The Theme Foundry » News

Hello Traction

Drew Strojny — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:15:19 +0000

I am super excited to announce the release of our newest WordPress theme, Traction! Traction is a dark and clean magazine style theme with a robust options menu and built in support for WordPress post thumbnails. This is the theme I meant to design when I started Punchcut late last year, it just wasn’t ready yet. Traction comes with a boatload of features, including three colors schemes (red, blue, green), built in Twitter support, and much more. I encourage you to browse through all the features and take it for a test drive. Be sure to let me know what you think in the comments.

New Pricing

As previously announced on Twitter we have rolled out new pricing for our themes. I have some great news if you were a PRO member as of yesterday. You have automatically been upgraded to a VIP PRO Membership! What does this mean? This means you get access to all of our current and future PRO themes, including Traction. Yes, you are that special. We aren’t even selling these VIP PRO Memberships right now, so you really should feel special.

New customers buying our themes shouldn’t feel left out. Your regular PRO Membership (free with any theme purchase) entitles you to 25% off all future theme purchases.

Theme Updates

We also released new versions of all our other themes today (Vigilance, Titan, and Punchcut). Here is a quick breakdown of the changes and fixes:

Vigilance

Bug Fix: Added more specific ul.children selector to avoid extra spacing on nested lists inside entries .
Bug Fix: Fixed PHP comments in the footer.
Miscellaneous: Cleaned up the admin and added notation for PRO and non-pro features.

Titan

Bug Fix: Added back the extra unordered list to avoid breaking the layout when you add widgets.
Bug Fix: Correctly aligned the navigation menu dropdown
Bug Fix: Added more specific ul.children selector to avoid extra spacing on nested lists inside entries.
Bug Fix: Fixed PHP comments in the footer.
Miscellaneous: Cleaned a bunch of cruft from the stylesheet.
Miscellaneous: Cleaned up the admin and added notation for PRO and non-pro features.

Punchcut

Bug Fix: Added missing language hook
Bug Fix: Correctly aligned the navigation menu dropdown and fixed the weird persistent hover bug
Bug Fix: Added more specific ul.children selector to avoid extra spacing on nested lists inside entries.
Bug Fix: Fixed PHP comments in the footer.
Miscellaneous: Cleaned up the admin and added notation for PRO and non-pro features.

Feedback Please

Please let me know what you think about the new theme and anything else in the comments.

Themes by Jestro is now The Theme Foundry

Drew Strojny — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:33:08 +0000

Today I am proud to announce Themes by Jestro is now officially The Theme Foundry! To be clear, nothing else about our business has changed. We have simply switched our name, moved to a new domain, and re-branded our themes project.

Why the change?

This has been a few months in the making. When I began this journey in late 2008 I had no idea where we would be in 2010. The placement of the site on a sub-domain of our design and development business along with the Jestro Themes / Themes by Jestro name was a logical but short-sighted choice. After a fantastic 2009, and the release of two new themes, the project has now outgrown “subdomain status”. I have big plans for the The Theme Foundry in 2010 and this change lays the groundwork for those plans.

What’s Next?

Well, more themes! You can expect to see several more themes released in 2010. More importantly, I will continue to stay focused on providing professional support, customization tips, and tutorials for our members. There are some other ideas brewing that I will be sure to update you on as they unfold.

Feedback welcome!

I would love to hear your feedback on the new name, logo, and brand in the comments. Also, be sure to let me know if you notice anything weird or wrong with the new site (broken links, etc.).

New Year’s Sale!

Drew Strojny — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:34:43 +0000

We are having a New Year’s membership sale to kick off 2010! ~~Use coupon code 9D245 and save $5 off PRO membership. The sale is limited to 50 coupons, so don’t miss out.~~ Sold Out!

Say hello to Punchcut + new digs!

