Welcome to the development repository for the default theme that will launch with WordPress 7.2.
Ipsum is a blank canvas built around the blogging experience, our proposal for what a default theme should be. Named after lorem ipsum, the placeholder that fills a page until real content arrives, it is composed enough to stand on its own and to be transformed the moment people start writing.
Ipsum is built as a block theme. The theme aims to ship with as little CSS as possible: our goal is for all theme styles to be configured through theme.json and editable through Global Styles. The theme development team will work closely with Gutenberg contributors to build design tools in the block editor that enable this goal.
- Open Ipsum in WordPress Playground — a throwaway WordPress in your browser with Ipsum active and the demo content already imported. Nothing to install; close the tab and it's gone.
- Browse the demo site — the theme with the same content, hosted.
- Install it — download this repository as a ZIP (Code → Download ZIP) or clone it into
wp-content/themes/ipsum, then activate Ipsum under Appearance → Themes. Requires WordPress 7.1 or later and PHP 7.4 or later.
The posts and pages used in the screenshots and the demo site are in ipsum-demo-content.xml. Import them on a test site via Tools → Import → WordPress. The Playground link above loads them for you.
Ipsum is being developed in the open. Feedback is welcome — open an issue with anything you find, from bugs to design notes. The style variations, the archive pattern pack, and the sidebar templates are the areas where testing helps most right now.
Connect your GitHub account to your WordPress.org account to receive props for your contributions. Please see the tutorials on Linking your GitHub and w.org profiles.
If you would like to contribute code, the list of open issues is a great place to start looking for tasks. Pull requests are preferred when linked to an existing issue.
Contributing is not just for developers! There are many opportunities to help with testing, triage, discussion, design, building patterns and templates, and more. Please look through open issues, and join in wherever you feel most comfortable.
If you'd like to help with triage, open a new issue and one of the maintainers will help you get set up with the ability to add labels to issues and PRs.
However you contribute, please read the contributing guide first.
Two conventions for contributors: the theme version stays at 1.0.0 while Ipsum is in development, and changes are logged in pull request descriptions rather than a changelog.
As with all WordPress projects, we want to ensure a welcoming environment for everyone. With that in mind, all contributors are expected to follow our Code of Conduct.
- Setting up a development environment
- Theme Developer Handbook
- Block Editor Handbook: Global Styles & theme.json documentation
- Block Editor Handbook: theme.json reference
The theme will be released with WordPress 7.2 and follow the key dates / milestones associated with its future development schedule.
Ipsum is licensed under the GNU General Public License v2 or later. Bundled fonts are licensed under the SIL Open Font License; details in readme.txt.