PrimePress Raises the Bar for Free WordPress Themes

REVIEW

At last!  PrimePress, designed by Ravi Varma, is a simple, clean, free WordPress theme that is truly easy for the code-challenged blogger to tweak.  There’s no need to purchase a premium version.  There’s no membership fee for support.  PrimePress is ready to go (or ready to tweak), right out-of-the-box, with no strings attached.

Features

PrimePress 1.3.1 is compatible with WordPress 2.7.  Enjoy implementing the latest WordPress features such as threaded comments, comments paging, post classes, and sticky posts with this theme.  Naturally, PrimePress is CSS valid, widget-ready, and a breeze to optimize for search engines.

Other PrimePress features:

• Rotating random image header
  
• Layout options (page size; a wide-sidebar and/or two narrow sidebars)
• Page template options (default, archives, blog, enable comments, homepage, links, no sidebars, sitemap)
• FeedBurner settings
• Navigation menu settings (option to exclude pages; sort pages by page order, alphabetically, or creation date)
• Custom stylesheet

It was gratifying to apply the PrimePress page template options for àlaBuzz.org, where I need some pages without sidebars.  I had fun creating several random header images, but opted to use only one that remains static.  However, my favorite PrimePress feature is the custom stylesheet.

Custom style sheet

What makes PrimePress really great to use is the custom stylesheet that is included with the theme.  (Note: Use of the custom stylesheet preserves any style changes when the theme is upgraded.)  It is accessible within the WordPress dashboard.  All you need to do is click on [ Appearance ], select [ editor ], and go to [ Styles ] at the bottom of the [ Theme Files list ] in order to find [ custom.css ].

First you copy the relevant styles from the main stylesheet [ style.css ].  Then you paste them into the custom stylesheet [ custom.css ].  Finally, insert [ body.custom ] at the beginning of each style change.  For instance, tweaking the color of the site tagline would look something like this:

style.css -
.description {
color: #666666;
}

custom.css –
body.custom .description {
color: #3399ff;
}

Ravi provides easy-to-understand instructions on how to use the custom sylesheet.  Even if you don’t know CSS code, you’ll be able to follow along thanks to the provided code snippets that you can copy and paste.  (Play around with the PrimePress custom stylesheet, and before long you will know a little CSS code.)

Support

Instructions and support for users can be found at the PrimePress site.  Ravi is generous with his design work, and offers very attentive theme support for someone who works a day-job.  Members of the support forum also contribute a wealth of information and assistance.

Final Summary: PrimePress Theme Pros and Cons

PrimePress raises the bar for free WordPress themes.  While it doesn’t look like Ravi is offering professional design services at this time, watch and wait.  I’d hire him in a flash!

Pros

• Well-formatted, attractive theme design
• Customization made easy with custom stylesheet
• Active theme support site

Cons

• Tricky to modify for a magazine-style look.  (Ravi…how about a page template with featured posts?)
• Might be nice if the header/banner would span the entire window.

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