Visual is a free theme designed to showcase photography, artwork and images in a neat masonry grid layout.
Theme Features
- Masonry layout: Regardless of the featured image height and width (or even if no image is selected) the posts will look great in a nice dynamic grid.
- Responsive Layout: Visual looks great on small screens, such as tablets and smartphones, as well as on laptops and desktops.
- Three color schemes: Light, Dark and Minimal
- Typography: Uses Raleway, a beautiful webfont by Matt McInerney and served by Google Fonts
- Icon Font: Pixel dense retina displays look great with this theme because of the icon gylphs from Entypo, by Daniel Bruce.
- Solid code: Visual is built off of the Underscores starter theme and uses WordPress best practices.
How to Use the Theme
- Download the theme and activate
- Set your menu in WordPress (under “Appearance” > “Menus”)
- If images don’t show up by default, you may need to set the featured image. Edit your post and click “Set featured image”.
- If you are making changes to the CSS or template files, consider using a child theme. You can download this one to start with.
WordPress.com Users
A version of Visual has been built for WordPress.com. You can get it for free here. If you’re using Visual on WordPress.com you won’t be able to alter the template code or use third-party plugins, but you can still make some css changes with custom design upgrade.
Theme Demo
Get the Theme
Upgrade
For additional options, features, and support, check out Visual+. Purchases help to support both the free and paid versions. Read more.
Woh! Cool Devin. It’s nice to see you used scss, have you ever tried compass?
Hi Satrya. Yes, I’m really just getting started with SASS. I use CodeKit (http://wptheming.com/2013/01/codekit-css-preprocessors), and it looks like it has Compass support built-in. I would like to update the SASS files to use mixins for items like px/rem output.
Looks nice, but you didn’t look into names very well did you? While not in the WordPress theme repo, “Visual” already exists from DevPress.
I’ve got it running on a site and thought it was strange I got an update notification. I know some of Tung’s themes are in the repo but I was sure this one was not.
Anyway, just though I let you know. Hope all is well, it’s been a while.
I did find that after I had submitted it. I was hoping the version number was low enough that it wouldn’t have caused problems (0.2.2)- but I guess not. I let Tung know, he’s working on a fix.
Thank you for this one. I have it working on a site :).
It would be great if it work with infinite scroll from jetpack.
I’ll be testing it with Jetpack for the next release.
Great theme for visual sites. It looks clean, and it’s well-behaved. I like the fact that it has several great features and is simple for us non-coders.
Would be even better with just a few added tweaks. These would include a little more flexibility to allow a featured or sticky post to show all content rather than just an excerpt….Also if one uses a Static Page for homepage, it seems locked into having a very large image, regardless of the size in the post editing. (Perhaps a more literal translation of the page would be helpful.)
Otherwise great theme.
Thanks for the suggestions John.
I’m not quite sure what you’re describing on the static home page. It should look exactly like a regular page, and images should be the size that you inserted them at. Do you mean that you’d like for pages to behave the same as posts in terms of the featured image?
I am using a Static Home Page that is is a page with an image placed within the text area in the “edit” window. …I have tried to make the image smaller in the “edit” page but is still comes the same in the theme. (If you take a look at my site, the large picture of the tree is what I am referring to.)
With other themes the image and layout are more like what is in my editing window, and can be varied. I’m not sure why that doesn’t happen in this one.
When you insert the image into the post, try inserting a smaller size. The theme shouldn’t change the size that it is outputted, unless it is too large for the post width.
Gorgeous theme! However I’m having some trouble making a child theme of Visual. Has this been an issue for anyone else that you’re aware of? Thanks!
Not that I’m aware of. I’ll create one and link it in this post.
Hi Devin
I love this theme and will be using for my photo blog site. Just one quick question, how do I change the number of characters on the post excerpts?
Best wishes
Mike
You’d need to add a filter to functions.php. Instructions here:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/the_excerpt#Control_Excerpt_Length_using_Filters
Hi, do you have any low-tech instructions on how to do that? Thanks
Love the theme!!
what about a slideshow thumb? (aka rotable featured image)
there are plugin that make that?
I am going to add a slideshow feature for galleries. Watch for future releases.
Great theme, I love it! I’m looking forward to the next version. But I got a problem, images won’t show previews in the index page.
Have you set your featured image?
I don’t have option featured image :/
You should. Check the right sidebar under the publish button. If it’s not there, check your “Screen Options” tab in the upper right to make sure the meta box isn’t hidden.
Hi,
Love the theme. Simple and elegant. One question. Is it possible to have the sidebar visible on the posts pages? Not the single post page. Sidebar is already on that. I am looking to replace the 3rd column of the posts with the sidebar on the right so that the sidebar is on all page on the site?
Thank you so much.
Hi Joe. Not at this time.
Trying out your theme and really like it. But I got a little problem: the featured image is way blurry, not as sharp as the original image. Can you (or maybe I) fix that?
Perhaps you need to regenerate your thumbnails? http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/
Do you have a site link you can share?
