"I downloaded Omega and Delta at the advice of an expert, but I'm really confused about how they work."
We hear a lot of support requests like this.
Themes can be confusing for Drupal beginners. We often speak with beginners who visit the theme page at Drupal.org and find the most popular themes at the top of the screen. They install Zen, Omega, AdaptiveTheme or Fusion and wonder why everything is so difficult.
To avoid this confusion, we strongly recommend that beginners avoid any theme that contains the phrases "starting theme", "theme framework" or "base theme".
For this post we found 8 of the best themes for beginners.
Here's the criteria we use to select the themes:
- Works immeadiately after installation with no complex setup.
- Has a design that's good enough to use on a blog or business site.
- Has with no obvious errors.
- Has no major installation requirements such as javascript libraries, modules or base themes.
If you're a Drupal newcomer, try building your first site with one of these 8 themes:
#1. Danland
- Download: https://drupal.org/project/danland
- Demo: http://www.danetsoft.com/demo
There are two versions of this theme: Danland and Danblog. Danblog is the simpler version with no slideshow. If you use Danland, you can replace the slideshow images by uploading files to /sites/all/themes/danland/images/. Use files with the same name as the existing files, such as sea.jpg.
#2. Business
Business doesn't require that you touch any code at all. You can upload your logo and replace the slideshow images directly from the theme's settings page.
#3. Professional Theme
- Download: https://drupal.org/project/professional_theme
- Demo: http://professional-theme.techsaran.com
As with Business, which is the work of the same developer, Professional Theme doesn't require that you touch any code at all to update the logo or slideshow.
#4. Simple Corporate
This is our third example from the same developer. Their main site is http://www.devsaran.com and its well worth checking out for more easy, usable themes.
#5. JournalCrunch
- Download: https://drupal.org/project/journalcrunch
- Demo: http://demo.drupalizing.com/?theme=journalcrunch
JournalCrunch is more image focused than the other themes we've seen so far. However, it's easy to use. JournalCrunch will detect and display any image fields you have on your content. With this theme, there's no need to touch code here at all.
#6. Corporate Clean
- Download: https://drupal.org/project/corporateclean
- Demo: http://demo.drupalizing.com/?theme=corporateclean
CorporateClean is setup correctly immediately after installation. You can replace the slideshow with blocks, or you can edit the existing text in /sites/all/themes/corporateclean/page.tpl.php and the existing images in /sites/all/themes/corporateclean/mockup/
#7. Corked Screwer
- Download: https://drupal.org/project/corkedscrewer
- Demo: http://demo.drupalizing.com/?theme=corkedscrewer
Corked Screwer is the third example from the same developer. It's similar to JournalCrunch because it is also very image heavy. However, it's also similar to Corporate Clean because you have to edit the code to edit the homepage. Go to /sites/all/themes/corkedscrewer/page.tpl.php to the homepage images and text.
#8 FontFolio
- Download: https://drupal.org/project/fontfolio
- Demo: http://fontfolio.ish.co.il
Fontfolio has a really image heavy homepage. Just add an image field to your content type and Fontfolio will automatically detect and display those images.
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