WordPress Theme Review: Chaotic Soul, Tarski, Unsleepable, K2-Lite

This is installment #5 of the WordPress theme review. My goal is to provide a clear document of the themes for the WordPress.com community. I also want to report all theme bugs to improve the experience of WordPress.com community. Support this project by linking to https://engtech.wordpress.com/tools/wordpress/wordpress-theme-reviews/ on your WordPress.com blog.

The themes released in October 2006 for WordPress.com have some features in common: they’re all fixed width and none of them display the author name (so not good for multi-author blogs).

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Chaotic Soul is a very well-done theme. There’s only one bug I could find with it, and that is more a stylistic choice than anything else (search box gives no indication that it is a search box). Categories aren’t displayed on the main page, and that could be considered a Pro.

The only issue I have with it is that it’s a dark theme and there isn’t very much whitespace between text — this makes it hard to read for people with visual disabilities. I’d love to see a version of this with a white background, larger font, more whitespace between text, and a distinct colour choice between the text body and the link colour. That is my personal preference though.

If you like dark themes then Chaotic Soul is easily the best WP.COM has to offer at the moment.

PROs: Custom image header, Widget support, Page templates

CONs: Dark, small font, text very close together

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I was very excited about Tarski until I noticed one glaring problem: WHERE ARE THE COMMENTS? Seriously, I couldn’t find a single comment on any post/page on my sample blog. The example blog by the theme author shows comments, so I’m not entirely sure what is going on.

PROs: Custom image header, Widget support, Page templates, Navbar

CONs: Headers look the same, missing next/prev posts, no comments allowed?

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Unsleepable has very distinct links with high contrast from the text on posts. I am always surprised more theme designers don’t do this. What is the point in having linked text if people can’t see it? Conversely, I really hate how links blend directly into text in the sidebar. It’s a great theme except for the funky bug with right aligned/left aligned images.

PROs: Widget support, Footer with widget support, Links very distinct from text, Post excerpts on category pages

CONs: No custom image header, no page templates

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K2-Lite is a good theme except I really hate the way the navbar looks, but other than that this is a good theme. The only glaring bug is that if you use heading1 anywhere in your posts it will not display. This won’t be a problem for most people.

PROs: Custom image header, Widget support, Links very distinct from text, Navbar

CONs: No page templates

The pick for best theme out of this round is much harder. They’re all very good (definite improvement in theme selection), but I’m going to have to give it to Chaotic Soul because it is the only one without any bugs (other than issues some readers might have with font size/contrast).

After the break, the huge table that compares the theme features and lists their bugs (which is really the meat of this review).

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How this works

There are two tables. The first table is a Summary that gives the information people are most interested when comparing themes. The second table is Details and it lists all of information I think is important for comparing themes.

Clicking on (?) will open up a new browser window with the Help Page. It includes descriptions and screenshots of what I’m talking about with every row.

Occassionally you will see bug###. Clicking on it will take you to the bottom of the page where there is a description of the bug including screenshots.

Themes were only tested with the latest version of Firefox. Internet Explorer 6 has too many CSS bugs.

Summary

Major Features (Summary)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Date reviewed (?)	Nov 11 06	Nov 11 06	Nov 11 06	Nov 11 06
Screenshot (?)	Screenshot	Screenshot	Screenshot	Screenshot
Theme Sample (?)	Example	Example	Example	Example
Theme Author (?)	Bryan Veloso	Benedict Eastaugh and Chris Johnson	Ben Gray	Various Artists
Layout width (?)	Fixed (760 px)	Fixed (720 px)	Fixed (780 px)	Fixed (780 px)
Custom image header (?)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Number of sidebars (?)	1	1	1 + widgetized bottom bar	1
Widget support (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page templates (?)	Yes	Yes	No	No
Useability (Summary)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Max image width (?)	490px	510px	500px	500px
Wide images behaviour (?)	Chop	Run-off	Squish	Squish
Sidebar image width (?)	200 px	180 px	130 px	220 px
Blockquote shows paragraph breaks (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HTML tag style bugs (Posts) (?)	None	None	bug059	bug063
Image display bugs (?)	No	No	bug061	No
Display old comments when Off (?)	Yes	bug057	Yes	Yes
HTML tag style bugs (Sidebar) (?)	bug056	No	No	No
Bullet for Unordered Lists (Sidebar) (?)	Some	No	No	No
Numbers for Ordered Lists (Sidebar) (?)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