I just started using your theme on my website. Great theme! Is there a way that I can add the sidebar to the right of the home page?
I tried pasting the code on the main index template just above the footer, but the sidebar then just displays below my posts.
Thanks!
Hi Stephanie. At the moment there is no sidebar support for archive/index pages.
Hi and thanks for your great theme. I have a little problem with header- is it possible to have my header on this theme?
Hi Behnoud. There isn’t a custom header option at this time.
Hi Devin and thank you for your free themes! I just downloaded Visual but there seems to be a problem with the menu when reaching @media 490px as the menu does not collapse into the menu-icon. Here is a screen shot http://cloud.aharstad.me/OLcQ and here is the link to the site: http://wp.aharstad.me/
Also, is the light version of Visual available for download?
Hi Andy. I believe that’s fixed in 0.3. There’s also the light version. You can download it here or wait for the release on .org: https://github.com/devinsays/visual
DId the child is updated? I’ve see that you have uploaded the 0.3 on cvn.
There is a child 0.3 version?
Thanks a lot, i really like your theme!
You don’t need an updated child theme. The same one will work with all versions. And yes, 0.3 is still in theme review. If you want it know you can get it off GitHub: https://github.com/devinsays/visual
I noticed on the update that the newest version automatically places the featured image on open posts. The original version didn’t do that.
It might be a good idea to make that optional.
Hey Dev,
I am using this for a blog for our magazine, COcentricmedia.com, and I love it. However, for a lot of people, when they click on the first post (Hitting a Home Run….) at collaborate.cocentricmedia.com, the mobile version is popping up on the computer screen and making it look really out of whack. I deactivated the mobile in jetpack but some say it is still doing it. Any suggestions?
People may need to clear their web cache. If it is working fine for you, it is probably good.
its only with jetpack connected, its showing the mobile site on a regular computer, and we need jetpack to share on social media
You should be able to disable the mobile theme in Jetpack.
I’ve been looking high and low for a nice photography website. A friend (Alex) used your other theme (portfolio) for his site, and loves. However, I think this one fits my needs much better. IMO, Visual is the best Photography Theme for WordPress ;-)
Downloaded the 0.4 version, however after trying to install the child theme, WordPress automatically went and got back the 0.2 ;-)
A couple of questions;
- Is it possible to completely remove the side bar on posts?
- Is it possible to put widgets in the footer ?
Hi Sam. Not in this release. I may look into adding additional requested features in future versions.
Thanks.
Got it installed on Http://shadzee.com
One important issue is when you add the image as “set featured image”, it re-sizes the image to match the format, and some quality is lost. Also, you can Not click on the image to see the actual uploaded size (the better quality image). You can do that if the image is added in the main content of the post.
Never the less, it’s a great theme. And, I will grow with it ;-)
one more suggestion;
- it would be nice to have a widget in the sidebar showing a matching Google Map location of the image, if the image has imbedded GEO tag.
I like the update of this theme, however I was hoping to fing fixed header menu option. But thats just me. Only problem is with gaps on categories pages. If You have 9 posts per page with featured image, last 3 posts at the bottom have too big gaps between. Could You fix this in updated release? Thanx, John.
An option to affix the header to the top of the screen will be in Visual+ (releasing soon). Masonry can be a bit sticky with the layout- I’ll try to trace down those issues for you.
Thank You very much. Its much appreciated. Also, one of my suggestions for next release, would be home page animation after new post publish, or delete. It could be smooth animation from left to right, when last one would be pushed out. When we are talking about JETPACK integration, it would be very nice to have a checker integrated straight into theme. As probably Im not the only one having trouble with these two working together. Especially social networks push. Its just slowing down after updates, even when I have hundreds of post a day, less then 50 are pushed. Thank You for Your help. John.
I also noticed, that when there is one featured image in vertical position at the last 3 positions on the home page, foter text, image, banner, or whatever You have in the footer is covered by this post. How could this be fixed?
And one more suggestion, if i may. There could be an option within theme admin area to save changes in the theme, manual changes, view the log, compoare and many others for us, who are updating the theme files too many times, but also trying to update the files to official realeses. Just like option to show featured photo at the top of the post, or not, saving logs, vie logs within theme, saving changes …
Hey Devin,
First of all congratulations for this wonderful theme. I was looking for some great theme for last few days but was not liking anything for my blog. but the moment I saw this theme just jumped on it.
My blog is looking very good the way I thought about it.
You may have look whenever you have time.
http://arjungabriel.wordpress.com/
Thank you
Cool, looks like you’re one of the beta testers on WordPress.com.
Hi Devin. Don´t know, if my fist comment recieved you. Is there any way to enable a panel for widgets?
No widget support at this time. Where would you want them? The footer?
footer seems to be a good place
Hi Devin!
Liked your theme much… really cool design and usability.
I’m new in WP (about 2 month), and started using your theme about a month ago… I’ve started with v0.2.2…
When I’ve installed v0.4 i saw that the highlighted links of topics become white in a dark version of the theme not the stylish green as before… Than I’ve installed 0.2.2 version …and saw the links and the theme become white….
