Sorry it’s been quiet around here for a few days, we’ve been working on a ton of stuff on the backend to expand WordPress.com to a third datacenter and add 20+ more servers.
Today when I came across this new theme, I just had to take a few hours and clean it up for WordPress.com. The theme is “Day Dream” and it’s a narrow but classy theme with great typography.
In its option it includes four color schemes, including blue, pink, green, and grey. (All my favorite colors.) It also lets you align the title and tagline for your blog left, center, or right.
Each comes with a pretty cool header that matches it, but we went a step further and made it so you can use your own image header.
Widgets are at the bottom, but they display a bit differently than most themes so if you use this you may need to spend a minute or two tweaking your widgets.
WordPress.com News 
Cool, I’ll add it for my WordPress.com Theme Review on for Sunday.
Wizzel, things like that are coming back in a much easier form later. There was a lot of cruft I had to take out of the theme to keep things as simple as possible.
That’s good to know!
“20+ more servers…”
Sounds yummy. =)
Good to hear we’re progressing!!!
What happens if we want to change from one theme to another with our widgets and so?
wigdets are the btm.. hmm… i still like side panels more…
at least ppl won’t have to scroll all e way down for links~
THANKS A LOT !
its too narrow ! a great theme wasted.
would be amazing if i had the ability to stretch themes to my liking.
Oh! yeah, 8)
>>20+ more servers
Great! Thanks so much.
Hi Matt,
Your making things better. WP Community will have benefit from the works you done. Thanks a lot for having new theme. Keep growing!
Best Smile,
Tharique Azeez
Hello I really like this new theme with all this options. Bravo ! But it would be better with the possibilite to have widgets in a second column at the left or the right side.
One question: about the widgets, when you say “tweaking your widgets”, what do mean ?
Vero
from
Delimoon
Strange.
A very narrow
theme that
was only requested
once on the
recent ‘Theme Requests’
post. I guess
it was easy
to port.
awesome
ah, the illusion of democracy.
mmm… in my opinion it’s too narrow…
i’d like pressrow to have customizable colors!!!
Too naroow.
“i’d like pressrow to have customizable colors!!!” Wouldn’t that be nice 8->
how come it is spelled as “categorised” instead of “categorized”?
I like this theme. I am using now because I do like it but i dont liek the fact that the widgets are on the bottom. Like someone stated, it would be better if the widgets were on the side.
I like this theme. I am using now because I do like it but i dont like the fact that the widgets are on the bottom. Like someone stated, it would be better if the widgets were on the side.
I think some people wouldn’t mind the narrow with if the widgets were on the side.
it woudl give the illusion of width.
ok i’m silly. i see no theme. help!
I like this theme too, but yes the widgets aren’t very visible on the bottom cause the many articles which we write…
Thanks!!!
Astasia
I do not like this theme. It’s too much like “Ambiru” theme.
I thought I sent a comment but it seems to be disappearing?
I checked with Firefox2 beta and IE6.
It seems, there is a problem with spacing between the line of the search box and the button, or am i the only one, who has this problem ?
I like the theme so far 😉
Great job.
For what it’s worth, I think this theme is great. One problem with Ambiru was that it didn’t support widgets. Although the grey theme doesn’t seem to work well (or it requires a custom image header, at least).
Thank you for everything! 😉
I’m sorry to say it, cause I love you like a brother matt, but WTF? “Day Dream” uses almost none of the screen real estate, which is a no no and the widgets are on the bottom, which makes it EXTREMELY hard to trade links with anyone because no one will ever see them on your main page.
Hate to be a nay sayer. Sorry.
If you don’t like the theme, there are dozens of others for you to use. Most people’s primary concern isn’t trading links or have their text be unreadable because it’s too wide — sometimes the focus should be the content.
@ Matt
I’m sorry if I offended you.
I’m not a fan of links at the bottom, but I’ll check it out- always good to see more themes on wordpress!
@ MATT: How I feel about this theme release can’t be described within the scope of a comment. So go here: WordPress.com & Themes if you wish to know. Thanks.
I am not a fan of narrow themes but if Daydream were a full width theme I would consider using it. I do like the typography. I also like the header colour choices although both orange, yellow and purple were notably missing from the colour palette. I appreciate the capacity to have a custom header as well. And I have no objection to sidebar contents being placed in the footer, where they do not distract readers from focusing on the contents of a post.
Daydream is a narrow theme which is so much like Ambiru that it’s puzzling me how it made it to the top of the queue and was suddenly released. Perhaps it was being considered previous to the recent request for theme preferences and we weren’t aware of that at the time.
(1) I’m wondering if this theme was one of the themes requested on the forum that people have been waiting for for a long time. I checked the forum threads and while it’s true that I could have missed one, I couldn’t account for it being requested.
