New Theme: Coraline
I’m really excited about today’s new theme, Coraline. It’s a familiar-looking theme packed with upgrades that will make your blog more customizable and more fun.
The Coraline Theme
As you might have guessed, this will be a replacement for the Cutline theme, which we’re phasing out. Since Coraline replaces Cutline this means we get to add some exciting new features that I think you’ll love.
Multiple Layouts
One of my favorite new features in the Coraline theme is the multiple layout options. Visit Appearance → Theme Options and you can select from 1 of 5 layouts. Choose from up to two sidebars—on the right or left—and 3-column layouts—including one with sidebars on both sides.
A 3-column layout with sidebars on either side
Up To 7 Widget Areas
If you need a lot of widgets for your site you’ll really like Coraline. We’ve added four widget areas to the footer and—if you’ve selected a layout with two sidebars next to each other on the right or left—a bonus “Feature” widget area that spans two sidebar columns.
The feature widget area
Alternate Color Schemes
Does your blog need a darker look? Coraline also has an alternate dark color scheme selectable from Appearance → Theme Options.
The alternate dark color scheme
Even More Features
Coraline was based on our latest default theme, Twenty Ten. That means you get even more features built-in; A custom background, custom headers that you can change on any post or page with a Featured Image, special styles for Gallery posts and shorter Aside posts, a Visual Editor that mimics the look of the theme, and customizable drop-down menus.
The Coraline theme is available today in Appearance → Themes and will soon be available in the WordPress Themes Directory, for self-hosted WordPress.org users.
Aug 10th at 7:08 am
This seems like a great theme. Like corporate style, WordPress.com is providing people more & more ways to promote, I really liked that Like button below every post. great job.
Aug 10th at 7:17 am
This is exactly what most of us have been waiting for DIY theme.. I am absolutely in love with this theme. I thought I would never get-over 2010..
The features I loved..
1) Its completely customizable, unlike Koi (I have it on one of my blogs) that has a fixed search box
2) A very compact and yet a very neat look
3) Above all footer widget..
I have been theme shopping for days now and I am thrilled..
Cheers..!!
Aug 10th at 8:13 am
Very nice. I may try this one on my next update.
Aug 10th at 8:49 am
It’s cute! Does that mean bloggers currently using Cutline would at some point eventually have it automatically changed to Coraline if they don’t make the switch themselves?
Aug 10th at 9:21 pm
Yes. And all blogs using Cutline have already been automatically switched over to Coraline by this point.
Aug 10th at 8:52 am
Simply awesome! I am converted until further notice! I do hope however that users will be given the possibility to modify headings width in future. Some of the headings tend to be rather too large, or take far more space than desirable. I trust you guys!
Aug 10th at 10:23 am
Yep, I like it … will test it out soon … love the way you can change the layout with the sidebars.
Aug 10th at 10:38 am
Gorgeous. Keep these themes rolling!
Aug 10th at 11:27 am
Very nice! Great timing while I get things up and running.
Aug 10th at 12:23 pm
I adopted it for my brand new blog in French : simple but so elegant, I simply couldn’t resist !
Aug 10th at 12:32 pm
Now, this looks promising! I will check it out asap.
Aug 10th at 12:58 pm
And not just annoying for users. You are playing with readers. When you make any change on admin bar or on dashboard, this affect just users. But if you change the display of thousands of blogs, you are bothering hundreds of thousands of readers, most of them haven’t any relationship with WordPress.com but as readers. May be admissible that we the registered users be subjected to your whims, but it isn’t the same for readers, at all.
Aug 11th at 12:24 am
You make a great point, K. Gregorovius. We didn’t intend to break anyone’s site with this change, and we’re working hard to fix up sites that broke during the switch.
Aug 10th at 2:32 pm
Awesome
Aug 10th at 2:33 pm
This is one of my favourite themes you’ve produced in the last few months. I may try it
Aug 10th at 2:39 pm
Ah… how can we stay loyal to our current themes if you guys keep giving us such tempting themes like this? <3
Aug 10th at 3:36 pm
Okay, found the inactive widgets, good enough, look forward to toying with the new theme.
Aug 10th at 4:06 pm
This is wonderful! I have been waiting for this.
Aug 10th at 4:10 pm
OMG! I love this! I think I might try it! Thanks!
Aug 10th at 4:39 pm
I’ve been promoting WordPress for a long time. Seeing the options here makes it that much more exciting! Good Job!
Aug 10th at 5:03 pm
Very nice. Just one thing, with both this and Twenty Ten I’d like the to option to hide the blog title. Useful for those of us with banners which include the title.
Cheers.
Aug 10th at 10:53 pm
With Coraline you can remove the blog title and tagline from Appearance → Header.
Aug 10th at 5:15 pm
It’s wonderful. I like the multiple layouts. 9 out of 10.
Aug 10th at 5:18 pm
I really like the black version of this theme and may use it in the future. Thanks, WordPress!
Aug 10th at 5:34 pm
Cool! I’ve already changed to this theme.
Aug 10th at 6:15 pm
Great theme. I have it as my blog. Just wondering how you got the yellow background on one of the posts?
