Every year the WordPress team proudly unveils a new default theme, increasing by one the collection now known affectionately as the Twenty Somethings. Serving as the flagship theme for a year, it has big shoes to fill. The theme should work well for a blog or a website, be carefully crafted under-the-hood to support essential WordPress features, and—of course—it should be aesthetically pleasing and exciting.
Say hello to the new default WordPress theme for 2012.
Twenty Twelve is an elegant, readable, and fully responsive theme that makes your site content look its best on any device.
A key component of this theme is a special homepage template. Recently, it’s become even more evident that WordPress is heavily used as a content management system (CMS) with many more sites now using it to organize any kind of content rather than purely as a blog. The homepage template meets this need by allowing authors to craft a perfect introductory page—it’s the first thing visitors see. Homepage content (text, images, video, anything you’d like) lives in the upper area, and below it you can arrange specific homepage-only widgets.
What makes this theme really shine are the design details. Starting with a thoughtfully crafted mobile-first layout, Twenty Twelve is intended to be viewed on any size device from smartphones and tablets up to the latest and greatest HiDPI/retina screens. No matter how your readers decide to visit, it’ll remain usable and good-looking.
To increase readability and attractiveness, Twenty Twelve features the gorgeous Open Sans typeface. Refreshingly different from the basic web fonts of yesteryear, this font spruces up your prose and gives your content a modern, clean look.
Since I already mentioned the Twenty Somethings, I’d also like to highlight how this one is different. Here are two key departures from previous default themes.
First, you’ll see in the styling for post formats that the design remains consistent on both list and single views. Links, quotes, asides, and images that you select to be formatted as such in your post editor are shown a bit differently than standard blog posts—and they’ll retain their unique look-and-feel across your site.
Second, you’ll notice that a custom header image is not visible when you first activate the theme. Unlike Twenty Ten and Twenty Eleven, this theme doesn’t come with a set of hand-chosen header images, nor does it use featured images as large banners at the top of posts and pages. A header image is supported by the theme, though this time the feature will be turned off until you choose to upload your own.
Learn all about these features and more on the Theme Showcase.
Designed by Drew Strojny and built by many hands in the WordPress community, Twenty Twelve is now available in your WordPress.com dashboard at Appearance → Themes. Self-hosted WordPress.org users will have access very soon can download the theme via the WordPress.org Extend theme directory, and the new theme will be bundled with the official 3.5 software release later this year.
I hope you enjoy the new theme and the new look.
WordPress.com News 
Thank you for constantly offering new themes and options!
Reblogged this on 12-inch pianist and commented:
Pretty excited about Twenty Twelve, Twenty Eleven was an excellent showcase of all WordPress can do and I expect Twenty Twelve will be even more impressive!
Reblogged this on Egill and commented:
Twenty Twelve is finally here!
I am using Twenty Eleven, will check it out maybe it is time to change!
Might just be time to change my theme!
Don’t you feel this has become too minimalistic compared to the previous ones? Because I loved Twenty Ten more than Twenty Eleven. Twenty Eleven was still okay. But Twenty Twelve, as I had suspected, looks more like a sandbox theme intended for designers with Custom CSS Upgrade.
I think the design stands on its own, it’s fully fleshed out and is not intended to be a bare bones starter theme like Toolbox or Sandbox.
I know that. It just looks to be so. Also, it should have come with a few header images at least. You know, when a blogger starts a blog, they generally don’t have the header image ready. Some bloggers don’t even bother changing header images. In cases like that, a preset header image really stands out (like we’ve seen in Twenty 10, 11, and Coraline).
That’s all my opinion, again. I think it would have been better if the option was there.
That’s why we’re doing a new theme each year—not every one is going to like each one as much as the last. Something different! In this case the core team specifically asked for “no header images” as a main feature of this one.
The header image is showing up below the menus. Is this by design? Shouldn’t it be above the menus?
Yes, that’s intentional. It’s a much different layout than the previous two with large, full width banner images.
Playing with it right now. :3
Fantastic about the home page.
I like it.
Lovely! I love the simplicity and elegance. Is it available as a wordpress. org theme yet?
Thanks!
See my notes at the bottom of the post. Coming soon…
Great — best thing to have come out of WP.com in a while. Like a cross between ‘Thematic’ and ‘Linen’.
Hehe—that’s a cool comparison, David. The DNA of themes before is strong with this one. 🙂
Looks pretty sweet! Looking forward to giving this a try. I think this will be great for some of my easier pages. I am so surprised when I have clients tell me Twenty Eleven has too much going on. I bet they’ll like this one!
Woo hoo! I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this. Thank you!
Awesome! Though these themes haven’t really suited my blog so far, they do look really good.
Cool. Like the emphasis on more and more uses of WP as a custom CMS, and that appears to be front and center with the new homepage template.
Cool, but give me this on .org as soon as possible 😉
Soon it will be yours.
This is one of a kind. Much appreciation!
Twenty Eleven is better.
Thanks…..I like it, seems a bit more flexible for me and my viewers.
Thanks. Does look clean. … which is what I liked about WordPress as it is. I really hate cluttered landing pages.
