New Theme: Twenty Eleven
Last year on WordPress.com we introduced the world to the first new WordPress default theme in 5 years — the first annual default theme — Twenty Ten. Now it’s our pleasure to introduce you all to its successor, Twenty Eleven.
The Twenty Eleven Theme
It might look familiar. 
Yep, Twenty Eleven started life as the Duster theme before it made the theme big leagues. But it’s not just a renamed Duster. There are tons of really cool improvements and features packed into it — more Post Formats, beautiful new header images, alternate color schemes and layouts, even custom link colors. All those features add up to the best part of Twenty Eleven: just how customizable it is. It looks great as a blog, a showcase of all your posts, and even a tumblelog or photoblog.
-
- The Twenty Eleven Theme
-
- A Twenty Eleven Photolog
-
- The Twenty Eleven Showcase Template
If you want to know more about the cool new features in Twenty Eleven we’ve made a page that outlines them all on the Theme Showcase. You can read up on Twenty Eleven there and check out a live demo or just simply activate it on your blog and start experimenting! And if you have a self-hosted installation of WordPress you haven’t been left out of the fun. You can wait to give Twenty Eleven a shot when WordPress 3.2 is released in about a month or try it out right now with the beta version and upcoming release candidates. We’re looking forward to seeing how you use Twenty Eleven on your blog.
June 6th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Awesome! Twenty Eleven is here! Time to start experimenting!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:16 pm
I am in love. Duster was by far my favorite WP.com theme, so of course I think this one’s awesome. Changing now. Thank you, team!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
What an upgrade to the default theme! It’s really been a long time coming. Good work!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:23 pm
Welcome Twenty Eleven. It is customizable indeed. Thumbs up!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Nice! Now that’s what i’m talking about. WordPress FTW!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:31 pm
This could work!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:36 pm
Nice theme, looks refreshing, almost as beautiful as Vigilance (which I highly prefer) to me.
cheers
June 6th, 2011 at 6:41 pm
Can’t wait to mess up the CSS!!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
I love this! I was looking for a similar new theme.
June 6th, 2011 at 6:48 pm
This theme can be customized in ways I don’t even understand! I’ll have to try it out and decide if it is going to replace Choco as my first choice!
June 6th, 2011 at 6:53 pm
I just tweeted about this theme yesterday, not to sound like a word nerd but I heard about it at WordCamp Raleigh and I’ve been craving that flash photo banner! Yay!
June 6th, 2011 at 7:02 pm
Nice… not good enough to force a change, but still…
June 6th, 2011 at 7:08 pm
For whatever reason I don’t think this theme deserves to be Twenty Eleven, especially because Twenty Ten was much better than this and I simply expected something better than Twenty Ten in Twenty Eleven. I’m still a Twenty Ten fan.
June 6th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
That’s OK. Twenty Ten isn’t going anywhere. It’s still one of my favorite themes too.
June 6th, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Looks great! I just finished updating my site with the new theme, I’m loving it.
June 6th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
Wonderful!
Been playing around with Duster but have been waiting for this theme. Luckily most of my adjustments still work.
You guys are doing a fantastic job.
June 6th, 2011 at 7:21 pm
All of the improvements are great. Good job WP.
June 6th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
I’m still getting used to it…
June 6th, 2011 at 7:58 pm
Yep, it’s nice! =)
June 6th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
Beautifully simple. I love the customization aspect.
June 6th, 2011 at 8:17 pm
Looks good. I will try and report back. I am currently using Inuit types which I like.
June 6th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Not bad! It is pleasant to me!
June 6th, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Anyone know how wide images can be on this?
June 6th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
The maximum content width in Twenty Eleven is 585 pixels. (We have some quick specs for all of our themes on the Theme Showcase — the content width is usually one of them)
June 6th, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Love Twenty Eleven, but there are any way to use our images in random mode on the header of the blog, as we can with the default 8? It will be the perfect theme! Thank you very much.
June 6th, 2011 at 8:48 pm
Yep! Just start uploading header images and you’ll see an option for randomly rotating between them.
June 6th, 2011 at 8:44 pm
Cool! Hope more themes come along the way ▬ I hope WP starts allowing font and background customization to its themes too ^_^
June 6th, 2011 at 8:49 pm
You can change Twenty Eleven’s background image (and the background image of almost all of our themes) by visiting Appearance → Background. Have fun!
June 6th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
Much better than the 2010 theme. That one put me off.
June 6th, 2011 at 9:49 pm
This is good! And now there’s going to be so many blogs that look like this.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:03 pm
OMG I love it! You are the best. It’s also free!!! Thanks a lot. You are wonderful!