Aug 10th at 11:05 pm
The yellow background will be enabled if you set a post as sticky.
Aug 10th at 11:37 pm
Hi! It’s gorgeous. I’ll be sure to try it on for size.
Aug 10th at 11:42 pm
I am thinking of redoing my theme… just might consider this. Neat idea.
Aug 11th at 12:17 am
Crisp! Congrats!
Aug 11th at 12:17 am
Hey this looks kind of cool!
Aug 11th at 12:32 am
I’m really new to this, but I’m sure I’d like to try it out and as soon as I get the grips on it. I’ll let you know how I feel with the new theme.
Aug 11th at 2:39 am
I love Cutline and used it for almost 2 years. But Coraline is more nice. A lot of features. I like it
Aug 11th at 2:50 am
i like the black and white. i don’t like the large print and the larger header banner size. i like the three column but what i would really love is something that looks like this or cutline with an adjustable width body column so i can embed larger photos AND larger videos. HD videos are getting wider these days and wordpress needs to adjust to accomodate to keep up with the times.
Aug 11th at 3:51 pm
Thanks for the suggestion, E G! We have more fluid-width themes coming up.
Aug 11th at 2:56 am
This theme is perfect!
Aug 11th at 3:50 am
Nice theme. I might use it on one of my sites. Any idea when the theme will be available for self-hosted WordPress users?
Aug 11th at 5:23 pm
We’ll be working to get Coraline in the WordPress Themes Directory as soon as we can.
Aug 11th at 4:33 am
Looks very clean and navigable. Considering it for my blog.
Aug 11th at 6:12 am
Yay! I love it when you guys release really customizable themes. Thanks so much!
Aug 11th at 7:57 am
Thank you WP, I have taken it for my Readolivia Blog…
I have ended my month long theme shopping now..
Aug 11th at 9:11 am
Nice theme … futuristic.
Aug 11th at 9:41 am
I agree with Shaikul, it’s a pleasing release but rather similar :/ Hope to see more new and different designs coming up!
Aug 11th at 9:44 am
Very nice features, but i feel that 1 option is missing: restore default theme settings to undo all custom changes when a user wishes to start over again to customize Coraline.
Aug 11th at 10:19 am
Thanks for the add. I like the ease of customization.
Aug 11th at 1:50 pm
It looks great! Similar to Twenty Ten indeed. At least we get one more nice theme in the inventory. Great work. ^^
Aug 11th at 2:08 pm
Another clean and stylish theme.
Aug 11th at 3:12 pm
I’m testing it and… you know… it’s really awesome… “featured image”, widget area and everything… really useful!!!
Aug 11th at 6:55 pm
Second “UTMB’s” comment WRT Arial font for posting. Serifs are for hard copies.
Aug 11th at 7:15 pm
Cutline was the very first WordPress theme I used, and I loved it. I can’t wait to put my original blog, which is now a WordPress.org blog, back on Coraline. This is the one I’ve been waiting for!
Aug 11th at 7:16 pm
Excellent upgrade. Well done to the WP team. Thanks.
Aug 11th at 8:07 pm
But, but… I liked Cutline… It appears that my Cutline themed blog is gone replaced by a new Coraline look!? No questions asked. No notification. It just happened without warning or option to opt out. Buhuhu.
Aug 11th at 8:24 pm
We hope you’ll come to like Coraline as much as you did Cutline, Mario. If not, we have tons of other themes, with even more new themes coming.
Aug 11th at 9:18 pm
Ah, I like this theme a lot. I had Twenty Ten, but didn’t like the lack of a sidebar. Nicely done!
Aug 12th at 12:16 am
Nice options available!
Aug 12th at 7:35 am
I actually don’t like the change and want my original Cutline back…boo.
Aug 12th at 3:41 pm
Cutline won’t be returning but we’ll definitely be launching more awesome themes. If Coraline isn’t quite a perfect fit for your blog yet I hope one of those new themes can be!
Aug 12th at 7:42 am
I was shocked to see my cutline theme was just gone and instantly fell in love with Coraline. I was able to give the blog an overhaul and get new hits. Thanks!
Aug 12th at 12:20 pm
Cutline was not phased out. The rug was pulled out from under us. It doesn’t matter whether or not this is great theme.
Aug 12th at 3:50 pm
We’ll make sure there’s more advance notice for any major theme updates in the future, mlegan. I hope Coraline will come to be a great Cutline replacement for you.
Aug 12th at 12:33 pm
Loving it!
Aug 12th at 3:42 pm
I just switched to it yesterday! Thanks for picking the most awesome themes.
Aug 12th at 4:15 pm
Thanks for “Coraline”, which is a bit better than “Twenty Ten”. It is now perfect for me.
But I am on WordPress.org, too, and I can’t wait to see the theme there. For “Twenty Ten”, we had to wait months. I hope it will be faster this time.
I just can’t wait.
Thanks again. Best wishes.
Chris Masse
Aug 12th at 4:38 pm
I was expecting Neil Gaiman Coraline…….. Awww.
Cute theme though.
