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Image via CrunchBase

Have you seen a WordPress template out there that you really like, but don’t want your blog looking like one of the crowd? If you’ve been a follower of this blog for very long, you’ll know that I routinely change themes, but rarely do they look “out of the box”.

You’ll also know that I rarely keep all of the default graphics that come with those themes, so when I go searching for a new theme, I’m usually looking for one that has the mechanics of what I want in a theme more so than one that has the graphics. I may initially look for something in the color scheme I’m wanting to use just because I’m lazy and don’t want to change every graphic in the theme files, but if I really like the structure of a particular theme, then it’s not something that will take the theme totally out of the competition.

Having done this a time or two, I’ve discovered a few shortcuts to creating the look and feel that makes your blog uniquely your own. Here’s how I do it.

I have the One Click Plugin Updater installed for ease of installing plugins and themes. I also use Paint Shop Pro from Corel to create and manipulate graphics.

So, I’ve searched around and found a theme I like the looks and feel of. It has the basic things I want in a theme — a significant amount of real estate dedicated to posts but a side bar area that supports more than a measly 125 pixel wide graphic. It also has to validate code-wise.

I’ve downloaded the file to my local hard drive because I want to unzip it, and manipulate the graphics and save them back in the images file of the template set. One Step Uploader also allows you to load themes and plugins directly from their download sites, but since I want to make changes to the theme files, I’m downloading it to my hard drive.

Once I’ve unzipped the file, I open each of the graphics in Paint Shop Pro. Using the tools contained in it, I can recolor the background and other support images and find out the size of the header and footer images, so I can create ones that are the same size and dimensions. I usually rename all of the original graphics with “originalnameO” and then save my corresponding image with that original name so I don’t have to look for anywhere that particular graphic is referred to in the code files that are included with the theme.

If need be, I can open the css file which is where all the information about where those graphics are placed, the fonts used, their sizes and colors are stored and make changes to that file as well. The folder should also have a screenshot of what your template is supposed to look like, so you can refer to that if you ever question whether using a bit taller or wider image would work in place of another.

Then I rezip the file with the template name followed by an M to indicate that it was modified and upload that zip file to my website.

Then I can go to the design tab, find my newly customized theme and activate it. And there it all is! All the graphics are in place, the fonts are the correct ones and correct size and color and my blog looks all spiffy and new!

I know that not everyone is proficient with graphics, so if you would like custom graphics made for your blog, contact me and we’ll work out something.

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