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30 Premium WordPress Blog Themes Posted: 30 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT Blogging has been transformed into a whole new level. Because of the advent of newer ways to optimize the blogging experience, the art of blogging is now becoming a great way to share what you know, feel and experience. Of course, one of the things that attract regular subscribers to a blog is its visual appeal. With content being the pinnacle of must-haves in a blog, visuals come in second. Without a very visually appealing design, a blog would just be, as WordPress says, Just Another WordPress Site. That being said, we collected 30 of the best and premium WordPress blog themes. I assure you that these themes are the most trendy and savvy themes you would see. Here they are! SaladMag SaladMag is a fully responsive and well designed WordPress theme. With a very intuitive and useful drag-and-drop content builder, theme option and review system, you will surely find this theme very beautiful and fitting for your blog. Features: Boxed and full layout 2 column layout Review on post Drag & Drop content builder Shortcodes GoBLog GoBlog is a premium WordPress theme that supports eight post formats, namely: Standard, Gallery, Link, Quote, Video, Image, Status and Audio. This blog is very easy to use especially for video and audio post formats because you can embed videos and audio files to posts without any difficulties. It also has an amazingly designed slider just below the header area for intro texts and anything you might want to add. Features: Custom logo Custom favicon 7 layout options 2 header types RTL Support Author Template 404 Page Back to Top Button with Smooth Scroll Custom CSS Option Bruma Specially built for authors, artists and those who love minimalist web designs. This premium WordPress theme contains some notable features like floating sidebars, fixed header, portfolio option, shortcodes all designed within HTML5 and CSS3. Features: Floated Sidebars Grid Blog Load More for Blog & Portfolio Posts Post Formats Supported Clean CSS3 & HTML5 Structures Practico Practico is a professional premium WordPress theme that bloggers will surely like. Flexible and fully customizable, this theme gives you full automation when it comes to styling your blog. It also has three layouts, 23 custom widgets, more than 30 shortcodes, nine post formats and a clean theme options panel. Features: Built-in review SEO-optimized. Social media status embed Video and audio embed Translation ready (.po and .mo files included). Sidebar layouts (Right Sidebar, Left Sidebar, Full Width) Two pagination type (Infinite scroll, Numeric pagination). Easily adding of Google Analytics Magma Magma will surely make your blog look and feel cleaner and easier to read. It prides in an amazing array of icon sets, fonts, shortcodes, custom widgets all knitted within a simple and clean looking responsive design. Features: Responsive layout Font Awesome Translation- ready Short codes Argon For photographers who want to include some texts on their blogs, Argon is the best premium WordPress theme for them! It is very easy to use and built mainly for photographers. With a cool interface and Retina-ready icons, this WordPress theme will surely be the right match for photographers and their photos! Features: Page Builder – Visual Composer WPML-ready Ultra responsive & Retina-ready One click import dummy data Drag & Drop pointer to your location – Contact Map SevenMag SevenMag is a greatly built premium WordPress theme created using a trendy and cool flat design. Recommended for gamers, news junkies and review bloggers, this theme will give you a powerful page builder, some advanced theme options and can support RTL languages! Features: Powerful Pagebuilder Visual Composer Touch Slideshow for each pages RTL Support Review System Star, Point, Percentage User Star Review Support ajax Trending News Ticker Useful Shortcodes Ajax Poll widget RT RT is a powerful premium WordPress theme laden with CMS tools. It opens your blog to opportunities to be able monetize it. This has cool content and great features like a powerful builder, 92+ icons, shortcodes, sidebars all within one SEO-ready theme. Features: SEO-optimized WooCommerce support Self-hosted video & audio support for portfolio and blog Valid HTML5 markup Cross-browser support ProStore This is a premium WordPress theme reeking with elegance and professionalism. User-friendly and clean-looking ProStore will surely bring your message across your readers with its great features. Features: Retina-ready Third level Drop-down menus Post/Page options Demo XML SEO-ready Mayde Mayde is