Love the simplicity and sterility of this theme… applied!
It’s a bit late in the year to reveal the 2012 theme. 😉
Nice theme!
We slow-baked this one to get it just right.
Finally Twenty Twelve, thanks.
Thanks, Lance, Drew Strojny and the WordPress team. Twenty Twelve looks fresh and clean. I think I like it!
Woo! Finally! I’ve been waiting for the update.
Guys, it’s like you’ve heard my theme prayers! I love this so much. I’m going to try this out, right about now! Thank you once again.
Wonderful work! My only criticism is that when changing from portrait to landscape view in a tablet…the typography size also changes. To be truly responsive, there should be no change to the size of the font. Still, this is another example of why WordPress leads the pack!
We discussed this at length; at the end of the day it’s better than the default iOS behavior of zooming up after orientation so you have to tap or pinch to even get back to readable scale. We feel it’s an OK tradeoff—and the latest rumors are this will be fixed in iOS 6 release. Yay.
WOW, Thank you! I’m gonna try it!
Wow, so exciting! Clean, elegant, and super-crunchy featured theme, matching this amazing year! 🙂 I have another name for this, Matchbox Twenty Twelve, yeah!
Haha, your special name made me laugh out loud.
Great job everyone. This theme is great.
Wow, it is very cool.
Twenty Eleven is a popular theme in WordPress, but I think Twenty Twelve will be more popular.
It’s very nice. Does the single column option have a footer?
If you mean footer widgets — they only appear on the custom homepage template. The full-width page template does not have footer widgets; though every page shows the normal footer (see http://twentytwelvedemo.wordpress.com/full-width/).
Looks like it could use some more design work. I like that it’s a clean, balanced layout but it is a bit disjointed like the content blocks are all floating and theres no attractive design element to hold them together… Maybe just needs some customization?
Finally it arrived. Thanks, I will apply it.
Really good, simple and easy to read theme. Nice work.
Great design!
The theme is good, but the home page just contains single line links to blog posts. Instead, it could contain a title, small description and a miniature photo for each post. Also, people could be allowed to display as many such snippets as they want, on the home page.
Thanks for the suggestion, that’s a great idea to make the Recent Posts widget more interesting.
Love it! Apart from my poetry writing, I love taking photos and hope to see mine on your site one day… how would I go about that? Any interest let me know. 🙂
Very nicely done. I look forward to using it for a political campaign blog. The front-page template with widgets is outstanding, when that’s what you need. And the ability to adapt well to any device is great. The overall look is a little too plain for my taste, but a user can change that with custom typefaces. Twenty Ten is still my favorite.
I am such a “theme” virgin, let alone one to comment, but here I am, driven to write to you since I have spied Twenty Twelve. Ooh, decisions decisions. Shall I give this baby a go? Mmmmm. Much love from Dubai !
Just. Do. It. 🙂
I always get excited whenever I see a new theme announcement. I’m still on the lookout for “the one”. Maybe this new theme will be it!
Great addition to the 2011! Love that it’s now fully responsive.
It’s very simple and lovely… Liked it and already activated! One feature I am missing is a header slider.
Another theme to try and play in the next couple of days. =)
I’m very happy for the new theme announcement and information updating.
First of all, really good work! This one is beautiful and a worthy successor to 2011 and 2010. Second of all, major props to whoever thought of replacing Lorem Ipsum by Gregor Samsa!! Litbloggers all over the wordpress universe have officially been seduced 🙂 .
Woohoo new default theme from WordPress, I think it’s perfect for an introduction page blog.
It is a good theme, but I was expecting it to be more ground breaking! More stylistic, and with header images, it is good to do new things but look back what you have achieved so far with 2010 and 2011, radical changes ain’t so good all times…
It’s simply great… good job.
Amazing, I like it :D. But now I am using Twenty Ten and maybe I can try it.
Great work guys! You have knocked it out of the ball park with this one, great look, great user experience, responsive and built for a CMS site not blog! Really incredible, well done!
Save and Activate! Thanks. 🙂
I was waiting for this theme, great design.
Great to see you made a responsive layout!
Love the responsiveness of this, definitely going to have a play!
Am I the only one that hates these super-condensed fonts though? They look terrible on my screen…
Kafka. Ah, Kafka. Anyway, the theme looks brilliant! Might use it for a secondary blog in the future.
Thank you for the cool theme. I have adopted this theme for my English site.
Beautiful, Lance. When will it be available for WordPress.org users? Thanks to you and the team for all the hard work!
I don’t know, to be honest. Stay tuned to http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ for updates.
The theme is very clean. Also, 960px is very useful for me.
Thanks to WordPress.com for adding this nice theme.
Seems like a nice theme, but like the 2011 theme, it lacks options to change from a dark and light theme which I certainly liked, will this be implemented in the future? Also will there be an option to add a logo or will this theme be even more limited then 2011?
No dark option this time, again—it’s a new theme not a clone of the exact last one.
For your logo, you can upload it via Appearance > Header and crop it to the size you wish; this theme (and Twenty Ten and Eleven) now support flexible image sizes.
