CSS Gallery Theme Pre-release Sneak Peak
- Filed under: Wpdesigner.com
For the past three days, I’ve been working (hard) on a new WordPress theme, one that could power a CSS or web design gallery site. I’m very happy to say that it’s almost here and can’t wait to release it. However, there are some minor stuff here and there to clean up. Additionally, I have to write some guidelines to show you how to full take advantage of all the features of this theme. Therefore, I can’t actually release it today.
But, that doesn’t mean you can’t take a sneak peak. The following screenshots are from a live demo that I’ve installed on my computer. I can’t import the locally installed demo online yet because, like I mentioned, I still need to clean up some stuff here and there.
Here are the screenshots:
Default - This is the default look that you’ll get, out of the box. It has three columns. The first two columns are for the website screenshots and the third column is for the sidebar.
Default 3 Columns Gallery - With a simple CSS tweak (CSS comment removal), you can dedicate all three columns to showcasing the website screenshots and move the sidebar to the bottom. Notice, the sidebar is now split into three columns also.
Featured - This is a layout variation that can be done simply by changing one letter in the index.php file. You can combine it with Lester Chan’s WP-Sticky plugin to feature a certain site that you want more attention for.
Featured 3 Columns Gallery - Just like the default layout, you can stretch the website screenshots to all three columns while using the Featured Layout variation.
4 Columns - What if you wanted smaller thumbnails? I got you covered. This variation is also very simple to do. Go in the style.css file and change three numbers.
Hover Menu - When you move the cursor over each thumbnail, it will give you a hover menu. This is a pretty neat feature that you won’t be able to fully appreciate until you actually get to play with it.
Post Ratings - I integrated Lester Chan’s WP-PostRatings plugin with the hover menu. To display and allow users to rate the sites of your gallery, simply install the WP-PostRatings plugin. And, here’s the post-ratings variation screenshot.
Single - This is a screenshot of the single post view page, which you’ll be taken to after clicking one of the links of the hover menu.
Page With Comments - This is a regular page with some comments to show the comments template.
As you can see, there’s quite a few things you can do with this theme. Sometimes, it’s as easy as changing one letter. But, you still haven’t seen everything yet. And after the release, I’ll continue to add on more features.
So far, I haven’t failed myself. I was able to keep this theme flexible while not having to sacrifice any feature that I wanted include. This is my first step into creating paid themes so I’m trying to do everything I can to prevent it from becoming a total failure. Wish me luck 
For the rest of today, I’ll work on cleaning up the details, creating color scheme variations, and typing up a guideline. Also, when WordPress officially releases WordPress 2.3, I will update this theme to include tags.
Dude I can’t wait…it sounds so sick! Good luck with the release and all.
Looks totally awesome!
You’ll probably help launch another couple hundred showcase sites with this theme! CSS Remix beware!
Instead of making a theme that requires the installation of a plugin, why not just integrate the plugin in the theme itself?
Just add the relevant content from the plugin file to the functions.php file in the theme folder.
http://performancing.com/integration/…
Just a suggestion … the theme looks great so far!
Nathan
Hi Small Potato. I currently maintain the CSS Vault website and I am certainly interested in your Wordpress-based engine. We currently use custom code for the gallery and Wordpress for the blog section. I certainly wouldn’t mind using just Wordpress for both Gallery and Blog. CSS Remix is indeed very impressive and eye catching indeed!
Nathan - That’s definitely something I’ll look into for the future. But for this theme, to avoid bulk, I’m not going to package plugins as core modules, same reason why WordPress avoids packaging too many plugins with its core.
Dennison - Yea, it would be nice to use WordPress to power both areas. If you have anything on your wish list, I’ll try to bring it into this current project.
Small Potato,
I’m excited for the release of this theme. This is just the theme that could get my photographer friend hooked on wordpress.
