minimalist Theme

♦ Posted by Jeff Starr in CSS, WordPress

Updated September 21, 2022 • 23 comments

[ minimalist Theme ] The minimalist theme is crisp and clean. Featuring a three-column satellite menu-page to reduce clutter and streamline usability, the minimalist theme is designed to present site content with sophistication and elegance. The minimalist theme is XHTML 1.1 strict, employs nearly valid CSS (ha!), and features browser-safe colors and universal fonts all delivered via concise, two-column liquid layout. Mindfully detailed and carefully prepared, the minimalist theme provides plenty of room for customization and expansion. One of my favorite theme designs.

Check out a screenshot of minimalist on Firefox »

Download

This theme is offered absolutely free under open source GPL. Instructions are included along with a complete set of files and images. Typical theme installation, includes two optional custom page templates.

Download minimalist ThemeVersion 1.2 ( 25.71 KB ZIP )

About the Author

Jeff Starr = Web Developer. Book Author. Secretly Important.

23 responses to “minimalist Theme”

Nick 2006/11/16 12:05 pm

Being a minimalist, it took forever to find a suitable minimal wordpress theme. Thanks for creating it and even more for making it available! Very nice work :)

Perishable 2006/11/22 6:08 pm • Post Author

Thank you kindly, Nick — I am glad that you are enjoying life as a minimalist!

— Cheers!

Nick 2007/03/21 10:22 am • Post Author

Perishable

Hey there, I posted a comment some time ago thanking you for the theme but hadn’t really implemented until now with the latest version.

I had an issue with navigation.php and thought I’d give you the info. I’m hosted by DreamHost, Php 5.1.2, Extra Web Security enabled.

After creating the navigation page, using navigation.php as the template, I received this error:

Warning: require_once() [function.require-once]:
URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in
/home/user/website/wp-content/themes/minimalist/navigation.php
on line 6

I removed this line:

<?php require_once(get_settings('siteurl') . "/wp-blog-header.php"); ?>

Changing it to:

<?php require('./wp-blog-header.php'); ?>

Which I found in the WP index.php code. This worked :) Thought you’d consider implementing it in an update, and submit it to the WordPress theme listing, it’s much better than the other ‘minimal’ templates there.

Cheers,
Nick

Perishable 2007/03/21 10:27 am • Post Author

Nick,

Thank you for this information. I will stash this tip with the minimalist theme files and consult it during the next update. It is greatly appreciated! I am also glad you not only tried the min theme, but were successful with it and even enjoy it. You just made my day!

I have considered adding the minimalist theme to the WP-theme pile, but somehow just couldn’t bring myself to do it.. I need to figure out a sure-fire way of getting that crazy navigation page to behave when uploaded to the theme listings.. Perhaps your encouragement will inspire me to finally look into it!

Thanks again,
Jeff

GPSchnyder 2008/02/22 2:39 am

Hi,

I’m right now working on a website using your Theme.

It all seams to work fine, but the navigation-page just shows the heading.

I tried using navigation.php as a pagetemplate, but this doesn’t work at all. Only a blank page is shown then.

I use the latest version of wordpress.

Any Ideas? Or do I have to build the page on myself?

GPSchnyder

GPSchnyder 2008/02/22 2:56 am

Did the changing as mentioned by #3.

Didn’t get the error, but the changing worked.

GPSchnyder

Perishable 2008/02/26 6:19 pm • Post Author

Excellent! Hopefully everything is working as intended. If not, let me know, I am more than happy to assist with my WordPress themes! ;)

Kevin Paquet 2008/06/20 6:13 am

Is this 2.5.1 compatible? I wanna make use of this one, I hate the “effort costing” blogging and would make things simple from now on.

Perishable 2008/06/22 8:09 am • Post Author

Hi Kevin,
Yes, I think the minimalist theme will work fine with WordPress 2.5+. I haven’t tested it yet, but as you can see, the theme is actually quite simple and doesn’t rely on any fancy tricks to function properly. If you hit a snag, let me know and I will do my best to resolve the issue.

Tom Sparks 2008/09/06 12:11 pm

Perishable..

Excellent theme! I am admired the simplicity, you have made a complex theme, very simple. I call that art.

I am using it now and have issues with the navigation page. http://sparkshouse.com/wpress/?page_id=241 The issues is it is blank and I am not sure how to populated with all the good things you have on yours like recent posts, categories, comments, meta and extra pages.

Do I have to hand code these on the navigation page or do I have a problem with my configuration.

Again thanks for your efforts and any help you can give.