Drew Strojny — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:21:52 +0000

Big news today. We just released a brand new theme, Punchcut, and are rockin’ some fresh new digs here at Themes by Jestro. Some of you how might have been following along on Twitter and know the launch was supposed to be yesterday, but mod_rewrite decided to take me 12 rounds as I was running the final checks before launch. Needless to say, I picked up some bruises but eventually came away with a knockout.

This marks an important point in our history for several reasons (which I will get to later). I encourage you to take a look around and please let me know what you think of the new setup. Don’t hesitate to post a note in the comments if you find any bugs while browsing around. Alright, let’s talk about Punchcut.

Say hello to Punchcut

I started out with an idea for a magazine theme and somehow Punchcut was born. Needless to say, it doesn’t look anything like a magazine theme, but it looks pretty damn good (at least I think so). There are several interesting points that came up while developing and designing Punchcut.

Typography

One of the important pieces I wanted to include with this new release was some really nice out of the box typography. There have been some explosive developments in the web font world lately so the goal was to take advantage of the trend and package some fonts with this theme.

This is easier said then done, 99% of fonts out there do not allow you to re-distribute them (especially under a different license like the GPL). I eventually stumbled upon two fantastic fonts, Chunk and Junction, both available under the SIL Open Font License (OFL) which allows for re-distribution under different compatible licenses. I started out with the gorgeous Museo Sans for the navigation and post headers, but the license doesn’t allow for distribution so Junction had to step in. On that note: I plan on releasing a tutorial for PRO members on substituting Museo Sans for Junction. Downloading and using Museo Sans is perfectly OK, I just can’t distribute it as part of a theme package.

Cufón to the rescue

Punchcut initially used the @font-face declaration to embed all the typography. This was great in the latest version of Firefox, but certain browsers (Internet Explorer) have trouble handling regular font files and require their own “special” file. ~~This file requires the address of the site the font is being served on, which renders it pretty useless for a theme.~~

Correction (thanks to Bryce for reminding me in the comments): Internet Explorer EOT files do in fact work without requiring the website address, but the fonts simply looked terrible when I tested them in IE/Windows (especially with ClearType turned off) so I went with Cufón instead.

I had heard of Cufón before but and was anxious to give it a try. Cufón ended up working beautifully and now the fonts render perfectly in almost all browsers including the dreaded IE6.

Features

Punchcut comes bundled with all the features you have come to expect in our themes and some nice extras:

Use your own logo (PRO members)
Handcrafted social icons (RSS, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Email)
Professional and responsive support (PRO members)
Custom navigation control
Extra page templates (PRO members)
Choose your background colors
Sidebar image rotator
Special “Alert Box” with a toggle switch in the theme options menu
Built in Google Analytics support

I encourage you to head over to the download page and take Punchcut for a test drive. If you end up liking and using the theme I would encourage you to upgrade to PRO membership and get all of the features and unlimited support.

New digs!

I was putting the finishing touches on Punchcut a few weeks ago and realized I would have to launch yet another blog if I was going to keep up the tradition (we originally had dedicated blogs for Vigilance and Titan). This served two purposes:

A real live demo of the theme
A dedicated spot for news and updates

This was a great setup and worked well but it unfortunately doesn’t scale. The more the themes you release the more “octopus-like” the system becomes. It will eventually end in an operational nightmare. I wanted to consolidate all news, updates, and themes into one centralized hub with built in resources for our members. The new site has all of these features and still gives you the option to preview a real live demo of the theme. This is an important step in our history because we now have the flexibility and infrastructure to start releasing more themes!

All of the posts from Vigilance and Titan have been rolled into this blog and I will be soon flipping the switch on the feeds. Right now there is only one option, a master RSS feed, but I will be putting up links to individual theme feeds very soon. Either way, you can still get all your news and updates quickly and easily.

What do you think?

Alright, that’s enough on the new setup for now. Please let me know what you think of Punchcut and the new design in the comments. I am also considering a post discussing the details of the design process. Is this something you would be interested in?