Help me please with my issue … how I can rollback to the original 0.2.2?
And could You let me know where theme settings is stored?
Thanks!
You can always find older versions on GitHub: https://github.com/devinsays/visual/commits/master
Theme options are stored under the “visual” option in the database. CSS is in styles.css.
I’ll update the hover color in the next version. I think that was a mistake it went back to white.
At the start I’ve used 2.2 and it’s worked perfectly, before I’ve installed 0.4, where hover become white. after that I have such minor problem.
I’ve used 0.1, 0.2.1, 0.2.2, and hover color seems to be broken there too, I’ve even tried to reset to default wp options table via plugin in DB… but it did’nt helped:( I can’t reset the hoover color, manually via phpMyAdmin too..
So, I’ll wait for the next version of a theme!
Big Thanks for response and for a keeping developing & supporting favourite theme too!
Hi Devin, really great theme! I’m using it right now on my wordpress.com blog with custom design. I’ve been successfully changing the default color for the top menu into white through #masthead, but I can’t understand how to turn into white the color of all those “cards” as well (in order to leave in grey just the very background). Which css attributes should I use? Thanks!
Are you familiar with the Chrome Developer tools? http://wptheming.com/2012/07/chrome-developer-tools-wordpress/. That’ll help you track down the selectors.
Hi Delvin,
maybe I´m too stupid or too new in the area of WP, but I´m not able to manage to create new frames for the Masonry layout. And how can I put 3 frames side by side?
Thank you,
Johannes
Create a new post to add a new “frame” to the layout. It should go 3 in a row by default. Do you have a link?
Excellent theme. It is exactly what I was looking for. One thing, though: the tag-line below the blog title isn’t visible. Did I change some setting or other without realizing it? I’ve looked, but can’t seem to find a way to change it’s visibility.
There’s no option to display a tagline at the moment. May get worked into a later version.
Hi I really like the theme Visual it looks good for organising my art thumbnails. Just tried to sort out a problem I have had with the Gallery in the Square Tiles format. It selects the first image and makes that one an enlarged version at the top although i have repeatedly tried re creating the gallery and ensuring no featured image is selected still I cannot get it to all just be tilesize only.
Only other comment for me it would have been nice to have a little space at the top for a small logo image. Nice clean design.
Hope you can help thanks.
Hi Diane. Thanks. I’ll be adding better support for the Gallery format in the next version. The featured image will not display there by default.
Hi again Devin.I have noticed that there is no header text at all In mobile format just White space. I think you might have already commented on no enlargements/carousel issue also. How do we access updates for your theme? Thnx.
Hey Devin,
I really like this theme from the first I saw it, especially the masonry layout.
I would like to use it, do some testing. My web is based on wordpress.org.
Some questions and feedback:
1) There is a problem with menu, which is the crucial.
If I put the mouse on main menu and than try to scroll to sub-menu, it works only sometimes, usually when I leave the mouse longer time on the menu. One needs to try several times.
To be sure, I installed and tested the original Visual theme, without customization. And for comparison with the Twenty Twelve default theme which was OK with this.
Maybe (just an idea) it can be an issue with the widespread WPML plugin for multilingual web, which I use.
Please, would you have any suggestion how to fix this problem?
2) (footer) widgets:
I would really welcome if there is some space for optional widgets under the main space, in the footer. I see in some themes 4 or 3 such areas in row (I can even imagine 2 rows, the upper with 1 widget :)). Can that be added into the theme and how, or do you plan that for next update?
There is an interisting plugin”category slider“; something like this I would like to use perhaps within the Visual Theme (maybe some text could be shown as well..). I consider to test this more, probably at least for front-page, but would be welcome also in wide widget area… Have tried, but there might be a problem with WPML more generally, on the side of the plugin or some adjustments in the WPML.
Thank you for your effort.
Y.
1) Haven’t noticed the issue- but I will look into it.
2) I’ll add the footer widgets if I keep getting requests.
This is a lovely theme and was thrilled to find it. However, when I applied it, it looked quite different from the demo version. The main, and most problematic, difference is there is a slightly lighter gray border around images, rather than the much cleaner looking layout in the demo. I’ve tried posting photos in different ways and it keeps coming up with the same confounded borders. Please let me know if there’s a way I can make it look like the demo.
Thanks,
Emily
There should not be borders. Can you post a link to your website? Perhaps you have a plugin that is applying them?
Thank you for your speedy reply.
http://femartproject.wordpress.com/
One of the posts is a screen capture of what it looks like to me.
I don’t see that in my browser. Could you contact WordPress.com support and let them know what browser you’re seeing the issue in:
http://en.support.wordpress.com/contact/
Will do. I’ll also see what it looks like in other browsers. I use Chrome, so maybe it’s an issue with that. Thanks!
Hi!
Can I change the number of columns and to fix the width (in compression to the screen immediately jumped down without changing the width).
Sorry for my english.
You can fix the width by just setting .section to width rather than max-width in the CSS- and deleting the responsive media queries.