a simple and clean-looking blogging theme. It leads your viewers to the content itself. Built solely for bloggers, this theme contains features that you could never say no to.Responsive design, beautiful social icons, Ajax loading posts, customizable accent color, background and header images are some of the things you would never want to miss! Features: Hidden scrollable sidebar with nanoscroller Ajax loading posts WordPress customizer-ready Header area with blur effect & parallax Shortcodes plugin Subtle image hover effect Great typography & readability BlogPress BlogPress, as the name implies, is clearly made for bloggers. Stylish and clean typography makes you feel safe about the content of your blog posts. It is fully responsive and gives you an unforgettable user experience. You would surely love this on your blog! Features: Video and audio post-type support Contact Form 7 styling Basic short codes for columns Custom archive template Custom 404 Page Atsro Astro, being a blogging premium WordPress theme, is focused on the content, the life and blood of blogging. Great with any device, it takes advantage of the ghost platforms. The theme can also help you out with post styles, full page title with image backdrops and more! Features: Featured posts Code syntax highlighting Socia media profiles High performance Google Analytics- ready Article flow bar Multiple authors Grunt setup Stream What makes Stream awesome is that it can monitor how long you can read an article. With its Read-time display, Reading progress bar, and a type to search feature, it makes it amazing to use this premium WordPress theme. Features: Minutes-to-read display Built for touch Type to search CSS3 animations Taqyeem rating system Coming Next widget Toggle comments Feedburner subscription widget WorldNews WorldNews is a very powerful premium WordPress theme that can be configured to what you are focusing. Developed using Bootstrap, people will see your posts no matter what gadget are they using. Features: Pagination types RTL support Retina-ready AJAX thumbnail rebuild Compatible with WPML Warta Built for magazine blogs, Warta becomes one of the best premium WordPress themes right now. With over four styles in posts, 396 icons, a great review system, plus popular article area, this website surely will kick start your blogging career. Features: Build with Bootstrap Powered with jQuery HTML5 and CSS3 Responsive layout 4 styles: Boxed, Boxed Flat, Full Width, Full Width Flat Translation Ready Custom CSS, JavaScript and Google Analytics integration Shortcodes and extra editor buttons iCook Savor the taste of your recipes using iCook, a premium WordPress theme. Great for food bloggers, chef and restaurants, iCook will surely make your readers hungry. It has a responsive layout, a recipes gallery, cool sidebar and more! Features: Recipe gallery Responsive layout Social Media sharing Sidebars and widgets Rover Rover is a cool WordPress theme for bloggers. Retina-ready and has unlimited sidebars, this will surely bring your content to your readers in the cleanest and fastest way possible. Features: Drag-and-drop homepage Customized widgets 50+ Shortcodes Contact Form Ajax/PHP & Validate with Captcha Google Map plugin Sting Sting is a modern looking WordPress theme clearly made for blogs, magazines and news websites. It is very flexible in its layout, making it easy to use. The theme is overflowing with features you would like: one-of-a-kind widgets, two homepage layouts, and easy to set up design. Features: Logo, favicon and Apple Touch icon uploader Semantic, clean, valid HTML5 & CSS3 Multi-level dropdown menu Responsive slider Built-in image cropping Lightbox images Captcha Spam filter support for Contact Form Simple Life Simple Life is, in fact very simple-looking, but don't be fooled as this premium WordPress theme is just as powerful. Clean layout and high-contrast colors, your readers will surely see the content easily, be it a photograph or a simple post. Features: Fully responsive Valid HTML code 369 Vector icons (Font Awesome) included Full browser compatibility AdSense ready for almost any banner size Full ads management (images or script codes) Sticky top menu 3 Levels menu CSS3 animations Fabulous The name speaks for the theme itself. Fabulous is a modern looking blog theme that is perfect for designers, photographers and bloggers alike. Its features include a custom logo upload, unlimited color options, pagination or infinite scroll options and more. Features: Masonry grid layout Pagination & infinite scroll options Archive Page template RTL CSS Included Cape Town Cape Town is a premium WordPress theme that you would surely like. Its features include