I’m releasing a slightly modified version of the current Futurosity design, Futurosity Vero. The theme is designed with minimalist fans in mind, but is built on Sandbox and the Blueprint CSS framework, so it’s flexible enough to form the basis for your own more colorful mods.
Futurosity Vero requires WordPress 2.3.2 or later. I’ve tested it in Safari, Firefox, and IE 7. There are some known issues in IE 6; see below.
Demo
Here’s a demo of Futurosity Vero.
Download
Before you download Futurosity Vero, please note: First, the theme is free, but I would ask you to please keep a link back to Futurosity (see the license below). Second, I do not offer support for WordPress (try the WordPress Documentation or Forums), I won’t help you with general CSS questions (try this CSS Tutorial), and I won’t tell you how to customize my themes. I will help you if you’ve found a bug. (I’m actually a pretty nice guy.) Just post a comment below. Thanks!
Don’t miss an update to this theme! Subscribe to Futurosity. And if you’re looking for a host that doesn’t suck, you can get great hosting, save money, and support Futurosity: Use code FUTUROSITY for 3 free months!
Installation
To install, open the FuturosityVero folder and upload the contents of the plugins folder to your wordpress/wp-content/plugins directory. Upload the futurosity_vero folder to your wordpress/wp-content/themes folder. Then open your WP Admin, activate the plugins under the Plugins tab, and select the Futurosity Vero theme under the Presentation tab.
Plugins
Futurosity Vero uses four plugins, which are included in the download. They are highly recommended, but only the Get Custom Field Values plugin is required. The plugins are:
Note that the gravatar plugin uses a generic gravatar if the commenter doesn’t have one. You can change this by editing comments.php. Find this code:
<?php gravatar("R", 40); ?>
and change it to this:
<?php gravatar("R", 40, "[path to your default gravatar]"); ?>
For more information, see WordPress Gravatar Plugin.
I’ve included a generic gravatar in the theme directory, gravatar.jpg (pictured above). To use it, move this image to your images folder and add the path to comments.php.
Tips
Here are a few tips for customizing the theme.
Blueprint CSS
Futurosity Vero is built on Blueprint CSS, a CSS framework. The framework provides a number of readymade selectors which you can easily edit into the theme files or override in style.css.
For more information, see this list of Blueprint CSS Resources.
Sandbox
Futurosity Vero is built on Sandbox, but I’ve edited the theme files so you can’t simply use the style.css file in Futurosity Vero to style a standard Sandbox installation. Be sure to read the sandbox.html file in the futurosity_vero folder for more information on customizing Sandbox.
Fresh and Featured Posts
Futurosity Vero displays your latest post at the top left of the home page, and a Featured post to the right of the Fresh post. It will also display associated post images, if available. For best results, the image should be 350 pixels wide and 270 pixels tall. To add an image:
- Go to Custom Fields near the bottom of the Post page in your WP Admin.
- Under Key, type:
post-image. - Under Value, type the url for the image, e.g.,
http://www.futurosity.com/images/post-image.jpg
Here’s an example:
The Fresh post is always your latest post. The Featured post is the latest post in the Featured category. IMPORTANT! The Featured post should NOT also be the latest post, or it will appear twice! To display featured posts, you’ll have to create a featured category in your WordPress Admin and add that category’s number to home.php.
- Create a new “Featured”" category in WordPress and note the category number.
- Open home.php in the futurosity_vero theme folder. Find this code:
<?php $feature_post = get_posts( 'category=73&numberposts=1' ); ?>. - Replace the above code with this:
<?php $feature_post = get_posts( 'category=[category number of your Featured category]&numberposts=1' ); ?>
Note: I don’t recommend assigning more than one category to a post, with the exception of Featured posts. Use tags instead. You may want to remove the Featured category from a post when you post a new featured post.
Recent Comments
You can edit the formatting for the recent comments plugin under the WP Admin Options tab. This is the code I recommend:
<li>%gravatar %comment_author on <a href="%comment_link" title="%post_title">%post_title</a>: %comment_excerpt </li>
Known Issues
I’ve noticed a couple of intractable layout bugs in IE 6. I’m releasing the theme anyway because, with the imminent release of IE 8, version 6 is all but dead. If you have a lot of users who are still stuck with IE 6, this may not be the theme for you. If you can help fix these, please leave a comment.
- On the home page, the sidebar (far right column), drops down below the recent comments.
- On the single post page, the post drops down below the sidebar.
Special Thanks
I want to give special thanks to Thin & Light, who wrote a custom function for me to display excerpts on the next and previous posts. I also want to thank milo for some troubleshooting help.
