WordPress.com Theme Review: Shocking Blue Green, Blix, Regulus, Sandbox, Kubrick
As I mentioned here, I’m going to be going through all the WordPress.com themes one-by-one and evaluating them. For the first go I chose a few of the best themes: Shocking Blue Green, Blix, Regulus, Sandbox, and Kubrick (aka WordPress Default).
After a break, an overview of Shocking Blue Green, Blix, Regulus, Sandbox, and Kubrick themes plus a big table comparing the features.
My favorite was Shocking Blue Green (that’s why I use it for my blog). I like the simplicity of it, even though it’s missing a lot of key features like Custom Header Images and Page Templates. What I like most about it is that it doesn’t have any serious bugs.
Blix is another good one. A major prob is that wide images distort the layout of the blog. It’s one of the few themes to support a Contact Page Template (hopefully that will be fixed soon). It’s pretty nifty how preformatted text will get a scrollbar if it goes past the width of the page. It does have some intricacies different than other themes that may cause issues (like Post Excerpts showing up on the main page). It has the distinction of being the only theme in this review that implements Page Order correctly.
Regulus is one of the most popular themes with a lot of features like Theme Colours, Sidebar Orientation, Custom Image Header, and Page Templates. Unfortunately it does too many things wrong for my taste: small font, link colour same as text colour, plus a lot of sidebar issues.
Sandbox is the new theme that is great for CSS customization. Unfortunately it doesn’t look so great without changing the CSS. Hopefully more people will base new themes off of Sandbox in the future.
Kubrick is the WordPress default template, and while it must have been great in it’s day, I can’t stand the small font and how it squishes large images to fit into the main page or sidebar.
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Hover your mouse over the question mark (?) to see an extended explanation of what that category means.
Themes were only tested with the latest version of Firefox. Internet Explorer 6 has too many CSS bugs to use it for checking. For example, with Internet Explorer if you have a word or image in the sidebar that is too wide, the sidebar will break.
| Theme | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Theme background (?) | white | white | white | white | white |
| Theme text (?) | black | black | black | black | black |
| Theme link text (?) | light blue | green | black (underlined) | blue | crimson |
| Links are very distinct from text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Links are NOT very similar to text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Visited links are different colour (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Visited links blend to text (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Theme accents (?) | green, gray | green, cyan, orange | (missing from spreadsheet) | none | blue |
| Theme image (?) | none | none | none | none | none |
| Major features | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Screenshot (?) | Screenshot | Screenshot | Screenshot | Screenshot | Screenshot |
| Layout width (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Custom image header (?) | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Number of sidebars (?) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 to 2 | 1 |
| Widget support (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page templates (?) | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Categories link to wordpress.com (?) | |||||
| Resolution | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| 640×480 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| 800×600 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| 1024×768 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| 1280×1024 (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Header | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Blog name (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blog tagline (?) | No | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Custom image header (?) | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Top navbar support (?) | No | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Navbar works with too many pages (?) | |||||
| Navbar has a Home button (?) | Yes | Yes | |||
| Footer | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Powered by WordPress (?) | bug001 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Logout (?) | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Jump back to Top (?) | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Entries RSS (?) | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Comments RSS (?) | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Link to XFN.org (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Does not display happy face (?) | |||||
| Main Page | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Max image width (?) | Screen | 450px | 460px | Screen | 450px |
| Wide images behaviour (?) | Chop | Chop | Chop | Chop | Squish |
| Font typeface (?) | Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif | Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif | ‘Lucida Grande’, ‘Lucida Sans Unicode’, Verdana, Sans-Serif | undefined | Lucida Grande’, Verdana, Arial, Sans-Serif |
| Font size (?) | 0.76 | 0.75 | 0.625 | 0.9em | 0.625 |
| Post titles capitalization (?) | first letter | as typed | as typed | as typed | as typed |
| Next / prev page (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Edit post (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dates above/below (?) | above first post | below post | above first post | above post | above post |
| Displays post author (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Author name is linked (?) | |||||
| Displays categories (?) | |||||
| Categories above/below (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Categories link to wordpress.com (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Comments above/below (?) | below post | below post | above post | below post | below post |
| Comments line jumps directly (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Show excerpt instead of post (?) | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| HTML tag style bugs (?) | None | None | bug011 | None | bug014 |