a responsive layout, full width page templates, custom CSS box, Contact forms, popular and recent posts and much more! Features: Custom CSS box Video Widget (Vimeo, YouTube and many others supported) Popular Posts widget (with thumbnails) Recent Posts widget (with thumbnails) Social Networking widget Facebook widget Logo Uploader Favicon Uploader TDPravda Neatly designed and responsive to any device is TD Pravda, a bbPress, WordPress and WooCommerce- compatible theme. It boasts a powerful site admin panel, custom logo and favicon uploader, home page builder and many other cool features! Features: Translation Ready (.po/.mo files included) Google Analytics support Child Theme compatible (dummy child theme is already included) WordPress Menu Support (Multi level drop-down menu) Simplify Simplify is perfect for minimalist bloggers who want to highlight their content. Simple, easy to use and totally responsive, this theme will give you power over your blog. It has a custom logo uploader, shortcodes, cool sidebars and translation support. Features: SEO- ready Font Awesome Shortcodes Built-in sharing Persefone Persefone is a premium WordPress theme for bloggers that boasts full automation and easy configuration in the design. It is very simple and clean which adds a personal touch to the blog. With eight formats, you can post about anything you like. Features: Retina display Child theme compatible Easily adding of Google Analytics Advanced Theme options panel using slightly modified options framework by Syamil M Options with Back-end color picker 500+ Google fonts support and standard fonts Translation Ready; full localization support, .mo & .po files provided Multi-Site tested SEO- optimized Post sharing box with social icons Udita Udita is a powerful blog and portfolio theme for WordPress. It comes with a revolution slider plugin, cool transitions, animations and more than you could ever imagine. Features: Fully responsive Aqua page Builder Google Web fonts AJAX loading of projects and posts Revolution Slider Clean and crisp Design CSS3 features and animations Use your custom logo and favicon icon. Filterable portfolio items. Feather Clean Talking about awesome, comes Feather Clean in the conversation. It is a clean and simple looking design that is great for bloggers. You can now customize your backgrounds, paginate your posts without worrying that a device will not be responsive of it. Features: Built-in Bootstrap 3 Custom logo and favicon Social media integration with post share settings Visual shortcodes manager with many handy shortcodes Support for Contact Form 7 Cross-browser support Entrance Clean, minimalist and awesome is Entrance, a premium WordPress theme for bloggers, news agencies, editorial sites and more. It has Retina-ready features, multiple blog layouts, custom widgets, great color schemes and a review system! Features: Flex Slider for featured posts Multi-level drop-down menu (via WP 3.0+ Menus) Post Thumbnails with built-in WordPress function Logo uploader for main site and login page Favicon uploader Useful Shortcodes XML sample data for quick setup SuperBlog Super is the proper term for this premium WordPress theme. Created using functions based from solid back-end frameworks, this is perfect for bloggers. It includes a drag-and-drop page builder, multiple sliders and column blocks! Features: Drag & Drop page builder, Advanced theme admin panel, Modular homepage – Unlimited layouts Unlimited featured blocks Multiple jQuery sliders (as blocks and in posts) Video ready – custom metaboxes Author template Smooth tabless design Vivid Vivid is an intuitive and easy to customize WordPress theme. It has a lot of options to choose from. You can easily change fonts, icons, colors, elements with a single click of a button. Now, what are you waiting for? Don't let yourself miss this theme. Features: Social Media Support Google responsive Ads widget Image tagging Translation-ready Infinity Grid This is a theme that is a hand-and-glove fit for a blogger. With a very easy to understand theme option, it makes newbie, setting up a blog, an expert. Features: Advanced theme options using Redux Framework All Bootstrap 3.0 components as shortcodes Optional animated header resizing on page scroll Optional built in social sharing for Google Plus, Twitter & Facebook Optional post likes system built in Flexslider 2 (optional) Infinite scrolling & isotope layout functionality Conclusion These themes are up for grabs. Don't dare miss these because they are important for your blog. Not only that they give your website a pinch of creativity, it also increases the things you can do with it and your content. So, which one is your favorite?