Aug 12th at 7:28 pm
This is the closest to what I would want, have now switched……
Aug 12th at 8:09 pm
Really liking this one. After a year with a baby-blue blog, it may be time to switch. Thanks for the heads-up!
Aug 12th at 8:18 pm
Hi! Great theme… I use TwentyTen now, but some day I’ll try this one as well.
Regards
Michey
Aug 12th at 9:12 pm
i’ve been waiting for a good three column theme! thanks so much! i think i’ll give it a try…
Aug 13th at 6:07 am
This theme is nice
Aug 13th at 9:51 am
Thanks, I’ve been waiting for a 3 column them to use for my site.
Aug 13th at 9:57 am
Really Cool !
Aug 13th at 10:12 am
Thinking about changing to this one – although I’m massively fickle when it comes to themes, I need to decide upon ONE!
Aug 13th at 12:00 pm
Very nice! I like it a lot!
Aug 13th at 3:39 pm
I started with Twenty Ten and liked this “upgrade” inmediately, so I changed. Thanks !!!
Aug 13th at 8:02 pm
I think this may well be the perfect theme for me – Twenty Ten, but with two sidebars! The bestest holiday treat ever! I love you sometimes, WordPress…
Aug 13th at 9:09 pm
Goooorgeous! If I hadn’t just spent time formatting all my images to display nicely with ambiru, I’d so switch.
Aug 13th at 9:46 pm
I like this theme a lot! I would like it even more if it was possible to change the background color for sticky posts, or change it individually. Please, wordpress, please make this happen!
Aug 14th at 1:02 am
Great new theme. I love how you have the extra widget area. Excellent!
Aug 14th at 1:50 am
really nice and simple themes….. i like it
Aug 14th at 1:52 am
Nice, I like it, thanks.
Aug 14th at 5:12 am
I switched over to Caroline and I LOVE IT! My page looks amazing.
Aug 14th at 1:49 pm
When will you release the self-hosted version of Coraline? I’m anxious waiting for it
Aug 17th at 2:00 pm
As soon as we can.
Aug 14th at 4:37 pm
You can do so much with this, thanks!
Aug 14th at 9:47 pm
Interesting, I think the ability to switch sides is cool. I’ll have to try it out.
Aug 14th at 10:09 pm
Clean, thin and elegant. In fact I used it for my blog.
Aug 15th at 10:32 am
Magnificent! It’s all I wanted
Huge Thanks, guys!!
Aug 16th at 8:30 am
(Sigh) I adore it. I’m switching. It’s tidy, professional, fun, flexible and damn sexy. Been saving myself for “the one”, I think Coraline might be it. x
Aug 16th at 5:32 pm
Huzzah for a theme named after a Neil Gaiman character
Aug 16th at 5:52 pm
I switched to this theme a week ago. It must have been BRAND new. I just liked the way it looked.
Aug 16th at 8:36 pm
Nice, but a bit plain for my tastes. I like more colorful themes; Koi, Albeo, Banana Smoothie, and Quentin are my favorites. Could you make more like those? Most of the recent themes look very similar to each other. Also, when I first saw the name I hoped it would have something to do with the novel Coraline by Neil Gaiman, but it doesn’t seem to. Is that just a coincidence? But anyway, thank you so much for all your hard work.
Aug 16th at 8:39 pm
Finally a really really cool theme! Thumbs up guys!
Aug 16th at 10:55 pm
Coolest theme yet.
I love this thing
Aug 17th at 10:20 am
The black background is much better!
Aug 18th at 4:11 am
This is great! Will try it
Aug 18th at 4:24 pm
The black one is good.
Aug 18th at 7:02 pm
I do like the theme. Think I just might use it.
Aug 19th at 1:14 am
I have a suggestion: We’re using this theme with four users and there doesn’t seem to be a way to show which user has posted what?
Is this in settings somewhere that we can’t find or just disabled on this theme?
Aug 19th at 1:53 pm
Hi, Juan. Automatic author page links for multi-author blogs are something we’re considering adding as a future theme upgrade for Coraline.
Aug 19th at 6:21 am
I really like the new theme: Coraline that you have mentioned aboved. Because I really like the picture in green and I think it is beautiful.
Aug 19th at 4:14 pm
It’s nice enough….. but there’s nothing different (so far as I can tell) from Vostok or several of the other layouts that you’ve produced… can we maybe get one with a bit more colour? less white, gray, tones, more red, yellow, orange, BRIGHT colours! Just a thought…
Thanks for all you do to make our blogs customiable and enjoyable for us and our readers! I really do appreciate it (even if it might not always seem that way…)
Aug 19th at 7:06 pm
This is the theme I am looking for. A very clean, not boring, multi-functional, professional theme. Keep up the good work, Ian!
Aug 19th at 8:51 pm
Looks like one for me
Aug 20th at 5:49 pm
Looks sharp! Good job guys!
Aug 22nd at 9:42 am
I like that there are quite a few widget areas. I think it’s much better than my current theme. Thanks Ian for this Caroline theme. It definitely is better than the Cutline theme.
Aug 22nd at 2:57 pm
I’m and new to blogging and I luv it & have switched already.