Ikiru Design

I’ve been thoroughly neglectful about updating this blog over the last few month.

And though I earlier said I didn’t want to post about every release, I feel people might actually want to know that I have released a new version of Kaleidoscope at the WordPress.org Theme Directory.

It supports both threaded comments and pagination. I actually forgot about the existence of “sticky posts” until after I uploaded it, so I have no idea what, if anything,  needs to be done to support those.

It’s not the polished version I’ve been hoping to make, but it functions well for most purposes. And it offers support for the most anticipated features of WordPress 2.7, so I’ve no doubt that despite its shortcomings it’s worth releasing.

Just a note for those looking for threaded comments: you need to enable them (In Settings>Discussion) before you’ll see them. They’re turned off by default for the sake of backwards compatibility.

UPDATE (19 Jan 09) — In a heretofore unprecedented move, I actually dropped an even newer version yesterday, and it’s available. Major highlights: basic sticky post support, and lots of styles for obscure situations that no blog but the example at the theme directory is very likely to try.

I have mixed feelings about posting whenever a single theme is updated, but this is a pretty big one. And it’s also worth noting that the WordPress Themes Directory got it up less than 24 hours after I uploaded it. Given the large lead time that was needed for 0.7.6, I was pleasantly surprised to see that. So anyway, the most important changes are, in a particular order:

1. The theme now has an options page. Controllable are the accent color — at Ikiru Design that’s set to “orange” — which is used one the description in the header and the links in the footer, the display of default gravatars, the display of The Mini Quilt (see #2), and switching to Southern Hemisphere colors.
2. The Mini Quilt. The Mini Quilt is a smaller version of the Quilt that appears on Kaleidoscope archives pages. To fit, it sacrifices displaying the Post Titles — though you’ll see them on hover — in favor of offering many more posts than a basic Recent Posts widget would. (And if you want to display both, or have even more control of your sidebar, the quilt will also appear as a potential sidebar widget.)
3. The random post link in the footer is now compatible with WP Super Cache. Because the popular plugin changes a blog’s redirect rules, the old method — which required a redirect — would break when you ran the plugin. The new method, which gets rid of the need for a redirect, will help keep your server load down, and will let readers use the link whether you’re caching or note. (Also, I’m working on a post explaining two different workarounds for the problem.)
4. Fixed a number of visual “bugs”. Two different problems caused the layout of certain pages to break in 0.7.6, with the help of Babs, those are fixed. A number of little problems have been tackled.
5. Finally, and this may have been unnoticed by everyone but me, in previous version of Kaleidoscope (and every theme I’ve made for that matter) the search bar has been outside of the area in the sidebar that is replaced by widget. That is because I didn’t like the styling of the widget. But now I’ve overridden the styling of the widget, and am satisfied with it. Essentially, you finally have the freedom to put the search box where ever you want it in the sidebar.

These are some of things I’d been planning to do on Kaleidoscope and I’m glad to have finally gotten them out. I’m sure there are still problems lurking under the surface, and I’m sure a quick-eyed user will find them quicker than I. If you’re such a user, please drop me a line.

Oh, the download link! And here’s a link to Kaleidoscope’s listing in the WordPress Themes Directory.

I’ve been working, on and off for a while, on a theme that translates the date of a post — or in the case of multiple, the topmost — into a color and uses that to determine the color of the page. This was inspired in no small part by the now-retired look that Shaun Inman used to use.

I honestly don’t remember when I started working on it, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out it began in January. That isn’t to say that development of this theme has been terribly difficult — though there were certainly parts I’ve struggled with — but also that I’ve simply been short on time I’ve been able to devote to the project.

It wasn’t until Friday, after what felt like a too-long wait, that I finally saw the then-current version, 0.7.6 in the newly opened WordPress Theme Directory. This release, as signified by it’s less than 1.0 status, is less than I intend to do with the theme. But I’m hoping that finally making the project public will force me to spend more time to add the last features that I’ve been waiting so long to build.

