Are you bored with scrolling vertically to read through websites? Then a HorizontalWP theme is probably for you! Seriously though, these themes are minimalist and elegant and their sideways approach works great with websites that can take advantage of a full screen view such as photography blogs.
HorizontalWP [twitter], masterminded by Greg Ponchak, currently have 6 themes available. All share a similar minimalistic vibe and of course the immersive sideways scrolling. Prices range from $30 to $40. If that was all it took to convince you, then head over to HorizontalWP now by following that link or read on as I go over each of these gorgeous themes in a bit more detail.
The themes seem strongly favoured towards photography, but don’t let that put you off if you intend to use them for something else. Also, you can navigate between posts on some themes using the ‘J’ and ‘K’ keys. This works particularly well with the ‘MYM’ and ‘M3V1′ themes as you will see shortly.
What is great about these HorizontalWP themes is that they remove all the unwanted clutter found on the majority of blogs these days – Dink being no exception! There are no distracting advertisements or sidebars, comments or clutter. The focus of these themes is on your content and it works magnificently.
All themes have support for both photos and, more recently, videos and have been tested in Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Opera (note: not internet explorer). All themes require WordPress 3+ to function correctly.
Click on each image below to preview the theme.
INDEX
INDEX is priced at $40, it features twitter integration and has a pop-down navigation box. This theme is suitable for more text reliant posts, large chunks of text will sit nicely next to your images. This theme does not feature the keyboard navigation function.
COL
COL is also priced at $40 and is similar to INDEX in design. COL however is even more minimalistic and depends a lot more on harmony between typography and imagery. Navigation is found at the right where you can view your categories, archives and older posts (only the newest 3 posts are displayed).
MYM
MYM is again $40 and is the first of the ‘fullscreen’ themes. MYM is also the first to feature keyboard navigation. As you can see from the image above, this theme is perfectly suited for photography. Use the ‘J’ and ‘K’ to navigate between posts easily or click the navigation link to open up a full screen navigation page. This is my personal favourite of the 6 themes.
HV1
HV1 is priced at $30 and is probably the most suited to those wanting to add a bit more text to each post. HV1 features keyboard navigate and scrolls sideways between other posts (which are dimmed to keep focus on the post you are reading). HV1 also scrolls vertically however, for posts with more text or multiple photos (note that in the other themes, posts with multiple photos continue to scroll sideways). For me HV1 makes a great minimal and practical WordPress theme.
Utilitarian V2
Utilitarian V2 is $40 and is fairly similar to the COL theme in design, however, it features a static header which holds your blog title and navigation links. Navigation is similar to INDEX, a small pop-down with all your categories, pages and archives. Text which overflows in a post, i.e. is longer than the height of the photo, becomes scrollable in line with its post, which maintains the minimalist vibes. This theme also allows for comments on posts.
M3V1
M3V1 is again $40 and makes up the rest of the ‘fullscreen’ themes. Very similar to the MYM theme, however the navigation menu is collapsible to minimise the amount of text which covers your images. M3V1 allows you to scroll through 5 posts (as opposed to 3 with MYM) using keyboard navigation, which looks great as each image slides in.
As you can see, there are some great themes here. They would of course look great for photography websites, but don’t let these examples hinder your imagination! If you haven’t already, remember to check each theme out in full by clicking the respective images, a few lines of text doesn’t do them enough justice. Remember, you will need self hosted WordPress to utilise these themes.
