I am trying to follow the instructions listed on ℹ️ Custom themes, but I am thoroughly confused.
Some special templates used by Micro.blog are stored in the Blank design and used by all themes.
My Design settings for my blog does not show a “Blank” design. I see the theme plugin I installed through the plugin directory, but that’s it. It’s not clear to me if I create a “New Theme” if that will be using the Blank design or not. I would assume it would be a layer on top of the theme plugin I have installed.
I guess, to get at the root of my question: how does one start from scratch and make their own design/theme? I literally just want a blank, plain HTML theme with no CSS and I want to define all of that myself.
You should use theme-blank. The blank theme doesn’t come with anything themed really, but there are core elements of micro.blog to make things work in theme-blank that you’ll want and need.
This is the code behind theme-blank and you should fully start here
Your use of theme-blank will include pulling in key things like the required elements in the config.json
You’ll note 0 css, but all the core layouts are there.
You’re not the only one who’s confused. @manton and I have been discussing this a bit over email. The documentation definitely needs an update, and maybe some things should be reorganized or renamed.
Here’s the initial email I sent to Manton. Hopefully it helps clear things up a bit.
Hi Manton,
I think there’s some confusion out there—especially among people who like to tinker with their blogs—about themes, plug-ins, and custom themes. I’ll try to illustrate this confusion with a fictional dialogue between two nerds.
— I want to make my own theme, so… I should create a custom theme, right?
— No, no, no. You want to make a plug-in.
— But the web client, the docs, and this YouTube video all said I should create a custom theme and set the built-in theme to Blank.
— Yeah, that was true a long time ago. But Blank is no more.
— Okay… so what is a custom theme, then?
— I think of “custom themes” more as “blog customizations.” They’re not standalone things but rather enhancements to an existing theme. And they’re not just for theme changes—you could, for example, use a custom theme to add a favicon or a robots.txt file to your blog. Or to tweak a plug-in you’ve installed.
— Huh. Interesting. By the way, how do I create my totally own plug-in? I looked for a “New Plug-in” button on the Plug-ins page, but I couldn’t find one.
— Yeah, I know. You have to go to Design → Edit Themes, and you’ll find the “New Plug-in” button there.
— What?! https://tableflipper.com
So, there are definitely some things that could be resolved by updating the docs—removing references to Blank, etc. But I’m also starting to think that maybe renaming “custom themes” to something else (without the word “theme”) might make sense and help reduce confusion. “Blog customizations” might not be exactly right… but something along those lines?
