Sorbet: A Free WordPress Theme From Automattic

Sorbet is a beautiful responsive blogging theme with post formats on parade. The theme has been a big hit on WordPress.com ever since it was added at the end of January. This weekend Sorbet made its debut in the WordPress Themes Directory and is already a favorite, with more than 1,000 downloads in less than 24 hours after its release.

What makes Sorbet so special? This theme has a uniquely pleasing balance of color, space and typography. It’s bright without being garish and it’s clean without looking plain.

sorbet

One interesting highlight of Sorbet is that its widget area, social icons, main navigation and search bar are all hidden with icons at the top to pull each into the display. The resulting display gives your content plenty of room to breathe.

sorbet-single-columnAnother handy feature is the optional, intuitive sidebar. If you don’t add any widgets to your sidebar, Sorbet automatically recognizes this and changes the display to a centered one-column layout.

Other features include:

  • Colorful support for post formats and sticky posts
  • One-column layout – sidebar is optional
  • Social links panel
  • Matching design for threaded comments
  • Four widget areas: sidebar and header columns
  • Custom header and background
  • Three custom menus

A live demo of Sorbet is available on WordPress.com.

sorbet-commentsThreaded comments are nicely styled to match the theme and they respond well on mobile devices.

If you’re looking for a theme where the peripheral aspects of your blog don’t upstage the content, then Sorbet might be just the ticket. It keeps the content in the spotlight and hides all the extras. This marks Automattic’s 37th theme on WordPress.org. Visit your admin panel to download Sorbet for free from the WordPress Themes Directory.

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29 responses to “Sorbet: A Free WordPress Theme From Automattic”

  1. The design remind me of Chun by JustinTadlock. I guess that this theme like any other is based on underscores.

    Anyway, does any one know where the future of thematic? I love that theme but it looks like abbandoned :(

    • That was my first reaction as well. It was hard to read the lighter shades of grey font associated with the meta data and I also though the colors were too bright. But after letting my eyes get used to the theme, it looks pretty good. I like the idea of hiding visual parts of the website and if someone wants to see it, they click one of the top buttons.

      That’s one way to have those visual elements without cramming them all onto one page.

  2. I hadn’t noticed those until seeing your comment. It turns out they’re generated by the same technique which Justin Tadlock posted about recently.

    You create a menu with the links, then add that menu as the Social Links menu. Then the theme automatically detects which domain it is and serves the corresponding icon for each social network.

    I have it working on my site now :) http://random.ryanhellyer.net/

    Thanks for pointing out this feature. It’s a really nice touch for them to have added to the theme.

    Thanks to the Automatticians who made the theme!

  3. Hi, the Sorbet theme is great, I love it. But, and there’s always a but, I want to hide the tags at the end of every post and I have yet to find a definitive answer on the how to. Any advice?

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