..Tom

Tom Sparks 2008/09/06 1:05 pm

Hi Tom here again, I read the comments above and made the change recommended by Nick and this solved my problem. The nav page now has the missing content.

Thnx for the cool theme. Minimal is cool.

Jeff Starr 2008/09/06 4:14 pm • Post Author

Thanks for using the minimalist theme, Tom — I am glad that you got it working correctly. Sorry for any confusion in the installation instructions; let me know if I may be of any assistance in the future.
Cheers,
Jeff

Comments are closed for this post. Something to add? Let me know.

Nick 2006/11/16 12:05 pm

Being a minimalist, it took forever to find a suitable minimal wordpress theme. Thanks for creating it and even more for making it available! Very nice work :)
Perishable 2006/11/22 6:08 pm • Post Author

Thank you kindly, Nick — I am glad that you are enjoying life as a minimalist!

— Cheers!
Nick 2007/03/21 10:22 am • Post Author

Perishable

Hey there, I posted a comment some time ago thanking you for the theme but hadn’t really implemented until now with the latest version.

I had an issue with navigation.php and thought I’d give you the info. I’m hosted by DreamHost, Php 5.1.2, Extra Web Security enabled.

After creating the navigation page, using navigation.php as the template, I received this error:

Warning: require_once() [function.require-once]:
URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in
/home/user/website/wp-content/themes/minimalist/navigation.php
on line 6

I removed this line:

<?php require_once(get_settings('siteurl') . "/wp-blog-header.php"); ?>

Changing it to:

<?php require('./wp-blog-header.php'); ?>

Which I found in the WP index.php code. This worked :) Thought you’d consider implementing it in an update, and submit it to the WordPress theme listing, it’s much better than the other ‘minimal’ templates there.

Cheers,
Nick
Perishable 2007/03/21 10:27 am • Post Author

Nick,

Thank you for this information. I will stash this tip with the minimalist theme files and consult it during the next update. It is greatly appreciated! I am also glad you not only tried the min theme, but were successful with it and even enjoy it. You just made my day!

I have considered adding the minimalist theme to the WP-theme pile, but somehow just couldn’t bring myself to do it.. I need to figure out a sure-fire way of getting that crazy navigation page to behave when uploaded to the theme listings.. Perhaps your encouragement will inspire me to finally look into it!

Thanks again,
Jeff
GPSchnyder 2008/02/22 2:39 am

Hi,

I’m right now working on a website using your Theme.

It all seams to work fine, but the navigation-page just shows the heading.

I tried using navigation.php as a pagetemplate, but this doesn’t work at all. Only a blank page is shown then.

I use the latest version of wordpress.

Any Ideas? Or do I have to build the page on myself?

GPSchnyder
GPSchnyder 2008/02/22 2:56 am

Did the changing as mentioned by #3.

Didn’t get the error, but the changing worked.

GPSchnyder
Perishable 2008/02/26 6:19 pm • Post Author

Excellent! Hopefully everything is working as intended. If not, let me know, I am more than happy to assist with my WordPress themes! ;)
Kevin Paquet 2008/06/20 6:13 am

Is this 2.5.1 compatible? I wanna make use of this one, I hate the “effort costing” blogging and would make things simple from now on.
Perishable 2008/06/22 8:09 am • Post Author

Hi Kevin,
Yes, I think the minimalist theme will work fine with WordPress 2.5+. I haven’t tested it yet, but as you can see, the theme is actually quite simple and doesn’t rely on any fancy tricks to function properly. If you hit a snag, let me know and I will do my best to resolve the issue.
Tom Sparks 2008/09/06 12:11 pm

Perishable..

Excellent theme! I am admired the simplicity, you have made a complex theme, very simple. I call that art.

I am using it now and have issues with the navigation page. http://sparkshouse.com/wpress/?page_id=241 The issues is it is blank and I am not sure how to populated with all the good things you have on yours like recent posts, categories, comments, meta and extra pages.

Do I have to hand code these on the navigation page or do I have a problem with my configuration.

Again thanks for your efforts and any help you can give.

..Tom
Tom Sparks 2008/09/06 1:05 pm

Hi Tom here again, I read the comments above and made the change recommended by Nick and this solved my problem. The nav page now has the missing content.

Thnx for the cool theme. Minimal is cool.
Jeff Starr 2008/09/06 4:14 pm • Post Author

Thanks for using the minimalist theme, Tom — I am glad that you got it working correctly. Sorry for any confusion in the installation instructions; let me know if I may be of any assistance in the future.
Cheers,
Jeff

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