How can I copy a wordpress theme that someone is using on their wordpress blog?
I’m about to build a wordpress blog, and i’m wanting to copy someones theme that they have on their wordpress blog.
I know there are programs you can use to simply copy websites to you computer (like WinHTTrack)
How can I best copy someones wordpress theme that they are using?
For example…. I want to copy this one:
http://mattbrett.com
Because Wordpress pages are generated using PHP and a database and aren’t static HTML pages, copying someone’s design is actually quite a chore which will require a functional knowledge of PHP.
Many, many wordpress themes are free, but there is nothing stopping someone from making his or her own theme and not sharing it. mattbrett.com is the website of a professional graphic designer, and part of his business involves selling website layouts – the customers get a site which is unique to them (instead of being one of the many, many wordpress sites using the same 4-5 themes).
It looks like he took the freely available http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/1-column/7/back-in-black-11/ theme and heavily, heavily modified it. I’m basing this on viewing the generated HTML source on the homepage by right-clicking on a free area of the page and selecting "View Source" (specific name varies per browser). You can look through the HTML and see him calling the "back-in-black" style sheet. Maybe he’s just using the same name as the existing theme, but it looks like it’s probably where he started.
You can look through the HTML source to see how the formatting works, how it’s organized, and you can look at the .CSS files to see the style info (colors, fonts, etc., etc.), but you can’t just import them into the Wordpress theme editor in the Admin area of your blog. Assuming an import would work (it probably wouldn’t), you’d see his page with his entries because your theme is just displaying static HTML, not grabbing content from your database and generating pages.
Look through the "header" or "Main Index Template" theme page, and you’ll see it’s a lot more than just plain html – you’ll see a bunch of "<? php" tags – this is PHP code. If you’re decent with PHP and CSS (and some javascript) and understand how "the loop" in Wordpress works, you could eventually make a site which looks like his, but that’s a lot of pre-requisites.
And, though this isn’t popular among the open-source crowds, he has every right to claim copyright on his design (he spent his time and his livelihood depends on successful web design). I doubt anyone would care if you had a site which was just a copy of his layout, but I would say it’s not the best place to start, especially because he might be the only expert on that design, and it’s highly doubtful he would help you out. But, if you use on of the many free Wordpress themes which can be downloaded as an official "theme" .zip file with PHP files, CSS, etc., you’ll find people willing to help you online if you run into any options trying to customize it for your site.
My recommendation: Look through the many free Wordpress themes at http://themes.wordpress.net/. Find one you like, read a little about CSS, then tweak the design until it gives the look you want. Turning the generated HTML from the mattbrett.com page into functional PHP will be more work than you probably want to deal with, especially considering how many good, free themes are available.
Tags: Admin Area, Browser, Colors, Columns, Css Files, Formatting, Functional Knowledge, Html Design, Html Pages, Html Source, Php Database, Php Free, Professional Graphic Designer, Style Info, Style Sheet, Themes Free, View Source, Winhttrack, Wordpress Blog, Wordpress Themes
October 19th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Hi Parker,
What you do is … go to your web browser and forward it to yourself in an email, and then when you open your email, then cut and paste it to wherever you want to put it like a Newsletter, Email, Word document or whatever and then you will have it to do whatever you want to with it. Always, always forward to yourself in an email and then cut and paste and you are then good to go. Let me know if it worked for you because it that doesn’t I have several other solutions as well.
Your pal! : )
Much Love
Peace & Happiness
References :
October 19th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Because Wordpress pages are generated using PHP and a database and aren’t static HTML pages, copying someone’s design is actually quite a chore which will require a functional knowledge of PHP.
Many, many Wordpress themes are free, but there is nothing stopping someone from making his or her own theme and not sharing it. mattbrett.com is the website of a professional graphic designer, and part of his business involves selling website layouts – the customers get a site which is unique to them (instead of being one of the many, many Wordpress sites using the same 4-5 themes).
It looks like he took the freely available http://themes.wordpress.net/columns/1-column/7/back-in-black-11/ theme and heavily, heavily modified it. I’m basing this on viewing the generated HTML source on the homepage by right-clicking on a free area of the page and selecting "View Source" (specific name varies per browser). You can look through the HTML and see him calling the "back-in-black" style sheet. Maybe he’s just using the same name as the existing theme, but it looks like it’s probably where he started.
You can look through the HTML source to see how the formatting works, how it’s organized, and you can look at the .CSS files to see the style info (colors, fonts, etc., etc.), but you can’t just import them into the Wordpress theme editor in the Admin area of your blog. Assuming an import would work (it probably wouldn’t), you’d see his page with his entries because your theme is just displaying static HTML, not grabbing content from your database and generating pages.
Look through the "header" or "Main Index Template" theme page, and you’ll see it’s a lot more than just plain html – you’ll see a bunch of "<? php" tags – this is PHP code. If you’re decent with PHP and CSS (and some javascript) and understand how "the loop" in Wordpress works, you could eventually make a site which looks like his, but that’s a lot of pre-requisites.
And, though this isn’t popular among the open-source crowds, he has every right to claim copyright on his design (he spent his time and his livelihood depends on successful web design). I doubt anyone would care if you had a site which was just a copy of his layout, but I would say it’s not the best place to start, especially because he might be the only expert on that design, and it’s highly doubtful he would help you out. But, if you use on of the many free Wordpress themes which can be downloaded as an official "theme" .zip file with PHP files, CSS, etc., you’ll find people willing to help you online if you run into any options trying to customize it for your site.
My recommendation: Look through the many free Wordpress themes at http://themes.wordpress.net/. Find one you like, read a little about CSS, then tweak the design until it gives the look you want. Turning the generated HTML from the mattbrett.com page into functional PHP will be more work than you probably want to deal with, especially considering how many good, free themes are available.
References :
3 years using Wordpress – moderate PHP programming experience