Titan 1.20 Released

Drew Strojny — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:12:31 +0000

If upgrading please read and follow the upgrade instructions carefully.

Download Version 1.20: PRO Members head to the member download area. Free users grab your copy from the free download page.

Titan has now been upgraded to our new framework and is ready for translation! We just recently completed this process with Vigilance, our flagship WordPress theme. We didn’t want Titan to feel left out, so she is now sporting a shiny new options page and framework as well.

What’s New?

New theme options page and framework

The theme options page has been completely overhauled and is now sitting on top of a robust framework that allows you to extend the theme options in all kinds of exciting ways. Think of it as a quicker and more powerful theme engine. The look of the options page has been completely refreshed with usability in mind. This is really something you need to see and experience for yourself to appreciate, so jump in there and take a look!

Internationalized

Titan is now ready to be translated into your language! The theme package now includes titan.po and titan.mo files which makes it super simple to translate Titan into your preferred language. As soon as I start receiving completed translations I will setup a dedicated language repository. Please send all your completed translations to themes {at} jestro.com.

Complete list of changes

Here is a complete list of changes for version 1.20:

New Feature: Option to hide the static home link from the navigation menu.
New Feature: New post_class() and body_class() functions allowing for easier CSS customizations.
New Feature: Titan is now internationalized and ready for localization.
New Feature: Brand new theme framework and theme options page.
New Feature: Child themes now inherit all files including images. Include all your customizations in one place and forget about it.
Performance Enhancement: Combined the remove browser default stylesheet with the master to improve loading time.
Performance Enhancement: Removed extra function call from footer to improve performance.
Bugfix: Fixed duplicated and tagline.</li> <li><em>Bugfix:</em> Properly aligned footer columns to the grid.</li> </ul> <div id="upgrade-instructions"> <h2>Upgrade Instructions</h2> <p>Titan 1.20 has a ton of new features and enhancements and I am sure you can’t wait to take it for a test drive. Keep in mind, those new features and enhancements changed certain “core” functions of the theme. Therefore, you need to follow specific instructions if you are upgrading from an earlier version of Titan. Below you will find those instructions, please follow them carefully.</p> <p class="notice"><strong>Important Note:</strong> Titan 1.20 requires WordPress version 2.8 or higher. Do not attempt to upgrade if you do not meet these requirements, the upgrade will fail.</p> <h3>Prep for the upgrade (do not skip this!)</h3> <ol> <li><strong>Backup Everything:</strong> Backup your database as well as your files before you do anything so you can restore if something goes wrong.</li> <li><strong>Disable Plugins:</strong> Disable all your plugins, especially anything that caches.</li> <li><strong>Take a snapshot:</strong> Take some screenshots or write down (with good old pen and paper) the order of your widgets in <em>Appearance → Widgets</em> and all your theme option settings. Nearly all your theme options will remain intact but it is a good idea to have them all recorded just in case.</li> <li><strong>Offline time:</strong> Take your site offline <a href="http://davidwalsh.name/htaccess-maintenance-page-redirect">using .htaccess and a maintenance page</a> unless you don’t mind your visitors seeing a broken site for a few minutes. <li><strong>Rename your old theme folders:</strong> Change the name of your theme and child theme folders by appending them with _OLD (eg. rename <code>titan</code> to <code>titan_OLD</code> and <code>titan_PRO</code> to <code>titan_PRO_OLD</code>.</li> </ol> <h3>Install instructions</h3> <p> If you are a PRO member head over to the <a href="http://themes.jestro.com/downloads/">member download area</a> and grab Titan 1.20 and the new PRO child theme (version 1.20) and upload them both to your <code>/wp-content/themes/</code> directory. Now go to <em>Appearance → Themes</em> and activate the new child theme (version 1.20). You are now installed and ready to go. Be sure turn off your maintenance page and read the “Wait, stuff is broken” section below.