Learn more about Traction →

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.

We have 2 new page templates hot off the press and available to our PRO members. You now have the option to use a dedicated Archives and Sitemap template on your blog. These are pretty handy if you want to give your readers a quick and easy way to scan over your content. To use your new templates create a new page called “Archives” and select the “Archives” page template from the Attributes menu on the right hand side of the page editor. Publish the page and you are done. You would follow the same steps to create a Sitemap page.

If you have not customized your PRO child theme then simply upload and overwrite your old theme with the new one (make a backup just in case). You can download the new child themes from the member resources page. If you have made customizations please follow the manual upgrade instructions below.

Vigilance manual upgrade instructions

• Download the new PRO child theme (Version 1.33) from the member resources page
• Copy the new archives.php file and the new sitemap.php file into your PRO child theme
• Change the version to 1.33 at the top of your style.css file

Titan manual upgrade instructions

• Download the new PRO child theme (Version 1.22) from the member resources page
• Copy the new archives.php file and the newsitemap.php file into your PRO child theme
• Copy lines 40 and 41 of the new style.css file into your existing style.css file directly above /* Make all custom CSS changes BELOW this line
• Change the version to 1.22 at the top of your style.css file

Punchcut manual upgrade instructions

• Download the new PRO child theme (Version 1.02) from the member resources page
• Copy the new archives.php file and the new sitemap.php file into your existing PRO child theme
• Copy lines 40 – 45 of the new style.css file into your existing style.css file directly above /* Make all custom CSS changes BELOW this line
• Copy line 56 of the new header.php file over line 56 of your existing header.php file
• Change the version to 1.02 at the top of your style.css file

Vigilance 1.46 is now available for download. This release contains updated links to The Theme Foundry and two minor bug fixes. PRO members head to the member downloads page. Free users can grab a copy from the theme page.

Vigilance PRO child theme updated to version 1.32

Two small changes were made to the /functions folder. If you have made customizations to your PRO child theme simply overwrite the /functions folder only. If you are a PRO member and would like a diff file detailing the changes please post a request in the support forums.

Changelog

• Bug Fix: Custom code box was not working with Google Adsense.
• Bug Fix: Added a missing language textdomain and regenerated the .po and .mo files.
• Miscellaneous: Updated all links with The Theme Foundry URL.

Vigilance 1.45 is now available for download and is ready for WordPress 2.9! PRO members head to the member downloads page. Everyone else can grab a copy from the Vigilance page.

PRO child theme updated to version 1.31

The PRO child theme has been upgraded to version 1.31. If you have not customized your PRO child theme feel free to simply replace it with the new version (make a backup copy just in case). If you have customized your PRO child theme please follow these simple instructions:

• Download the new PRO child theme (version 1.31)
• Add the new /functions folder to your existing vigilance_pro folder
• Replace line 11 of your header.php file with line 11 from the header.php file in the new child theme
• Edit your style.css file and change the version to 1.31

If you are a PRO member and would like a diff file detailing the changes please post a request in the support forums.

Changelog

• Security Enhancement: Sanitized the get_search_query function.
• Style Enhancement: Improved margins for floated images.
• Usability Enhancement: Added the wpautop function to automatically add paragraph tags to the alert box.
• Bugfix: Fixed empty height declaration for top-banner and sidebar images.
• Bugfix: Updated the link color to use the new options framework.
• Miscellaneous: Updated the theme description copy, footer link, and screenshot.

Vigilance 1.44 has only three changes, but each change is significant. Be sure to check out the details in the changelog.

Changelog

• Bugfix: Fixed incorrect bubble image specification. This caused the comment bubble on the search result pages to show up empty. (thanks to PRO member pcoggins for finding this!)
• Style Enhancement: Revamped the post title styling for a cleaner look. I realize some people may want to keep the old styling. If you are a PRO member, go ahead and ask in the support forums and I will post some quick instructions on how to go back to the old styling.
• Speed Enhancement: Rewrote the admin comment recognition function and removed two database calls. This should speed up the load time of your single posts and pages.

Vigilance 1.43 fixes some minor bugs and includes a couple style enhancements. Feel free to read through the changelog for details.

Testing some new styling, what do you think?

I am testing out new post title header styling here on the demo blog. I have removed the emphasis on the post titles giving them a softer look. I have also adjusted the comments font-family, changing it to the default Georgia, Times New Roman. I am thinking of including it in the next Vigilance release. Let me know what you think of the new styling in the comments.

Changelog

• Bugfix: Converted tabs to spaces for easier code reading and manipulation.
• Bugfix: Added some missing phrases to the translations file.
• Bugfix: Fixed duplicate tagline and <title> to improve SEO.
• Bugfix: Fixed empty <ol> tags when comments are empty but trackbacks/pingbacks are not.
• Bugfix: Fixed top banner custom code box. Now properly strips slashes.
• Style Enhancement: Underline links inside post entries for better visibility.
• Style Enhancement: Tweak alert box styling for better aesthetics.

Download Version 1.41 1.42: PRO Members head to the member download area. Free users grab your copy from the free download page.

Vigilance 1.40 was released into the wild a little over a week ago. Since then we have run into a few minor bugs and annoyances. All of these bugs were discovered by Vigilance users. Thanks for helping out everyone! This 1.41 release patches up those bugs and includes one new feature.