License
Futurosity Vero is Copyright © 2008 by Robert Ellis. It is released under the GNU General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation, meaning you can do pretty much whatever you want with it, but you should kindly keep the link back to Futurosity (http://www.futurosity.com), either in the sidebar or the footer. If you do, you will be lucky in love. If you don’t, well, “For he who shuts out love, in turn must be Shut out from love; and on her threshold lie, Howling in utter darkness.”
History
0.1 Released 7 Mar 08.
0.2 Released 23 Mar 08. Added the avatar tag for WordPress 2.5.
0.3 Released 01 Apr 08. Fixed a bug in the calendar on the home page.
0.4 Released 04 Apr 08. Removed extraneous numbers that were appearing in previous and next post excerpts on single posts.
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63 Comments
Great minimal theme Robert! Weren’t we just talking about this…
I’m currently running it at http://elifoner.com - thank you Robert for another quality theme to dissect and learn from!
@Will: Aren’t we always talking about minimal themes?!
@Eli: You’re welcome. Why do all my themes look better on your blog, even when you only make a few minor changes, like the way you style your links? I’m going to have to go through your list of tweaks.
Yes indeed. This one is added to my collection as one of my favorites!
@Robert: Not better, but different. Since your comment I’ve gone through the links once again - all have similar hover states, but the background and borders differ. The home page images then needed the background and bottom border cleared on hover. The same thought was used with the top nav menu, which makes it easier for the reader to get a feel for where on the site they are. Same could be done for categories..
@Will: I dig your theme!
Thanks Eli!
realmente un buen trabajo, digno de cualquier web de Apple
Exellent theme, but I think I’ve found a bug. I dont know if its my fault, but the problem occured before I started editing the template. On the single post I get numbers after the next/previous post titles. Hopefully you know what’s causing this and can help me out. I have tested the site in firefox, safari and opera. The bug is the same. Im on mac os x 10.4.11. Cheers!
Runar, I think I’ve got the same problem here that I had with Aperio. Open functions.php, look near the bottom for this:
echo count($words);and delete it.
I’ll post an update soon. Thanks for spotting this.
Thanks for the help! Works great.
Running the code at http://jaegillentine.com/blog/?p=6
Under “Next” and “Previous” - why does it show the numbers after my post title and before the post body?
Jae, see this comment above. I meant to fix this in the last update, but I forgot. I’ll fix it next time. Sorry…
Jae, I just uploaded a new version that fixes the weird number problem.
Thank you, that fixed it. You do fantastic work! Thanks so much.
Thanks for your great work
Hi !
Love this theme, man ! well done !
I’ ll be back ! ; )
It’s very nice.
I noticed a couple of issues in the current version:
1 - post-image doesn’t work
2 - ‘fresh’ shows a post that is older than ‘recent’
oops. never mind the part about post-image. i didn’t install the c2c plugin.
still having problem with ‘fresh’ vs ‘recent’ though. fresh is older than recent for some reason.
pickles, please post a url where I can see your blog, otherwise it’s difficult to know what’s going on.
The article-page is not validating because you forgot “cols” en “rows” attributes in the “textarea” in comments.php
http://www.futurosity.com/wpthemes/?p=22
check that link in the W3 validator
Thanks for your themes, they’re a great resource to learn!
Thanks, VKNT. There are a few things that don’t validate in my themes. :)
Your theme is great. Problem is it doesn’t work in IE6.
Yes I know everyone hates IE and it’s the bane of our web developers existence, but what can you do?
I’m offering a bounty of $40 and am sure a few other people will chip in. Throw money at a problem and it’ll go away.
Hopeful,
Steven Vu
Thanks for your comment, Steven. Love your site, great header!
I’m pretty sure the IE6 problem is a bug in the Blueprint CSS framework. I didn’t worry about it too much because IE6 is rapidly fading from the web. Only a very small percentage of my visitors use it. But I understand it’s a problem if your site attracts a lot of IE6 visitors.
