Creating Own WordPress Theme by Full Modification of Official Theme

Creating Own WordPress Theme can be made easy by full modification of any WordPress official Theme or other theme or theme framework’s Child Theme. Creating own WordPress Theme is easy for a newbie by following modification method of an existing theme.

 

Why Official WordPress Theme For Creating Own WordPress Theme ?

 

Just because they are official and has practically no bugs. You can select any of the themes by visiting wordpressdotorg WordPress profile. We could have use a good WordPress Framework, but unfortunately they are paid.

 

Tools needed for Creating Own WordPress Theme by Full Modification

 

For creating own WordPress Theme by modification, first download any of the official theme that is structurally closer to the look you want. Adobe Photoshop is almost a must have software for creating own WordPress Theme. Other softwares you will need are :

 

• First you need a offline Installation of WordPress on your Computer. If you are not sure how to do it, please use the search function on this website.
• Second you will need a tool to grab the hex value of the colors. For Mac, the default tools are enough but for Windows you will need Color Pic. It has a free edition.
• Third is a good text editor. Gedit is suitable for our work.
• Forth, for measurements, we need a tool that can measure area in pixels. There are tools from Color Pic software’s developers for that purpose like Screen Caliper.
• Fifth as we said, Adobe Photoshop is almost must. If you can not buy it, you can use the 30 day trial. Otherwise use Gimp.
• We are using “Classic” WordPress theme in this guide.

 

Creating Own WordPress Theme : Understanding a Theme

 

Extract the contents of the downloaded WordPress Classic Theme and go to the folder, you will see these components :

 

 

 

These are the approximate functions :

 

Keep in mind, as we are using official theme for creating own WordPress Theme, it will have functions integrated with WordPress like a subpackage.

 

How to modify and move for Creating Own WordPress Theme

 

Take that, we will give the theme the name Modern for Creating Own WordPress Theme in this method.  Change all Classic to Modern like in case of style.css file :

 

 

This is to make sure that your own theme will not get modified with a sudden official update. As basically we do not need much change in the Theme Structure on PHP side (check all the php files and find the “classic” and replace it with “modern”), the major need is to work with the CSS file. For example, if you want to change the appearance of blockquote, find the thing that is working behind it in style.css file :

 

 

You can follow this guide on CSS for changing the blockquote. If you want to see more example, you can read Customizing the look of Author box,  How to use specific color for author™s comments etc. Basically its time consuming but not very difficult.

 

What is the role of the tools like Photoshop for Creating Own WordPress Theme ?

 

First, you need to create a sketch or rough graphical copy of your imagination how for creating own WordPress theme. Second, you can slice 1 pixel or 10 pixel chopped area and effectively compress it in photoshop for a repeat graphics. You can easily use CSS repeat function to make the theme light instead of using a full image. The measurement tools are needed for on browser measurements and needed change in CSS.

This is enough for creating own WordPress Theme for the first time. With time you will know the PHP functions, how to add the extra PHP calls, integrate Plugin CSS style etc.