What's a Plone Theme?

A brief description of what we're talking about.

A theme is a collection of page templates, style sheets, components, and configuration settings that go to make up the individual look and feel of a Plone site.

Plone gives you the option of embedding your theme changes and additions into a single site by working through the web. Or, alternatively, by packaging your theme into your own product, you can then install and uninstall it at will and apply it to a number of sites. There are pros and cons to both approaches, and this manual runs through them in later sections.

Plone 3 comes with with two themes:

• an inbuilt, ready-made theme - Plone Default
• and an additional optional replacement - NuPlone.

Things are somewhat different in Plone 4:

• Two themes are available -  Plone Classic and Sunburst (with Sunburst being the active theme when you first install Plone)
• Plone Default still exists as the core on which both Plone Classic and Sunburst are built and should prove a useful basis for any theme product
• NuPlone has been removed but is still available for download if required

If you're at all skeptical about what can be achieved, have a look at the wealth of different sites showcased on plone.net or at the downloadable themes available from the Products section of this site.

If you already have a Plone 3 theme and want to know how to upgrade it to work with Plone 4 then the upgrade guide has further information and guidance.