Details

Text Appearance	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Text under Firefox (?)
Text under Internet Explorer (?)
Resolution	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
640×480 (?)	No	No	No	No
800×600 (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
1024×768 (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
1280×1024 (?)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Theme	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Screenshot (?)	Screenshot	Screenshot	Screenshot	Screenshot
Theme sample (?)	Example	Example	Example	Example
Theme author (?)	Bryan Veloso	Benedict Eastaugh and Chris Johnson	Ben Gray	Various Artists
Layout width (?)	Fixed (760 px)	Fixed (720 px)	Fixed (780 px)	Fixed (780 px)
Theme background (?)	dark grey	white	white	white
Theme (cont)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Theme text (?)	grey	black	black	black
Theme link text (?)	white	cyan	pink	red/blue
Links are *very distinct* from text (?)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Links are *distinct* from text (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Visited links are different colour (?)	No	No	No	Yes
Visited links blend to text (?)	No	No	No	No
Theme image (?)	No	No	No	No
Main Page	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Max image width (?)	490px	510px	500px	500px
Wide images behaviour (?)	Chop	Run-off	Squish	Squish
Post titles capitalization (?)	as typed	as typed	as typed	as typed
Next / prev page (?)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Edit post from front page (?)	Yes	Yes	bug058	Yes
Dates above/below (?)	above post	above post	above post	above post
Date can be changed (?)	Yes	No	No	No
Main Page (cont)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Displays author (?)	No	No	No	No
Author name is linked (?)	No	No	No	No
Displays categories (?)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Categories above/below (?)	No	above post	below post	above post
Comments above/below (?)	above post	above post	below post	above post
Show excerpt instead of post (?)	No	No	No	No
Show excerpt on category pages (?)	No (doesn’t show post either)	No	Yes	No
Main Page (cont)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
HTML tag style bugs (Posts) (?)	None	None	bug059	bug063
Blockquote shows paragraph breaks (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Horizontal rule (HR) is styled (?)	No	No	bug060	bug064
Pre text has horizontal scroll (?)	No	No	No	No
Image display bugs (?)	No	No	bug061	No
Image has margin (?)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Image has border (?)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Wide table behaviour (?)	Chop	Run-off	Run-off	Run-off
MORE tag (?)	Continue reading ‘TITLE’	Read the rest of this entry >>	Continue reading ‘TITLE’	Continue reading ‘TITLE’
Single Post View	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Sidebar displays (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Next / prev post (?)	No	No	No	Yes
Permalink URL (?)	No	No	No	No
Trackback URL (?)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Comments feed URL (?)	No	No	Yes	Yes
Single Post View (cont)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Comments (?)
Displays edit comments link (?)	Yes	bug057	Yes	bug066
Displays trackbacks different than comments (?)	No	bug057	Yes	Yes
Display old comments when Off (?)	Yes	bug057	Yes	Yes
Header	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Blog name (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blog tagline (?)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Custom image header (?)	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Top navbar support (?)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Navbar has a Home button (?)	No	Yes	No	Yes
Navbar works with many pages (?)	No	Yes	No	No
Sidebar	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Number of sidebars (?)	1	1	1 + widgetized bottom bar	1
Sidebar location (?)	Right	Left	Right	Right
Sidebar title capitalization (?)	As typed	Uppercase	lowercase	as typed
Sidebar image width (?)	200 px	180 px	130 px	220 px
Wide images behaviour (?)	Chop	Run-off	Run-off	Run-off
Sidebar (cont)	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Sidebar widgets support (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sidebar widgets bugs (?)	bug056	No	No	No
HTML tag style bugs (Sidebar) (?)	No	No	bug062	No
Bullet for Unordered Lists (Sidebar) (?)	Some	No	No	No
Numbers for Ordered Lists (Sidebar) (?)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
NOTES (?)
Single Page View	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Sidebar displays (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Page comments (?)	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
NOTES (?)			Selected page is highlighted in the sidebar.	Selected page is highlighted in the sidebar.
Page Templates Supported	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Archives (?)	Yes	Yes
Displays page text (?)	No	No
Displays categories with archives (?)	Yes	No
Links / Blogroll (?)	Yes	No
Displays page text (?)	No
Sorts by categories (?)	Yes
Image replaces link name (?)	Yes
NOTES (?)
Sidebar Categories	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Number on same line (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Do not display empty categories (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Blogroll	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Sort by categories (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Image replaces link name (?)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom features	Chaotic Soul	Tarski	Unsleepable	K2-lite
Colour themes (?)
Sidebar orientation (?)

 

Chaotic Soul

• bug056: Sidebar: search box gives no indication that it is a search box or how to use it.
  
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Tarski

• bug057: Comments are never displayed on single post or single page view. Comments never display regardless of the “comments off” setting.
  
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Unsleepable

• bug058: Edit posts: the pencil image displays but clicking on it doesn’t do anything.
  
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• bug059: Posts: nesting unordered lists <UL> and ordered list <OL> will keep the bullet from showing up in the nested ordered list.
  

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• bug060: Posts: horizontal rule <HR> is styled not to display.
• bug061: Images: Images aligned to the left have a different margin/border than images aligned to the right.
  
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• bug062: Sidebar: link colour is the same as text colour. Impossible to see links.
  
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K2 Lite

• bug063: Heading1 <H1> is white text on a white background. It isn’t visible.
  
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• bug064: Unordered lists <UL> that are nested underneath ordered lists <OL> will show up as ordered lists <OL>.
  

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• bug065: Posts: horizontal rule <HR> is styled not to display.
• bug066: Comments: There is no quick link for editting comments (there is an edit link for trackbacks though).
  
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