</p> <h3>Install instructions for free users</h3> <p>If you’re not a PRO member head to the <a href="download/">free download page</a> and grab Titan 1.20. Upload it to your <code>/wp-content/themes/</code> directory. If you are using Titan standalone go ahead and activate version 1.20 under <em>Appearance → Themes</em>. If you want to use a child theme go ahead create a new folder with a <code>style.css</code> file that points to Titan.</p> <h2>Wait, stuff is broken</h2> <p>The good news is your upgrade is complete. The bad news is your theme probably doesn’t look like it did before you upgraded. Luckily your problems fall into a few specific categories and we can remedy them quickly and easily.</p> <h3>My widgets are gone!</h3> <p>Indeed they are. Good thing we took that snapshot right? WordPress has also backed them up for you so don’t worry. We had to give the widget sidebars ID’s to properly internationalize the theme. Setting an ID causes WordPress to reset your widgets to “Inactive”. This is easily fixed. If you look under <em>Appearance → Widgets</em> you will see a big box labeled “Inactive Widgets” in the bottom left. Your old widgets have been transplanted here. Simply drag them back into your sidebars according to your snapshot. Now your widgets are back fighting the good fight.</p> <h3>Where are my images?</h3> <p>If you don’t use a child theme and/or upgrade Titan directly from the WordPress admin then you are probably used to seeing your custom images disappear. Titan comes with an exciting new feature that dynamically sets your image folders by looking for a child theme. This is fantastic news. Now all your images can stay “protected” in your child theme folder and you don’t have to worry about them being blown away when you upgrade. If you are using a child theme to power Titan you will need to create a two new folders inside your child theme: <code>titan_pro/images/</code> and <code>titan_pro/images/sidebar</code>. Now move all your images to the matching child theme folders and you will be up and running.</p> <p>If you are using a standalone Titan installation then you need to move your images from your <code>titan_OLD/images</code> folder to your new <code>titan/images</code>. To avoid having to perform this step every time you upgrade use the <a href="http://themes.jestro.com/downloads/">PRO child theme</a> or create your own free child theme.</p> </div> </article> <article> <h1>Titan 1.12 Released</h1> <p>Drew Strojny — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:08:28 +0000</p> <p>Titan 1.12 has just been released. Go ahead and <a href="http://themes.jestro.com/titan/download/">download it now</a>. This release is a minor upgrade fixing a couple small issues:</p> <ul> <li><em>Bugfix:</em> Missing paragraph styling in the sidebox</li> <li><em>Bugfix:</em> Long post headers were not wrapping correctly</li> </ul> <p>Titan has been very quick, lean, and stable since it’s initial launch 4 short months ago. If you have any bug reports please post them in the comments.</p> <h2>Summer Sale!</h2> <p>Due to the success of our Spring Membership sale we are running a summer sale! This time around the sale is limited to 100 coupons. <a href="https://themes.jestro.com/members/signup.php">Sign-up now</a> and save $5 off PRO membership with<strong> coupon code 34D3F</strong>.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Summer News</h1> <p>Drew Strojny — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 18:12:30 +0000</p> <p>We hope all the Vigilance users out there are enjoying a great summer!</p> <h2>Vigilance 1.40</h2> <p>Vigilance has been stable and robust for some time now, running along like a well oiled machine. Believe it or not, we didn’t need to make any changes for<a href="http://wordpress.org/development/2009/06/wordpress-28/"> WordPress 2.8</a>. <strong>It just works</strong>. This is great, but it doesn’t mean we are going to sit around and stare at it how good it looks. Vigilance 1.40 is scheduled to drop this summer and it will without a doubt blow you away. In fact, we are jumping version numbers due to all the enhancements! Here is what you can expect:<br /> <span id="more-877"></span></p> <ul> <li><strong>Theme Options:</strong> The theme options page will get a refresh, resulting in a cleaner and more streamlined user experience. We may also add some exciting new options!