June 6th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
NIce, very clean. I like it. Might have to try it on my blog.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
This seems very simple and a lot like some of the other simple blog themes.
June 6th, 2011 at 10:52 pm
yay! i’m trying it out for my photoblog. The tags for the twenty eleven say fixed-width and variable-width. Anyway to set the width of the left column, in 2 column format to be a specific width other than what is there, which appears to be 550-ish?
June 6th, 2011 at 11:06 pm
This is great!! Wish I would have thought of it for my previous blog.
June 6th, 2011 at 11:12 pm
Thanks! I’m using Duster now, I only switched over a few months ago, and I don’t want to alienate my readers by going to a different format… yet. Still, this is definitely going on to my future blog format list when I consider a switch some months down the line!
June 6th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
This theme has a lot of possibilities. I just changed themes recently, but I’m going to tinker with this one a bit.
June 7th, 2011 at 12:02 am
Very clean and well format. It somehow look like 2010 theme, but with better readability improvement to layout.
Will give it a try for photo blog and see how it work.
June 7th, 2011 at 12:20 am
cant wait to play with this new theme!
June 7th, 2011 at 12:22 am
It is sooooooooooo pretty, beautiful, gorges, elegant, outdoory, attractive, and OMGG[Oh My Great Gosh] I want to go there
June 7th, 2011 at 12:25 am
really? You can rotate personal header themes? Oh, my gosh, i might just throw over twenty-ten for this, then…!
June 7th, 2011 at 12:27 am
Oh man, I LOVE this. It reminds me of The Morning After, which I adore and am using right now — except you can see more than once post per page! This is tempting for a switch. Good job WP!
June 7th, 2011 at 12:31 am
Thank you! I just added this to my rss reader, great stuff
June 7th, 2011 at 12:32 am
This is great and I really love the photo blog but could you please, PLEASE include a grid option like the Suffusion theme (example: http://gudphoto.com/bikenyc/grid/)
June 7th, 2011 at 1:14 am
Wow… too cool to be true! Do you have it for self-hosted blogs, too?
June 7th, 2011 at 2:04 am
It’s on it’s way with the next version of WordPress.
June 7th, 2011 at 1:43 am
Looks great. Thank you.
June 7th, 2011 at 1:50 am
I love the mountain/river scape.. I find it more inspiring to write when I am looking at nature.
June 7th, 2011 at 2:20 am
Love it…simple, clean, with all the important “stuff” at the top! Thanks…
June 7th, 2011 at 3:22 am
Hi Ian, I think I was waiting for this theme. I was a user of Twenty Ten, after all. Anyway, I gave a preview on my current blog and one thing I did not like that all my images has a extra border around it. Is there any way I can remove that extra border from my images in my blog post?
June 7th, 2011 at 3:42 am
Nice theme. I’m trying it out asap….
June 7th, 2011 at 3:43 am
Looks great and quite similar to Theme: Mystique!
June 7th, 2011 at 4:06 am
Great job WP! Thanks for giving me something fun to do this weekend—looks like I’ll be tweaking my layout and widgets to accommodate my new blog template!
June 7th, 2011 at 5:05 am
Great upgrade. Love this new theme.
June 7th, 2011 at 6:00 am
Very nice and clear – I love the dark variety.
June 7th, 2011 at 6:18 am
Aaaaah… shall I be switching again? Stay with Duster? Use 2011? You really keep me thinking!
June 7th, 2011 at 6:24 am
Trying it out for my photoblog .. looks like a perfect blend of Duster and Twenty Ten.
Thanks, WordPress!
June 7th, 2011 at 7:49 am
There is a lot to like about this one!
June 7th, 2011 at 10:09 am
I have always been fond of the theme “Duster”, but never had the guts to use it. Now that “Twenty Eleven” is made the official 2011 WordPress theme, and based off “Duster”, I think it’s about time I change to the theme I have loved ever since the moment I placed my cornea on it
Good job!
June 7th, 2011 at 1:22 pm
Cool, but I’ll stick to my current theme
June 7th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
I found its layout to be extremely elegant. Also added some custom share buttons so it was lots of improvements for my blog today.
June 7th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
More Premium Themes, please! I’m waiting for scrapbooking stuff!
June 7th, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Very nice! I started with Twenty Ten, but the new version is better! Great job.
June 7th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Looks crisp and clean.
June 7th, 2011 at 5:18 pm
AWE… wait for it….SOME!!! AWESOME!!!!
June 7th, 2011 at 6:10 pm
New version looks cleaner and better. Thanks.
June 7th, 2011 at 7:26 pm
I love this one – Thanks!
June 7th, 2011 at 8:47 pm
Love this theme. Perfect for restarting my blog!