(2) I’m wondering if this theme one of those requested here on this blog just a short time ago when requests were invited. I believe there were 250 respondents and I’m wondering how many of them requested it.
(3) Specifically I’m wondering how this theme came to your attention and why it seemingly jumped the queque. This is because the process of asking for requests and then not seeing a direct correlation between the responses received and the new themes released can it give rise to the feeling that one wasted their time responding to the request that was made. And that, of course, is not a “good” feeling.
This theme includes some built-in color customization that has proven to be very popular in the past. We tracking lots of info about which themes people are using, and I use that to drive new decisions, though honestly picking one on a given night at 11PM can sometimes be a little random.
The theme has only been live a few hours, and already 30x the number of people in this thread have chosen it. About half of those have customized the colors and header. (Pink!) I’m totally listening to what you folks don’t like about the theme, and it’s a matter of taste so I’m not going to disagree with you, but the numbers are showing this is going to be a pretty popular one.
If thin isn’t your thing, again no one is forcing you to use it. If you wanted another theme more, just be patient. We’re probably going to add 100+ themes over the next year, there is a pretty good chance your theme will be in there. If you can’t wait, you can always clone the look using custom CSS or just download and install WP yourself.
When you send in a theme request it’s tallied on an internal wiki page, which is where I get all of potential themes. It’s not ignored!
Why not just randomly pick from the top 10 best rated or most downloaded themes at http://themes.wordpress.net and implement them here on a monthly basis?
More themes whose popularity is proven, more often = An even happier wordpress community
This is a beautiful theme. Personally I prefer to have sidebar and a lot of other things. But they might distract some readers. This theme is just right.
Not really my cup of tea – the narrow design, in my opinion wastes such a lot of real estate and if you have a lot of content readers are going to have to do a lot of scrolling.
For those who like narrow, single column designs though, I can see how it might appeal. Doesn’t,IMO, come anywhere near Press Row though.
I’m using it atm, looks reallt nice so far.
I THINK YOU SHOULD MAKE IT SO WE CAN HAVE LOTS OF MULTI THEMES.
PARTICULARLY PHOTOGENIC ONES THAT HAVE NICE BANNERS AND ARE NOT TOO HEAVILY COLORED! BEING ABLE TO PICK A SELECTION “CATEGORY” WOULD BE NICE. EG: PINK, GRAYSCALE, DEVIDED, MODERN, ASIAN, GIRLY, ETC ETC ETC.!
START WITH THIS
http://themes.wordpress.net
IT WOULD BE GREAT, OR ATLEAST GET SOME FROM THERE 😀
On the designer’s site he says:
Hey, this is Jim Whimpey, I made Day Dream so thanks so much for adding it Matt, it’s a real honour.
To the people that hate that it’s so narrow and doesn’t take up all the screen’s “real estate”: I see so many liquid websites where, on a big screen, even at 60% can be so wide they’re impossible to read, it’s just physically to hard to read a line that long. Day Dream’s aim was to put the most focus on content it possibly could, this meant a serif typeface, as little distraction as possible and a width that would be most readable and you can’t pull that off with a liquid design.
Once again, thanks a lot, it’s almost the best thing to happen to this 18 year old.
Hi, Matt!
Thank you for this wonderful theme!
I’m using this now!
I try out almost every theme that gets released on WP — doesn’t necessarily mean that I love it. I often switch back to my favorite theme after a while. Judging the # people who incorporate the new theme (especially as soon as it is released) may not be a good measure of whether the theme is actually appreciated. There may be others like me who simply try out every new theme and then switch back to one of the older themes because they didn’t like the new theme. Just playing devil’s advocate, and noting that statistics has its cons too.
is there something wrong with this theme? my header image isn’t showing 😦
Just noticed something.
@ MATT: Aren’t you contradicting yourself here? Obviously, some of us hate it which is why this is becoming a petty back-and-forth. And you say that your thinking is that
And then you say,
I’m confused … didn’t Jim Whimpey design this theme? And where did you get the inkling that no one will hate it? What is goin’ on here?
I’m having the same problem as Litium regarding the header image.
Some of us need to get a life! I can’t believe I just spent the time I did reading all of the whiny posts about the new theme. Try new things, don’t try new things- but don’t shoot the creative geniuses that give you the fodder for your hobby, last time I checked for FREE. I SLURP IT UP. But I like anything that is available in pink.
And meanwhile, the real world keeps turning…
“The reality is that the sidebar is rarely used, it doesn’t deserve it’s attention stealing spot at the top of the page, inline with the important stuff – real content”.
Whose reality? Have to say I disagree with you here. The sidebar has never interfered with me reading the main content of a page. After I’ve read the main post I go to the side bar to check out what else might be in the blog. All I have to do is look to the side. If I’m not interested in reading the main post I go straight to the side bar to look at what else is in the blog. I personally am not interested in having to scroll down to the end of a main post to find other links – chances are I wouldn’t bother – and I wouldn’t make my readers do that either.