| Blockquote shows paragraph breaks (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Horizontal rule (HR) is styled (?) | |||||
| Pre text has horizontal scroll (?) | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Images display bugs (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Image has margin (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Image has border (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Table has margin (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Table has border (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| MORE tag (?) | (more…) | (more…) | (more…) | Read More >> | Read the rest of this entry >> |
| Single Post View | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Sidebar displays (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Edit post (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Next / prev post (?) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Next / prev by post title (?) | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Comments (?) | |||||
| Displays edit comments link (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Displays trackbacks different than comments (?) | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Display old comments when Off (?) | |||||
| Sidebar | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Number of sidebars (?) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 to 2 | 1 |
| Sidebar location (?) | Right | Right | Right or Left | Adjustable | Right |
| Sidebar header capitalization (?) | Lowercase | As typed | As typed | As typed | As typed |
| Sidebar image width (?) | 180px | 200px | 200px | 200px | 190px |
| Wide images behaviour (?) | Chop | Run-off page | Chop | Chop | Squish |
| Sidebar widgets support (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sidebar widgets bugs (?) | None | None | None | None | None |
| Text widgets have outline (?) | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| HTML tag style bugs (?) | None | None | bug008 | bug012 | None |
| Bullet for Unordered Lists (?) | No | No | Top-only | Yes | Yes |
| Numbers for Ordered Lists (?) | Yes | No | bug | No | Yes |
| Pages | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Sidebar displays (?) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Selected page is hilighted (?) | |||||
| Pages with hierarchy (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page order displayed properly (?) | bug002 | Yes | bug009 | bug013 | bug015 |
| Page edit links (?) | Yes | bug004 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page comments (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Page Templates Supported | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Archives (?) | Yes | Yes | |||
| Displays page text (?) | No | Yes | No | ||
| Displays post titles (?) | Yes | No | No | ||
| Displays page titles (?) | Yes | No | No | ||
| Displays categories with archives (?) | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| Links / Blogroll (?) | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| Sort by categories (?) | No | Yes | Yes | ||
| Image replaces link name (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Only displays Visible On links (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Target field used (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| XFN microformat in rel attribue (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Description used in title attribute (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| RSS displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Notes displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Rating displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| Displays page text (?) | Yes | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | ||
| 2 Column Page (?) | No | ||||
| 1 column of text, no sidebar (?) | |||||
| 2 Column Archives (?) | No | No | |||
| 1 column of text, no sidebar (?) | |||||
| 2 Column Links (?) | No | No | |||
| 1 column of text, no sidebar (?) | |||||
| Categories | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Category hierarchy (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Number on same line (?) | Yes | bug006 | bug010 | Yes | Yes |
| Category description used as title (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Do not display empty categories (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Display parent if child exists (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blogroll | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Sort by categories (?) | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Image replaces link name (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Only displays Visible On links (?) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Target field used (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| XFN microformat in rel attribue (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Description used in title attribute (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| RSS displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Notes displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Rating displays (?) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) | (missing from spreadsheet) |
| Custom features | Shocking Blue Green | Blix | Regulus | Sandbox | Kubrick |
| Colour themes (?) | Yes | ||||
| Header Colour (?) | Yes | ||||
| Sidebar orientation (?) | Yes | Yes | |||
| Sidebar is at bottom of page (?) | Optional | ||||
| Title orientation (?) | |||||
| “About me” information (?) | Yes | ||||
| Home Link Sidebar Widget (?) | Yes | ||||
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Shocking Blue Green Bugs
- bug001: Footer: Powered by WordPress.com footer colour same as background colour.
- bug002: Sidebar: Page order is not used for displaying pages.
Blix Bugs
- bug004: Pages: There is no link on a Page for editing that page when logged in.
- bug006: Sidebar: In category/archive widgets the “number of” displays on a different line, instead of same line.
Regulus Bugs
- bug008: Sidebar: Blockquote (<BLOCKQUOTE>), Heading2 (<H2>), Ordered List (<OL>) and Link (<A HREF>) tags do not have any formatting in sidebar text widgets.
- bug009: Sidebar: Page order is not used for displaying pages.
- bug010: Sidebar: In category/archive widgets the “number of” displays on a different line, instead of same line.
