow you to easily pop text just about anywhere.
- Fancy footer – the three column footer here on WPShout is often complimented and you too can have one – Biblioteca has one which you can enable/disable from the options page.
- Auto image resizing – set an image to display on the homepage and it’ll automatically resize itself.
- Multiple layouts – through the options panel you can change the layout, having
- The list goes on – just download it and see for yourself!
The options page
Perhaps Biblioteca’s crowning feature, the options page, as I’ve previously mentioned, has a ton of options. See for yourself:
Biblioteca also has in post SEO options which allow you to change things such as the title tag and meta description:
Demo
Check out the demo here.
Read more
Support, licensing, FAQs etc are all on this page.
Download
To download the theme, click here. It’d be great if you subscribe by RSS and follow me on Twitter too in order to be notified of updates and tutorials showing you how to use the theme. Whilst you’re here, why not check out the other great stuff WPShout has to offer? Popular articles include:
- A to Z of WordPress .htaccess Hacks
- Create An Awesome WordPress Theme Options Page (part 1)
- 10 Tips to Improve Your WordPress Theme
- 10 Awesome Things To Do With WordPress’ Custom Fields
- Create An In-Post (Theme) Options (Meta) Box in WordPress
That’s all for now. Be sure to check back regularily for updates!
13 Comments - Add Yours!
Great theme! Just curious, does it allow you to specify keywords for posts as well?
.-= Justin Wright´s last blog ..We’ve Made A Few Changes =-.
I think so – I might be wrong but if I recall correctly they’re grabbed from tags.
Nice work.
Thanks.
A bit of a one stop shop.
I am just learning about word press so this is very useful
Hi
In this theme i need an option to enable my old pictures in the index page.
How i can do that?
Thanks and sorry for mi english
As this page does point out, unfortunately I’m not offering free support at this time. If you’d like to purchase support, please email me.
I can´t view images in the homepage, sometimes it´s wrong
Ditto previous comment. If you’d like to purchase support, get in touch.
I am sorry but even if yout theme is really great in options and widgets and whatever, why does it have to look so … well.. bland? it’s booring to look at so I understand why it has not had as much success as you wanted it to have and you are whining on your other page. I have seen templates that are eye catching and leave you wanting to put them on all your blogs. Maybe instead of protesting about how free themes are no longer so interesting to the public you could try and make yoru theme more nice looking, don’t you think?
Design is always subjective. Inevitably someone will come along and not like a theme. That said, it is a framework and therefore by definition won’t look great. It’s designed to be easily customisable so you can have something that looks awesome. So you can have something that you’d want to put on all your blogs. Out the box, not the best looking theme out there. But with just an hour of work I’ve got the theme in use here on WPShout. A couple more and I’m sure it could look even better. These days you need something unique. Biblioteca gives you a platform to make your blog look unique.
I think Biblioteca theme is a good framework to customize. I agree it’s doesn’t stand out with jQuery sliders and other Ajax stuff but sometimes people need something simple and clean to work with.
Thanks for releasing the theme.
.-= Mike´s last blog ..WooThemes Themes Giveway Contest from WPThemes.com =-.
Help me!
I can’t thumbnail pictures in the features post and in a post. Can u help me??
Thanks!
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