Since the Vero layout is really not very complicated, it shouldn’t be difficult to redo it without Blueprint. It’s just a matter of time. If I can find the time, I’ll post a fix for IE6. But I’ve been busy with a number of things and have been trying to work on a new theme. Be patient. :)
Steven, I’ve spent the past hour or so trying to fix the IE6 bug and it’s maddening. I’m going to pass on this. Supporting IE6 doesn’t feel worth it to me. I’d rather work on a new theme. Sorry. But if someone else wants to fix it, I’d be happy to release the update and give the person credit.
i am thrilled to find your theme robert. my friend and business partner, isaac, turned me on to you. your structure is going to house an encyclopedia of insight about the future i have been collecting and digesting since i was a little girl. my lifework essentially. the ability to house it all in one place, here, with you in futurosity, is my greatest accomplishment thus far. i am deeply appreciative of your generosity and will do your structure proud, as they say. _future resident caroline
future resident. I love it!
excellent robert! i can’t wait for you to see what i put in it. i am so grateful for you. _caroline
I think i’ve fixed it.
It’s actually quite a simple error. In single.php:
instead of
and this:
instead of:
Can, someone confirm that it works. I’m only using browsershots.
I’m pretty sure it will work. It’s the odd way blueprintcss does things.
Anyway, on a side note; have you developed drupal themes? I need some work done and was wondering how much you’d charge. Email me if you’re interested.
hi Robert!
I love your themes and respect your works!
I’m not expert of wordpress and have a problem with your theme…I can’t upload image in the hompage with custom fields…Should I put some code somewhere? Can you give more information about??
Thanks a lot
P
paolo, I’m not exactly sure what you’re asking. Once you’ve uploaded the image, either in the WordPress Admin or with an FTP program, you add the Custom Field key and image URL to the post. See the detailed instructions in the post above under “Fresh and Featured Posts.”
single.php
find the code below.
change it to:
and
to
I think that should do it. The bug’s caused by the append-3. Can someone confirm.
Christ. Third time lucky.
column span-9 append-3
needs to be changed to
column span-9 append-1
Thanks, Steven. When I can find some time, I’ll check it out.
The best minimalist design ever;
Only had a problem to update the width since I like to increase the size of the photo; but manage to update manually the sandbox; the rest is easy.
A big thumb up.
love this theme! thanks for sharing it! :)
Curious as to how you picked the name for your template.
Beautiful choice ;)
My theme names are picked more or less at random from Lorem Ipsum.
I don’t know if this happened because of the theme, but my statistic plugin has stopped working (it shows 0 hit) since I’m using this theme. I still can’t figure out what is happening. Does anyone having the same problem?
Andika, I don’t know what plugin you’re using, but there may be a tag that you have to manually add the the footer.php file of your Vero theme.
hi robert, this theme is stunning and thats why i will use it soon. developing works good with bpcss and my blog is ready to launch. there´s just one little problem - pickles had the same some entries before:
1 - ‘fresh’ shows a post that is older than ‘recent’
this is my problem at present - i´m sure, that i changed nothing in php:
Fresh
ID; ?>
<a href=”" title=”">
<?php echo c2c_get_custom(’post-image’,'<img src=”‘,’” alt=”" class=”post-image” />’,”); ?>
<div id=”post-” class=”">
<a href=”" title=”" rel=”bookmark”>
<span class=”published” title=”">
♦
my system is running local, otherwise i would send you the link…perhaps you fin d the mistake in one minute…
thanks in advance
chris
chris, if this is supposed to be home.php then you have changed something in the php or the file is corrupted. Also, if the code is as you’ve pasted it, you’ve got curly quotes which could cause problems. If you’re using the code out-of-the-box, you shouldn’t have any problem with the Fresh posts, which is always the post with the latest post date.
What’s bpcss?
thanks for your quick note, robert. bpcss = blueprint css…
i didn´t changed your php-code. i only put in the flickr-stream module on top of fresh post.
i changed the php tag for showing - check it out:
[
My Flickr-Stream
[
Fresh
[
[
[
[ID; ?>
[
<a href="" title="[">
[<?php] echo c2c_get_custom(’post-image’,'<img src=”‘,’” alt=”[” class=”post-image” />’,”); ?>
[
<div id=”post-[” class=”[”>
[
<a href=”[” title=”[” rel=”bookmark”>[
[ <span class=”published” title=”[”>[
♦ [
[
[
can i send the code per mail?
bpcss, duh!
I’ll email you.
Hi, I am very much into your theme and am having a good time tweaking what little I’m capable of. One thing that I noticed with your installation of this theme is what appears to be a page excerpt or page description under your page titles. For example, from your links page: “Roll ’em. These are some of my favorite Links. The best of the best are marked with a ♥.” I can’t, for the life of me figure out how you’re accomplishing this. I suspect it is through a custom field. Any light you could help to shed on the matter would be great. Thanks!
Disregard the previous comment. I figured it out by creating a new page template (a slightly modified “page.php”). Thanks for the great theme!