June 7th, 2011 at 8:52 pm
The photoblog looks amazing, I`ll give it a try next week!
June 7th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
Finally I found the theme. Thanks!
June 7th, 2011 at 11:01 pm
You guys have definitely outdone yourselves with this one, it’s such an amazing layout! My favourite features would have to be the showcase template, the various post formats, and the rotating customised header. And I love how the layout itself is so crisp and clean. Excellent job guys, thanks~!
June 7th, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Does it have a colored background to the posts like Chaotic Soul? I like the colored background to posts that way I can have a busy and crazy custom background to my blog….
June 8th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Yep. Switching to the dark color scheme adds an almost-black background to your blog posts.
June 8th, 2011 at 3:16 am
I have always found the default themes too simplistic, drab and boring. I realize that WordPress is extremely popular all over the world and thus needs to be generic but a little spice is needed.
June 8th, 2011 at 3:58 am
Great work! I love the one-column post format on this theme. But, alas, just cannot resonate with the huge header. I would like to see some new themes with a good-sized one column format – like this one – or Vostok but the white version, not black. For the moment, I’ll stick with Inuit Types, my total love.
June 8th, 2011 at 6:50 am
I am in love with this theme. I activated it as soon as I saw it in action. AWESOME THEME IS AWESOME. Love the heading fonts, the showcase template is kick-ass and the fonts are very readable too. x) <3
June 8th, 2011 at 6:50 am
The image post looks quite unique!!
June 8th, 2011 at 9:26 am
Couldn’t have come at a better time – loving it and using it already!
June 8th, 2011 at 10:26 am
I’m already a Duster guy. So, here’s hoping everything stays in place now that I’m about to make the switch. Thanks, WP!
June 8th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Wow… let me try this one!
June 8th, 2011 at 12:57 pm
I love this and have switched one of my blogs over all ready. I would switch them both if there was a 3 coloum layout. Maybe 2012?
June 9th, 2011 at 1:22 am
Cool!! Gonna try it right now.
June 9th, 2011 at 11:40 am
Nice! Thanks for all the upgrades!
June 9th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Like it. On it.
June 9th, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Thank you so much
June 9th, 2011 at 2:42 pm
The Showcase is absolutely great!
June 9th, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Looks nice, but I’d have some qualms about using the default theme. I’d really have to modify it to make sure it looks like I’ve tried something more than just sticking with standard.
June 10th, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Really looks great..
June 10th, 2011 at 5:26 pm
I started using Duster as soon as you made it available. I just changed to Twenty Eleven today, and I really love the upgrades, especially the option for multiple featured posts on the front page. Great work!
June 10th, 2011 at 6:02 pm
Twenty Eleven is “da bomb!” (if you remember that hackneyed expression). As a former newspaper page designer, I think Twenty Eleven has all the tools I need. I especially like the floating quotes and the new featured posts and images. I’ve always preferred a standard, easy-to-read serif body type, but I might even come to love the sans serif body type in Twenty Eleven. Thank you, thank you!
June 10th, 2011 at 6:34 pm
Looks great! I love that you can have a lot of pages. Nice and clean but not boring.
June 10th, 2011 at 9:24 pm
Love this theme, Thanks!
June 11th, 2011 at 1:01 am
I’m holding out for Twenty Twelve!
*but then again I hear twenty thirteen is supposed to be pretty good too…*
June 13th, 2011 at 3:30 pm
I have no doubts that Twenty Twelve and Twenty Thirteen will both be awesome themes.
June 11th, 2011 at 8:24 am
Oooh, already looking forward to Twenty Twelve.
June 11th, 2011 at 2:27 pm
I picked up Duster recently for one of my blogs and I LOVED it to death, SUCH a WELL DONE website-like theme! An absolute killer. More recently y selected Twenty Eleven for yet another blog and OMG! It was even a little better: choosing the link color has been a long time dream for me. It is, I’d say, PERFECT. Thank you sooooooo much, guys! This is really something. SO well done!!!! ILWP!
June 11th, 2011 at 6:08 pm
Looks great, I’m going to try it out right now!
June 11th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Nice and basic.
June 11th, 2011 at 8:19 pm
Looks interesting … I’ll go through it. Thank you!
June 12th, 2011 at 3:19 am
Dude, congratulations! So far, this is the best theme I’ve tried.
June 12th, 2011 at 9:05 am
Awesome! This is just what I had in mind when I moved to WordPress but couldn’t find! As soon as I catch up on the back-log of posts I’m trying to make into actual words, I think I’ll switch and play around with it for a while to reward myself!
June 12th, 2011 at 3:27 pm
Best theme yet, thank you. This is one of the comments I got “Your site is soothing yet biting at the same time. Now how did you manage that?”