Drupal Themeing Fundamentals: June 6, 2008

What makes Drupal sites unique? Sure, modules do add functionality to a site, but they are mostly under the hood and may not be very visible nor obvious.

It is themes that make a Drupal site stand out. Similar concepts in other products/projects are called templates or skins.

The days where every Drupal site has the blue and grey Bluemarine look are over. There are now a huge variety in how Drupal sites look.

We will discuss themes in Drupal this month, again in a round table format, but before we do that, we will have an exciting presentation:

Martin Anderson-Clutz from Surge Communications has kindly agreed to do his Theming Fundamentals talk just fresh from Drupal Camp Toronto, held on May 24, 2008.

This is a walkthrough of the basics for customizing the look and layout of your Drupal installation. It will focus on using the Zen theme as a starting point, and creating a custom subtheme. Will also include a brief discussion of usability fundamentals, and optimization techniques such as the use of Sprites.

After the talk, there will be a round table discussion. Let us think about themes in terms of:

• Downloadable themes: the ones you download from Drupal.org (Garland, Zen, and contributed ones). Which one you like for aesthetics? Which ones are easy to modify? Which ones you use as a starting point?
• Showcase any themes you developed or saw on a site and liked
• Theming in Drupal 6.x is now different from Drupal 5.x

Everyone will get to share their bit and everyone learns ...