Sean, that’s exactly how to do it.
BTW, your site looks interesting.
Well, it’s existed for less than a day and up to this point and I’ve had zero experience trying to implement WP as a CMS. It’s a little challenging, but I’ve been able to work out what I’ve needed to so far by thinking through it. It’s a slow process, so we’ll see how long it takes to get everything functioning correctly.
I have a quick question. Is there anyone using this theme and a resizing script? I’d like to use it for my website for a couple of reasons.
1) Is if I decide to change themes or redesign this one…I’d like to not have to redo all my images.
2) I like that the home page has the same identical images, but on the internal page it has the same dimensions. I’d like to have the internal page to have the regular ratio after the image has been resized to 350px.
I don’t want the CSS to do it because it doesn’t crop it. I’d like it to remain the same 350×270.
But once in a post, I’d like that image to be 350xwhat the length is in its own ratio.
I tried using the Tim Thumb script, but this theme seems to dislike it in someway. Or maybe I’m not as good at editing PHP like I thought.
Anyhoo check out the script here. darrenhoyt.com/2008/04/02/timthumb-php-script-released/
If anyone figures it out, let me know. Or just point me in the right direction. I’d really appreciate it.
Thanks Robert for a great theme.
I’m concerned cause I know that I will be using this theme for a long time to come. I don’t want it to be a stinker when I revamp or expand.
Thanks
I got it figured out. If anyone wants to know what I did, just ping me. Thanks
http://flashbang.ca/blog/?p=4
Hi Robert! I’ve gotten your Modicus theme going on my blog and I’ve run into an issue: can you tell me why my post text is pink?
Other than that, it’s simply wonderful. I can’t say enough about it.
Thanks for any hints!
Matt.
Solved!
All I had to do was put some text in the first line, which would become pink and bolded; and then hit return a few times until it went to normal text.
Help!
I’m experimenting two problems with Losemymind with sidebar 1.0 theme:
1.data entry for posts are wrong, appear 2007 instead 2008
2.tags under the post are not displayed, there is only a gray bar without any tags…
Can anyone help me?
I don’t know php…
Thanks, Vic
Hi Robert,
First I want to say that I absolutely love Futurosity Vero. It’s a theme that my fiancee and I feel is fun and we can expand upon.
That being said, I’ve been changing colors and font styles, and there is one class I simply can’t change: the “author vcard” that is in the entry-meta div on single.php.
You can see on this page: http://granola-joe.com/2008/05/15/green-social-media-on-the-rise/ that the text for the post info is grey. I haven’t been able to change that by referencing it in style.css and assigning a color.
Does this have something to do with the fact that it’s a microformat? And what can I do to style its text?
Thanks,
- Joe
granolajoe, the “author” tag is styled as a link, but that’s not actually what you want to change. You just want to style the “entry-meta” div. Try adding something like this to your style.css file:
.entry-meta{color: red [or whatever color you want];}That should work.
Hey Robert, thanks so much for your response. That worked, and I should have tried that first!
Just one more question:
How can I style the bullets that are on the timestamp for posts? Example:
July 1, 2008 ♦ Comment
The bullets are hard coded in the theme files. Just search in the files for
♦and change it to whatever you want (for example,•for a standard bullet).Love the theme FuturosityVero and want to use it. I keep getting numbers after the headings of the posts when in PREVIOUS and NEXT. Also trying to remove the ABOUT block but can’t find any reference in sidebar.php
The “About” text is actually in home.php. I’m not seeing any numbers.
Hi
Hoping you can help. I followed your directions re: Fresh and Featured posts but I still end up with a Fresh post older than the most recent and the Featured post is the same as the Fresh.
Thanks
Hoss, as far as I know, there’s no problem with this. Read the directions and try again. :)
Hoss, first of all read the instructions:
“IMPORTANT! The Featured post should NOT also be the latest post, or it will appear twice!”
Write a new post and you´ll see.
“Fresh post older than the most recent”
There is an easy solution. Just change the script in home.php. Take the same script as for featured post and change the id. before you have to set up a category for your newest entries like “Fresh” and check out the id number in wp-admin. every new post gets the standard id “Fresh” and from now on you will have the recent news on top.
code should look like this
fresh_post = get_posts( ‘category=YOUrIDFORFRESHCATEGORY&numberposts=1′ )
i used this dirty way on my blog:
http://www.chrishartmann.com/blog/
which wp-version is used in your case? wp 2.5.1 or 2.6?
I like the design, maybe there is too much space between the content on the front page. Looks very modern…
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