Small Potato, your work is definitely causing a stir and I’m very much interested in using this theme. I’ve just quit my fulltime job and planning to start my own strategic design consultancy. Wondering whether you may be interested in some kind of trade exchange where I can do some work for you in exchange for the CSS gallery theme? Need a logo designed? Some illustration for your site? Icons? My skills are quite vaired so let me know if you are interested in this type of deal. Check out some of my stuff on http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomad-one/ or on my site at http://www.nomad-one.com and let me know if you need help with anything. Peace, and keep up the good, no make that great work.
Yeah, that does look pretty sweet! Great work!
sounds great, can’t wait for the release..
would be cool if this can be used as a video script also
thumnail on outside and video displayed on the inside
Indeed this preview does seems special. I know how much time it takes to tweak the code needed for css and wordpress - keep at it!
Best of luck!
Oh my gosh! FInally, I will be able to organize my photo blog the way I always wanted to. Can’t wait. And kudos. This is another pioneering effort, SP.
Hej SP
It looks very nice! I will translate it 
Sven - It’s not going to be a public theme. You can’t redistribute it.
please make sure to style the buttons.
Very nice design!
I’m really looking forward to seeing it complete!
And I think I’ll end up using it for a site that I’m working on…
i love the 6 column design. please let me know when it becomes available.
Wonderful stuff Nathan !
re. Hover state for each thumb, how about showing Title+Summary ? even Keywords ?
So the user can glance at each image, then also read about it, without leaving the page !
That’s possible, but keywords or tags are not going to be included until the official WordPress 2.3 comes out.
Typically, design gallery visitors want to go directly to the site being showcased. Any sort of preview image in the place of the actual site will not be good enough.
Yes, i was taking your “gallery site” a little further, like being used as photography/art gallery.
You can give most of your screen real-estate to our images, then when the user hover on them, the title and summary of the image pops, in transparency, so that you can read about this image/site/photo/art without being “disconnected” from the image, or without leaving the page.
But it goes a little further as far as providing also a Rich Textual Content, as well as images:
This option would render your design full semantic and super search engine friendly ! and won’t require js or flash, so it would be blisteringly fast too.
ps: Sorry H.P. for scratching your name .
Showcase is already doing that, but without a lengthy summary that would be more suitable for photography / portfolio sites.
As or background transparency, it’s easier said than done. There are different ways to accomplish it in different browsers. One of those ways will give you invalid CSS, which was something I didn’t want to package with my theme.
But, I have thought about hover content with semi-transparent background before.
I am so happy you are doing this, I have been looking everywhere trying to figure out how to do this for a new site I am starting up and lucky for me you are doing the hard part!
I have created something like this on wordpress too…
Hey SP
When is it getting released? I am on a project for an online video store and might find your theme pretty useful:)
Anand - It’s been released here.
I’m a webcomic artist and I’m looking for a good way to publish many strips into a gallery. I saw this implemented on best web gallery and I was dazzled. This is a great gallery theme you guys have put together. My only issue is that my comic strips are extremely wide, so I’m trying to figure out what is the best way to publish my strips. Like any webcomic it will have many strips, and the order is important because the story is chronological. Would this theme be good for me to use and can it be used to show one strip in full at the top while showcasing the thumbnails underneath?
Thanks,
Shaun
Hi Shaun - Please reader this post for the full list of features. In short, it does allow you to display one irregular size thumbnail over the rest of the thumbnails.
This theme comes with additional layout variations that heavily depends on proportions (width of thumbnail). If you don’t mind not being to use those extra layout variations then it shouldn’t be hard change the size of the thumbnails.
Hi, this theme is exactly what I have been looking for!
Great show (or, in this case, showcase
I will mail you separately to see if it can work for this new photo site: http://4stockphoto.com
SP, Nathan, and All - you folks are doing great work. And I can assure you, there is a real demand for utilizing the WP platform to do everything a site can possibly do…this is a great start.
i want to add tag function.