Whether people like or like a particular design is purely subjective, and the more varied themes the better if you’re trying to appeal to all tastes, but saying the sidebar is hardly ever used (given the majority of themes use it) as the reason for desiging Day Dream makes wonder what you’re basing the statement on. Usability studies, perhaps?
My bad — my previous content should have been directed toward Jim Whimpey, the man who designed Day Dream. Didn’t realize those were his words, and not Matt’s opinion. So my sincere apologies to Matt (from WP).
Matt said: “We’re probably going to add 100+ themes over the next year, there is a pretty good chance your theme will be in there.”
Wow, that’s waaaaaaaaay more new themes that I expected to see in the next year! Awesome.
coool!
thanks a lot, very nice theme, we are looking forward for more 😀
Ditto, Britgirl. But actually, whether people like a theme isn’t all that subjective. Jakob Neilson, among others, and the entire field of human factors (from the beginnings of electric computers) have pointed out why. Not having too wide a field to read is one example.
That said, there are some types of posts (blogs) which are focussed on the single narrative post, that a single column would be useful.
I’ve tried out most available themes. Some have trouble at the gui end (fonts, for example); others have trouble further back (widgets break 2-column Regulus. Other themes won’t display correctly in most people’s browsers. Others tolerate one page in a tab but smoosh multi=tabs into an unreadble mess, etc. Some others won’t recognize paragraph marks; some won’t allow images and description on sidebar links whereas others do just fine.
Is there a way to work with existing themes to get them improved for clarity and cross-cultural usefulness?
vuee, each designer of a theme takes some liberties with how things work, but most of what you describe (like widgets breaking a sidebar) sounds like it may be a bug. It may have been already fixed, or you should report it using the feedback form, not these comments. If you have a theme which is almost what you like, you can always customize it using the custom CSS feature.
To borrow a line from the Grateful Dead: “One man gathers what another man spills.”
I haven’t looked at themes in a long time, because I’m very happy with Regulus — I’m a photographer and an artist, and my blog is named after the old Route 66 community where I live, so I really enjoy being able to use a Photoshopped image of my neighborhood’s most famous strip of buildings as the header for my blog — but I really don’t understand why anyone would get worked up over the themes. As has already been pointed out: This is a free service, and there are many themes to choose from. Pick the one that works best for you.
If your ideal theme isn’t available yet, be patient. It took several months before WordPress offered a theme I really loved, but in the meantime, I was just happy to have access to a free, user-friendly service that allowed me to share my thoughts, artwork, and ideas.
Indeed great typography. Too bad that it is not localized at all.
Keep up the good work!
I’ve noticed an error while using the new Day Dream theme. In the Day Dream Options panel I selected the grey setting, but the header image and title of my page do no show up:
http://talkingback.wordpress.com
I love the theme too. Might stick with it for a while!
I agree with others it’s too narrow. I’m also a big fan of the white space (or black space, blue space, whatever) thing and am currently using “Simpla.” It would be nice to have more of templates with width, columns, white-space, and the ability to customize the header.
But this is a FREE service and I’m pretty happy overall with what you provide here!
Such as Jeremiah, I have the header image of the gray theme not working. Also, when I change the header image of another subtheme, the image doesn’t appear, so I have to restore the original one.
New Theme – Font face: excellent; Width: bit narrow; options: good. Offering a new theme: quite a nice thing to do, and probably no small amount of work, but best part:
you enable more control for writers –not a small thing. New theme, overall: I’m far too happy with the outstanding Superb GREAT “PressRow” to change a thing. “PressRow” is so fine on so many points, it’s nearly perfect, lacking only a single thing: background; my preference to have at least light beige ground, black or navy blue type. Doesn’t matter.
TT, others may be unhappy with sequence, type of new theme releases, but sorry, don’t agree. Maybe I’m too happy with “Pressrow” (–it’s 3rd one I’ve used and I loathe change), but if there were only two theme choices, I’d accept. Complaint about which/ when: seems a bit ungracious. And: the people who own the site get to choose the What.
i.e., people on Blogger go Nuts when server is down –but they don’t actually have a Right to complain –about that for which they haven’t paid. So: well done WP team. (–“100” new themes coming this year??? Yikes….)
I like this theme and use it :).
My Favorite. Fits good with my weblog subject.
i love it!
I love this new theme. There’s only one little problem: the custom image header doesn’t work. When I upload my own image, the image doesn’t appear on my blog…
I simply LOVE this theme, this is THE theme I have been waiting since I start using WordPress, everything are so comfortable to my eyes.
But only one problem – the Grey theme. It have been so many times I tried to upload the header image, but it just wouldn’t show, I wonder why? and seems like there are dozen of DayDream lover/user facing the same problem.
Thats great!