- bug011: Sidebar: Heading5 (<H5>) and heading6 (<H6>) are styled the same as Heading4 (<H4>).
Sandbox Bugs
- bug013: Sidebar: Page order is not used for displaying pages.
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I’m thanking you for doing this work.
If you’re as picky as I think you may be then here are three nit picky little spelling errors to correct.
Theme background- Sandox and Kubrick – you typed “while” but meant to type “white” in both cases.
Blix bugs bug004: Pages: your typed an extra “t” into the word editting.
Keep up the good work. :)
Here I am commenting a second time to get my pet peeve aired. It’s about font size *she bangs her head on computer screen*. For pity sake why do theme designers choose these teeny, weeny, itsy, bitsy font sizes? After a decade of reading them we will all be wering glasses with magnifying lenses. There ought to be a law that fonts can not be smaller than point 10 ever [she grumbled]. :(
Thanks for the typo notifications. I do the spreadsheet in Excel, and I’m notoriously bad at reading the small Excel fonts.
I misspell ‘editting’ all the time. My mother is ashamed.
Updated the spreadsheet. I also converted the checkmarks and X’s back to Yes/No because it doesn’t display properly on all computers (stupid Microsoft font issues).
As a new WordPress user, I have to say “thanx” – I really appreciate the work you’ve put into this. I was using Kubrick, but have converted to Shocking Blue & Green based on your information. I have lost some things that I liked in the process, but the overall result is satisfactory. Now I have to learn what CSS is and how to use it. Cheers!
Excellent work. I’d add a few things, of course ;-) .
How many columns (aka sidebars) in the sidebar section as many refer to Theme layouts per “column” not just number of sidebars, something I personally find frustrating. So a 2 column layout features 1 sidebar plus content “column”. It’s not wrong to ignore it, but it would cover your bases.
Space/margins around images and tables. I think this is a must and much forgotten by Theme authors. Explanation and examples in the WordPress Codex – Wrapping Text Around Images. I HATE squished text against pictures and tables.
I might have missed it, but did you identify the layout as fixed or flexible widths? That’s a must. I personally hate fixed width, stuck in the center with wasted space looks, and people need to know if the theme has that feature or not.
I don’t know how you would categorize this, maybe as “covers all post content tags”, but a check to see if every I, B, EM, HR, STRONG, BLOCKQUOTE and all HTML tags typically used inside of the post content area are styled. I’ve found many don’t include styles for italic or bold, which is stupid. Sure, it’s deprecated, but so is ALIGN and that’s the only way to line up an image in WordPress.com. Backwards compatibility with the most commonly used tags is critical, as is the styling of all of these common post tags. I’d group them together with maybe a note on which aren’t styled, or something.
You also don’t have a category on accessibility. Do all the automatically generated links have titles? Like post titles and next and previous links? Is the page readable without a stylesheet (this is Theme based, not a WordPress.com default, remember). Is there a skip navigation link and accesskeys in use? Don’t assume the Theme author put or left accessibility functions in their Theme. Check to be sure.
You’ve covered a huge range and this will be slick for covering all the various Themes, but what a tremendous amount of work. I hope you are getting some help here. I know there’s been talk of creating a searchable database of WordPress Theme features and this would be a fantastic list to help create such a database. Wow! I’d also love to see this on the WordPress Codex when you have all the bugs featured out, as that might help others help maintain it and add new Themes as they become available.
Thank you for taking on such a task and keep me up to date.
Lorelle, thanks for the comments.
I do cover the Number of sidebars, Theme width, and Covers all posts content tags — but I could reword/reorganize the categories so that information is more apparent.
It’s not that much work for me to do now that I have the test blog / spreadsheet set up… what I need is people double checking and giving me suggestions :)
I also need to test if the meta RSS feeds are using http or feed protocol. Should be feed protocol for interoperability.
Man, I think I’m going to leave accessibility out of it for the first run of the spreadsheet.. that’s a lot of work to test. Unless someone has a greasemonkey script out there to autotest.
Could you please also check if that stupid smiley face is used? It is used as a Google analytic tool or refferer back to WP.com and can be found at the bottom or off to the edge of some themes.
Ha! there it is! Just there to the bottom left of your page. Aaargh!!! (how about a blank image?)