Internationalization Help

Now that Vigilance is officially localization ready we are going to need some translation help from our international users. The included vigilance.po and vigilance.mo files make it super easy to translate the theme with an application like poEdit. I have set up an official repository for translations that will be updated with new languages as I receive them. We already have a Turkish translation available thanks to one of our PRO Members!

If you need help with translating the theme be sure to read this excellent guide to translating WordPress themes. You can send all translation files to themes {at} jestro.com. Be sure to name the files appropriately according to your country code.

Changelog

• Bugfix: Fixed PHP 4 compatibility issues.
• Bugfix: Fixed image sprites for sidebar items spanning more than 2 lines.
• Bugfix: Replaced the transparent background for the <li> stars for users with different backgrounds.
• Bugfix: Fixed the top navigation hover color for categories when using custom colors.
• Bugfix: Changed the default language folder to /languages to match WordPress. Also added language instructions.
• Bugfix: Fixed broken link to the tutorials.
• New Feature: Added support for a hidden wp-config.php file.

Download Version 1.40: PRO Members head to the member download area. Free users grab your copy from the free download page.

This is an exciting day for Vigilance! The release of version 1.40 comes a little over a year after the initial 1.0 release. Vigilance has come a long way since then and today it is taking a monumental step forward.

This is by far the biggest, boldest, and best update in Vigilance history. The list of features, enhancements, and bug fixes is enormous. The best part: no bloat. I was focused on keeping the code clean and lightweight. I was also determined to improve the aesthetics and usability of Vigilance with this release. Let’s take a look at what’s new.

What’s New?

New theme options page and framework

This is huge. 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. Keep in mind this is not a true “theme framework” like Thematic or Carrington. Instead, 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!

Comments refresh

This was a late addition but I am glad it made it into the release. The old comments looked great when you weren’t threading them, but when you started threading they started to look downright ugly. The new comments are streamlined and clean even with threaded comments turned on.

Internationalized

Vigilance is now ready to be translated into your language! The theme package now includes a .po and .mo file which makes it super simple to localize Vigilance into your native tongue. As soon as I start receiving completed translations I will post them on the downloads page. Please send all your completed translations to themes {at} jestro.com.

Complete list of changes

Here is a complete list of changes for version 1.40:

• New Feature: Option to hide the static home link from the navigation menu.
• New Feature: Include categories in your top navigation menu.
• New Feature: New post_class() and body_class() functions allowing for easier CSS customizations.
• New Feature: Vigilance 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.
• New Feature: Page/post specific images specified using custom fields now override the image state.
• New Feature: A p.notice CSS class. Wrap your text in <p> class="notice"></p> tags and it will display as a yellow notice box like you see at the top of this post.
• New Feature: Vigilance now automatically recognizes any admin level comments and notes them with a nicely styled red asterisk in the top right corner of the comment.
• 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.
• Performance Enhancement: Rewrote the banner and sidebar image functions to reduce code weight and improve load time.
• Performance Enhancement: Converted sidebar list item to a sprite to improve load time.
• Style Enhancement: Overhauled comment styling for a cleaner look.
• Style Enhancement: Tweaked list item star for aesthetics, was tilted to much.
• Style Enhancement: Reduced the font size of the subscribe to comments text.
• Style Enhancement: Softened all of the lines for a cleaner look.
• Style Enhancement: New slightly softer comment bubble color.
• Style Enhancement: Removed links bold by default for a more polished look.
• Style Enhancement: Softened the code background color.
• Bugfix: Removed empty <ul> tags when secondary sidebars are empty.
• Bugfix: The disable image hover background option no longer requires custom colors to be enabled.
• Bugfix: Properly cleared the blockquote.
• Bugfix: Removed extra list item image that is no longer in use.
• Bugfix: Fixed select box top margin for dropdown categories and archives.
• Bugfix: Fixed incorrectly named comments bubble image.
• Bugfix: Fixed alert box padding.
• Bugfix: Fixed image border class to work with default image insertion process.

Vigilance 1.40

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 WordPress 2.8. It just works. 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:

• Theme Options: 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!
• Faster! We are diving under the hood to make some performance tweaks and enhancements.
• Interface Improvements: The interface will get some minor design touch-ups and will look better than ever.
• Full language support: 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.

Take a Test Drive

This new version will be available for testing. In fact, we encourage you to download the latest development version and take it for a test drive. Remember, this is not a stable version, so don’t use it in a production environment unless you know what you are doing. If you run into any issues while testing please post them in the comments.

We do not have a firm release date set for Vigilance 1.40 at this time, but it will be released this summer.

Summer Sale!

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. Sign-up now and save $5 off PRO membership with coupon code 34D3F.

• Bugfix: Custom code in the sidebox was broken in 1.33
• Security Enhancement: Added empty index files to prevent directory snooping
• Enhancement: Added styling for <p> tags in the custom code box
• Enhancement: Cleaner padding implemented in the post meta

Download Version 1.34 Now!

Coming Soon!

If you have you been waiting for an internationalized version of Vigilance—your wait is almost over. We will be internationalizing Vigilance very soon! This will not effect English users, but will make it much easier for all of our international users.