No footer widgets like in Twenty Eleven? Disappointed. 😦
If this one was just like Twenty Eleven, it wouldn’t be a new theme.
I thought new themes would be better than old ones. Thanks for proving me wrong…
Welcome Twenty Twelve. 🙂
Would you really say that was “designed”? Very plain and boring visually as opposed to” aesthetically pleasing and exciting”. Being responsive is good, but it lacks any sort of design imo.
Sometimes design is in the details don’t see—they just work and get out of the way of your content.
Really looking forward to the release. Just wanted to start a new blog. Will it be soon? Should I wait? Thanks to the WordPress Team!
I like it. I’ve just changed. Thanks!
Finally! I’ve waited for this theme long enough thank you!
Sorry, but the navigation menu placed above the header image is a dealbreaker for me.
It’s not an appearance thing. It’s a usability thing. Why make users have to scroll above the header in order to navigate?
It’s a bummer, cuz I like everything else a lot and would have made the switch if it weren’t for the one flaw. (Why not offer the choice to have the nav menu above or below the header image? Don’t you offer that choice in some other theme?)
Yeah, providing choices is good.
It’s nice and clean, and I like the typeface, but why was the option for sidebar location removed? I prefer the sidebar on the left side of the screen, as do most of my readers. I also think it’s odd that the “previous post” and “next post” links are only located at the far bottom of the page, rather than available at the top as well.
New year, new theme. We realize not everyone will like it—it’s OK if you don’t and decide to stick with another one.
I completely understand the logic in that, I was commenting more on: “Why not the best of both worlds?” 2012 is nice and clean, but with a lack of options for sidebar placement, and no back/forward post navigation at the headers of post, it almost seems like a step backwards rather than forward.
Just my opinion though.
If I switch from 2010 to 2012, will my blog require a complete overhaul visually? It looks like fun. I’m always game to try new things.
I’d suggest you try it out. You can always go back if you don’t like the new look.
Thanks, Lance!
Wow, what a great theme.
That’s a pretty good default theme. Good for new users starting their own blogs.
For a default theme, this is really nice. I can like it.
You guys are awesome. Please keep adding great new stuff like this. Have a great day.
Love the clean design, and I changed my portfolio site with this theme. But the header image isn’t clickable. Intentional? Or maybe there will be an update soon. Thanks.
It’s intentional—in this theme the header is below the navigation and not meant to be a navigational “home” link like with other themes.
Wow… lovely design.
Just switched to Twenty Twelve. Not just that, because of this theme I registered a custom domain for my blog. I know this is what I have been waiting for. Thanks WordPress! =)
Yay for WordPress theme! 🙂
I am going to try this now. Thanks boss.
“Say hello to the new default WordPress theme for 2012.”
Wouldn’t that apply if the theme came on the first quarter of 2012 not the third quarter? Third quarter or second half of the year. I like to split hairs. Just so you know.
However, I do like 2012.
Just activated theme Twenty Twelve. So easy to switch. I love the clean and fresh look.
I like the refreshing new look! What I really like is that the homepage content is above the header! Nice change.
Like some others, I have a hard time calling this one “Twenty Twelve” when we’re 2/3 of the way through the year. As long as it took to release, I think it may have been prudent to go ahead and make this “Twenty Thirteen.” If “slow baking” is the preferred development method, then perhaps a little more lead time is appropriate.
That aside, it is a nice, attractive look that appears to have potential for spin-off work.
I’m very happy to see a clean, fresh and responsible default theme with WordPress again. Thanks.
I like the theme but I can’t change color of links like on the old Twenty Eleven, too bad.
Hope this will be available to download for self hosted sites. SVN download is not an option because of so many files to download. You guys don’t want us to miss any files, right!
Unlike the friends I have who share my age, I welcome change. Without it, there would be a boring life. I like what you have done to the theme. I like this a lot.
This is such a lovely, simple theme. I’ve been experimenting with it. One suggestion: please reconsider the underlined links. I find the underlining too much and it takes away from the elegant look. Also, you might want to double check that the photos are aligning correctly with the height of the first line in a paragraph. They seem a little lower rather than aligned.
I’m sorry you are getting flack for releasing the theme later in the year. It’s still 2012 so what’s the big deal! You are constantly releasing new themes and tweaking older ones and deserve appreciation.
Thanks for your feedback, Sandra.
Simple but lovely. 🙂
Wow! 2012 theme. Yeah, check out my site before the world ends. Just playing, I like the themes. Don’t know when I wanna change my theme.
It’s simple and attractive… I like to see this in education themes… thanks.
Love love love the new Twenty theme… thanks for a great update to this theme, it’s as good as many of the premium themes out there!
Wow what a turn out!
This is an amazing theme, my blog uses this theme. 🙂
Looks great and the responsiveness is very welcome. I’m using one of Drew’s themes and if it’s half as good as that it’ll prove very popular.
My blog readers tell me the blog looks fabulous with the new theme, especially on mobile devices where the layout is clutter-free and the menus collapse into a single button.
Great work from the wordpress community. Waiting anxiously for the release in wordpress.org 🙂