Smashing Magazine released this theme last July and I was on a blogging hiatus that time so I wasn’t able to do a review of it. Since I really like the theme, its appeal and overall design, I decided to do a short review of it and share it with you guys today.
This free WordPress theme is called the Paper Wall theme – a beautiful, colorful and artsy 2-column theme created by INDEZINER exclusively for Smashing Magazine. Below is the theme author’s introduction for the Paper Wall theme.
Paper Wall is the first wordpress theme released by Indeziner and it was created especially for Smashing Magazine. We created this theme as a challenge for us to see if it will be accepted for these great guys and in this way to receive a reputation.
We have created the Paper Wall theme as an alternative to any classic wordpress theme from before. The idea for the design was our daily working desk. As designers we always put things on paper. We draw elements and organize our activities mostly on a simple piece of paper. A designer’s desk is full of writing instruments and sketches and this is why we tried to bring the same layout online.
We wanted to provide you with the possibility to be able to simply activate this theme in WordPress and everything should work just fine. This is why we did not build a lot of features or personalized this theme too much in the idea to be simple to use. This is why it is very flexible and will work with all standard plugins that you may install in the future. All elements can be changed easily and you can personalize your theme as you want.
The header menu is updated automatically with pages you create from WordPress admin area and so is the footer. We used a plugin WP-PageNavi for the pagination. Using it is optional and replaces simple WordPress pagination. We were inspired by WebdesignerDepot and WebdesignerWall’s design style.
Screenshot:
Features:
- 2 columns
- Widget-ready
- Built-in gravatar support
- Fancy navigation menu
- Custom date icons
- Custom header/footer graphics
- Social bookmarking options
My Take:
Paper Wall is another example of a premium quality, free WordPress theme and once again, it is brought to us by the good folks of Smashing Magazine. It has a very beautiful and colorful design with custom date icons, paper effect and great custom header/footer graphics. Paper Wall would be a very good theme for a personal blog. I really like this theme. I love the custom graphics – date icons, header and footer graphics. I wish I had a personal blog that I could install this theme on.
The theme pagination is made possible by the WP-PageNavi plugin. It is optional but if you want to keep that pagination style working with the theme, then you’ll have to install that plugin.
Unlike most theme releases by Smashing Magazine, the Paper Wall theme doesn’t include the PSD file so users can’t really customize the theme that much except for changing the font colors, font styles and other stuff through the stylesheet. I was hoping that the theme author would include the PSD files for all the custom graphics so that the theme can be customizable and be attractive to more users. Other than that, the Paper Wall theme is still an excellent premium-quality, free WordPress theme which I’m sure many WP users would love to use on their blogs.
Btw, for those who are using Blogger/Blogspot, you’re in for a treat because the author has created and provided a Blogger template version of this theme for you guys.
Kudos to the guys over at INDEZINER and of course Smashing Magazine who keep spoiling us by releasing these awesome WordPress themes for free.
Preview or Download the Paper Wall WordPress theme.
@trench – Yeah but it would’ve been better and would’ve been more customizable if the PSD file was included in the theme download.
I like it. There are lots of ways to customize..
@aldrin – Oh I see. Well, you can probably ask a friend to do it for you. If not then, there are other nice free WordPress themes out there. ;)
i'm not really hating it, it's just that if i want to change the images, i wouldn't be able to blend them well for sure… :)
@K – You’re right about that. The custom graphics both has its advantages and disadvantages and what you pointed out are the disadvantages. But then again, it also depends on the user’s preference. A disadvantage for you can be something good for another user, you know what I mean? :)
I actually liked it like “finally, I am reading a blog” kind of theme. But I am not using it, you can’t do much about it (re: resize single page, excerpt on homepage, sidebars) because of too much graphics.
@aldrin – Why won’t you like it? I don’t remember you were into minimalistic themes. Anyways, don’t worry I’ll find a theme that you’ll like and review it here. ;)
this is cool, though i might not like the image at the header and footer. and i don't know how to blend things well when it comes to design so this is totally not for me.. hehe.
@sylv3rblade – Really? Cool! Did you do any customizations or you just kept it stock? Anyways, thanks for sharing! :)
I’m using this very theme for a side photography project of mine :D
@Jhay – Hehe that means something when it comes from a minimalistic guy. :D
Yup, this theme is definitely much better than Notepad Chaos.
@Michael – Yeah, that’s a good idea. This theme would be nice for a craft/hobby blog. Thanks for sharing! :)
I think this is good for crafting blogs.
Nice graphics, it’s better than Notepad Chaos, also brought by Smashing Magazine, though the design concept are similar. I like in particular this theme’s typography much better.
@jan – Yes, it is a great looking theme and I’m glad you liked it. :D
Great looking theme and very well put together. And you’re right, it’s best for a personal blog. I’m more comfortable with a two-column format and it’s got that, I’m pleased to note.