Enough about how my development process works however, let’s cover the highlights of the theme itself. The primary feature, the one for which it is named, is the algorithm that translates dates into colors. This is done with a few PHP functions which take advantage of cosine curves to generate colors that are generally suited to the time of year. Essentially, the three colors of the red-green-blue system commonly used in HTML, all peak at different times. The blue is at it’s height around January first, green peaks around April 1, and red peaks around September 1. All of these are estimates, as I’ve fudged a bit with the peaks and valleys of these curves to give me colors closer to what I want.

Taking advantage of this date-to-color algorithm, I’ve made my favorite feature, the quilt. The quilt is, as you may guess, a collection of differently colored squares to create a blanket to keep you warm… err, display your posts. Rather than use the month-divided list-style archives I’ve built for my themes in the past, I’ve made a single collection of all posts, with colors serving to give you a rough idea of the date. You can easily tell posts from January from those from August, and you can also tell posts from 2008 are different from those from 2005. Of course, this feature is also made even easier to understand by the fact that the post are themselves shown chronologically in the quilt. The real result of the quilt, however, is that you get a beautiful rendering of your archives.

There are many more little features in this theme. I’ve added a rather novel system to hide the default gravatars when a user hasn’t set them. Trackback are seperated from comments so they don’t break the flow of conversation. The whole archives page is prettier than any I’ve made. Heck, the theme itself is just prettier than any I’ve made. And page titles have a novel organization I’m rather fond of.

Mostly though, I’m glad to have finally put this out into the world. It’s still not done, but I simply can’t continue to sit on it. I’ll keep you updated about changes I make to it in the future, and I hope to write a few tutorials explaining the most interesting features of Kaleidoscope to anyone interesting in using them in a different context.

You can, of course, see a demo of the theme at the Ikiru Demo Blog. Be sure to look at the archives page. (Or you can just look around here, as it is the theme Ikiru Design is currently using.) There is also a demo, lacking an archives page, at the WordPress Theme Directory. And you can download the theme from there. You can find even more rambling about it at the theme’s page. And if you have anything to tell me about it — be it bug reports, complaints, or compliments — feel free to contact me.

Armed with a firm desire to create a WordPress theme different from the others that I’ve made and little plan as to what that should look like, I made new theme that was first called “Small Verdana,” then “Old School,” and now the compromise “Retro Verdana.” It is, I suspect, ugly. But it’s also loaded with novelties I once loved and relished.

From the first webpages I ever made — with FrontPage, I must confess — Verdana was one of those fonts that I knew to use and even liked. I’ve also admired the false depth which is easily created by changing border colors. And I’ve always had a undeservedly strong affinity for the color #336699. And “Retro Verdana” has all of those things. And ugly as it may be, I like the result of combining those things. A lot.

To see this little beast for yourself, click here for a demo. Or, since you may well be too lazy, look right below this line.

Essentially, the issue is this: I have strong suspicion that “Retro Verdana” is ugly. Really ugly. Especially to modern tastes, but also to the timeless ideals to which I’d rather aspire. But I also can’t seem to avoid smiling every single time I see it. I can’t help saying: maybe you’re not the prettiest gal, but I’d still love to dance with you.

I can’t avoid the desire to post this theme and share it publicly even though I could be forever condemned as a victim of hideously bad taste. And I can’t avoid relishing in both the unsightly and the nice and novel features which, to even my surprise, I think it has.

So I guess the whole point is that I have two words to say to those who think it’s ugly: I understand. And I have two words for those who admit fondness for it: I understand.

You can download Retro Verdana here, and find its page here.

I’m glad to showcase another theme I’ve put together, Carter’s Line. Essentially, Carter’s Line is a theme built around two basic ideas, both of which are in the title. “Carter” is the name of the designer (Matthew Carter) who created the two typefaces used in the theme, Georgia and Verdana. The “Line” is probably the more unique aspect of the design, for better or worse. Everything in the theme clings to the line, and the line’s the only one in the design (underlines excluded). As with all my themes, you can view it at the Ikiru Demo Blog and download it immediately.