</li> <li><strong>Faster!</strong> We are diving under the hood to make some performance tweaks and enhancements.</li> <li><strong>Interface Improvements:</strong> The interface will get some minor design touch-ups and will look better than ever.</li> <li><strong>Full language support</strong>: We have been working and testing behind the scenes now for quite some time to internationalize Vigilance and it is almost complete. Expect to see Dutch, French, and German translations available shortly after the release.</li> </ul> <h2>Take a Test Drive</h2> <p>This new version will be available for testing. In fact, we encourage you to<a href="http://github.com/jestro/vigilance/tree/master"> download the latest development version</a> and take it for a test drive. Remember, <strong>this is not a stable version</strong>, so <strong>don’t use it in a production environment</strong> unless you know what you are doing. If you run into any issues while testing please post them in the comments.</p> <p>We do not have a firm release date set for Vigilance 1.40 at this time, but it will be released this summer.</p> <h2>Summer Sale!</h2> <p>Our Spring Membership sale was awesome so we are kicking off the summer with another sale! This time around we are limiting the number of coupons to 100. If you have been on the fence about PRO Membership now is a great time to join and start enjoying all of the benefits. <a href="https://themes.jestro.com/members/signup.php">Sign-up now</a> and save $5 off PRO membership with<strong> coupon code 34D3F</strong>.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Spring Membership Sale!</h1> <p>Drew Strojny — Mon, 11 May 2009 16:39:03 +0000</p> <p>We are having a special spring membership sale! If you have been waiting on a PRO membership now is the time to <a href="https://themes.jestro.com/members/signup.php">join</a> and start enjoying all of the benefits:</p> <ul> <li>Full access to the <a href="http://themes.jestro.com/forums/">support forums</a></li> <li>Unlimited support for all Jestro themes</li> <li>Priority upgrades</li> <li>Download special members only “add-ons”</li> <li>Comprehensive theme tutorials</li> <li>Killer customization tips</li> <li>Support open source theme development</li> </ul> <p><a href="https://themes.jestro.com/members/signup.php">Sign-up now</a> using <strong>coupon code AFB94</strong> and <strong>save $5 off PRO membership!</strong>.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Affiliate Program Live</h1> <p>Drew Strojny — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:54:44 +0000</p> <p>Today we are excited to announce the launch of our shiny new affiliate program. We have been piloting the program with our PRO members and are now opening it up to the world. If you are already recommending our WordPress themes to your friends this a great opportunity to get paid for it!</p> <ul> <li>Earn 30% on every membership sale</li> <li>60 day tracking cookie</li> <li>Clean & optimized banners</li> </ul> <h2>Why an Affiliate Program?</h2> <p>Why are we launching an affiliate program? We have been toying with the idea for awhile now. PRO membership has been a huge success. We opened the doors 48 days ago and now have over 250 members and nearly 1,000 posts in the support forums. The forums are turning into a truly valuable resource. So many of our users and members are genuinely enthusiastic about the themes and support we are providing. The goal of the affiliate program is to reward users and members for sharing this enthusiasm with their friends, users, and community.</p> </article> <article> <h1>Version 1.33 Fixing Footer</h1> <p>Drew Strojny — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 04:58:46 +0000</p> <p>Version 1.32 contained a bug that improperly formatted your footer stats code. Thanks to Andy for catching this and <a href="http://themes.jestro.com/vigilance/vigilance-132-released/#comment-691">pointing it out</a>. We are pushing out version 1.33 quickly to resolve this issue. If you haven’t downloaded 1.32 you should simply skip to 1.33. If you have downloaded and installed 1.32 the only changed file in 1.33 is <code>/vigilance/footer.php</code>.</p> <p>Sorry for the inconvenience this might have caused anyone!</p> <p><a href="http://themes.jestro.com/vigilance/download/">Download Version 1.33 Now</a></p> </article> </main></body></html>