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What is the Best WordPress Framework to Use? Posted: 28 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT Designing a WordPress theme can be very time-consuming, not to mention difficult and stressful. But there are some that use a Theme Framework. Before having ideas on what the best WordPress Framework, let’s begin by understanding what a Framework is. Over the years, WordPress theme developers have created schemes and processes to make their work faster and easier. Some start by creating an HTML template and then build the WordPress code around it. This can prove to be very stressful, noting that you have to re-write codes from HTML to PHP, but others just find that easier. On the other side of the moon, designers start with the rudimentary WordPress codes and build their design around that. For them, this increases the speed of the coding process because they just type in a language that WordPress automatically understands. And finally, there are those who, in the most efficient way possible, start with a Theme Framework. What are Theme Frameworks? WordPress Codex defines the term "Theme Framework" as: A "drop-in" code library that is used to facilitate development of a theme. A stand-alone base/starter Theme that is intended either to be forked into another Theme, or else to be used as a Parent Theme template. Theme Frameworks are tools that make the process of creating functions you see in a WordPress theme a lot easier. They are themes that act as a launching pad for development, thus, speeding the process of creating better layouts and designs. Theme Frameworks provide easy support and creation of child themes, making the usability of WordPress extend to vast horizons. WordPress Theme Frameworks are used as parent themes. This means that all functions lean towards the Theme Framework. Developers can just create child themes to customize styling and leave everything to the parent. Why Use Theme Frameworks? They speed up development They render functional and customizable options They normally have drag-and-drop options, sliders, SEO and widgets built within the framework They are easy to modify The parent themes are well-coded Bugs can be fixed within updates You are assured of excellent support You can customize your theme even if you are not good in coding Start with Framework? Or Start from Scratch? Personally, I think that you should use a Theme Framework, especially when developing a WordPress theme. Why? You can easily develop your themes, thus, increasing your productivity. It makes your theme follow the community standards You are assured of excellent support from the parent themes. What Theme Frameworks Do I Recommend? Genesis Genesis Theme Framework is highly recommended by many WordPress theme designers. What's good about Genesis is that it creates a great deal of power and price. It includes highly customizable elements for a not-so-expensive price. Recommended for advanced WordPress Theme designers, this Theme Framework surely is a good deal. Features: Cleanly coded design Search Engine Optimized Coded using HTML 5 Responsive Great support and updates Secure Custom widgets and layouts Pros: One of the best things about Genesis is that it's a one-time purchase product. That means once you bought the framework for your website, you never have to buy it again. (Isn't that sweet!). Aside from that, the wide array of child themes give you a great amount of choice! Most of Genesis child themes are beautiful and cleanly written. Cons: One of the concerns that most designers have with Genesis is how it affects the learning curve of developers. With a pretty template always there to save your ass, you'll depend much on it to the point where you no longer develop. Review: Overall Rating: B+ Customizability: B Design: A- UX Rating: A Cherry Framework I have reviewed Cherry Famework before and I have always found it cool to use. Unlike most items in this list, Cherry Framework is free. Yes, you read that one right. It's free. And the great thing about that is you get almost the same features from Theme Frameworks you pay for. Features: Automatic updates Great framework-to-child theme relationship Data management that allows you to backup and restore your framework and its child themes Bootstrap-based It's freakin' free Pros: Cherry framework is probably the easiest to use free Theme Framework I have ever used. With its flexibility, you can easily use Cherry in any WordPress-powered website design you want. It's even responsive! Cons: Cherry Framework's Slideshow feature is challenging, especially for blogging beginners Review: Overall Rating: B- Customizability: B+ Design: A UX Rating: C+ Headway For non-coding designers, Headway can become a very powerful tool. With its drag-and-drop feature, this Theme Framework would make designing easier and faster. This gives users the steering wheel to control almost everything they want to without spending some time coding. Features: Easy to navigate drag-and-drop interface Pages are SEO-ready HTML5 and CSS3 coded Can customize landing pages Sleek performance-wise Grid layout Pros: Headway's visual editor is probably the best feature that makes the Theme Framework a part of this list. If you happen to choose to use CSS, you can still see the changes before making it live in the website. That way, you can tweak and adjust small design details without worrying that it would mess up your whole design. Cons: Despite the awesome features of Headway, there are still some things that concern me the most. The learning curve of Headway is sort of steep. You need to experiment on features first before memorizing every feature. Review: Overall Rating: B+ Customizability: A- Design: A UX Rating: C+ Ultimatum Framework creators of Ultimatum dubbed this WordPress Theme Framework as the 'total design suite'. This is probably because you can have the control over the  details of your website without even coding. Well, this is a sort of a sweeping proclamation, but we can make the argument that Ultimatum is one of the best out there. Features: Cool slideshows Shortcodes Amazing form builder Visual composer page builder Layer slider Revolution slider ShowBiz Carousels Post galleries Post ordering WooCommerce integration Pros: Ultimatum provides a wide array of features, but what I like the best with Ultimatum is that it is widgetized. Every single area on your WordPress site is a widget where you can drag and drop elements and control the design. Cons: Aside from the relatively steep learning curve that poses a great challenge for designers, ultimatum is a pretty cool Theme Framework to play around with. Review: Overall Rating: A Customizability: A- Design: A UX Rating: B- Thesis Thesis 2.0 is a Theme Framework that serves more than 42,000 websites around the globe. It has become one of the best and most talked about frameworks out there. Thesis 2.0 impresses you with its wide variety of fonts, sizes, colors, columns that can be customized in your own accord. Features: Customizable Typography Custom 404 error pages Great landing pages that convert Pros: What makes Thesis 2.0 great is that it allows you to create multiple templates and customize each post with your preferred template. That means you can totally revamp each post's layout without messing the other posts. Aside from that, Thesis 2.0 has SEO built in the Theme Framework, so no worries about changing titles or meta tags anymore. Cons: One of the major concerns for Thesis 2.0 is it's drag and drop system. I somehow find it unintuitive. Because of that, you tend to add a lot of unused boxes, which mess up the CSS. Sometimes, you find yourself looking for a missing bracket. Review: Overall Rating: C+ Customizability: B- Design:  C+ UX Rating:  C+ Child Themes Here are a few of the Child Themes developed out of these frameworks: Genesis News Pro Theme Ambiance Pro Sixty-Nine Pro Centric Pro Agency Pro Cherry Framework Design Studio Management Company IT Responsive Interior Design Fancy Photographer Headway Carnegie Whitewash Fresh Gigantic Ultra Vision Ultimatum Modus Pump Thesis 2.0 Color Skin Business Skin 6 Responsive Blog Skin Responsive Magic Skin 2 Business Skin 4 Whats's My Pick? This may spur some argument but I have to go with Ultimatum. By weighting the features, pros and cons of the Theme Framework, you just know that it's the best on the list. I found it easy to use  and really powerful. That gave me a lot of liberty to really delve and tinker with the designs. Aside from that, I find the this Theme Framework very intuitive and powerful. I found in Ultimatum everything I want to have, so I picked it. And you guys, what do you prefer? Do you agree with me? If yes, what features of Ultimatum is your favorite? If not, what do you think is the best Theme Framework?

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What Design Really Means - Six Revisions

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What Design Really Means Posted: 28 Apr 2014 03:00 AM PDT Design is an imprecise term. Especially when used in regular language. For instance, someone who believes "design" is quantified solely by a product’s visual appeal might be disappointed when they get a set of gray boxes and lines — a wireframe — as a deliverable created by a talented designer. Design is not principally measured by a product’s visual appeal; its aesthetic qualities. It’s also measured by how it was planned and articulated, how it was built, how it functions. It’s about the design’s ability to improve upon the current reality. The commonplace view that a "good design" is anything that is beautiful and visually appealing is wrong. It’s wrong because a good design is more than that. The visual quality of a good design is just a portion of the equation. Steve Jobs explains this point well, once saying: "People think it’s this veneer — that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works." Gmail has a good design because it’s able to intelligently discern between contextually-relevant emails versus ones you may not want to see right now, and because it gives you the ability to search thousands of archived emails accurately and quickly. But you will never find Gmail being featured in any web design gallery, even though these galleries purport to have the goal of inspiring designers toward creating good designs. Dropbox has a good design because it works flawlessly in the background without any fussing about, and because it ambitiously tackles a huge everyday problem people have. Airbnb has a good design, not because the site is on all the popular web design galleries, but because of the company’s ability to reliably and conveniently provide a new form of accommodation for travelers. Design is the creation of a plan for the construction of an object; a plan that represents how the product should be built. Design lies at the crossroads of art and science, but both roads are equally important, so design is also about how we deal with that challenge. A product’s visual appeal — its aesthetic attributes — is merely a part of its design. Related Content The Difference Between Good Design and Great Design Staying Passionate and Motivated as a Web Designer When Flat Design Falls Flat About the Author Marcin Treder is a UX designer, the CEO of UXPin, and author of several UX design books (such as UX Design for Startups). The post What Design Really Means appeared first on Six Revisions.

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