Minnow: A Free Minimalist Blogging Theme from Automattic

Minnow is a beautiful, ultra-minimalist blogging theme from Automattic that just landed in the WordPress.org directory this week, bringing the company’s total free theme contributions to 54. It was designed by Mel Choyce, co-author of the popular Flounder theme.

Minnow features a single-column blog homepage, with a prominent social links menu at the top. The theme has support for all the standard post formats, with unique grey icons for each. The post meta design is tastefully simple and understated so that your content stays in focus.

Quotes, galleries, asides, etc. are all uniquely represented with subtle variations. Minnow also includes matching styles for threaded comments.

The theme has just a handful of customization options for changing the background image and/or color. It’s the type of theme that you can activate and have it looking like the demo in under two minutes.

The theme is mobile friendly, and the 660px main content area sizes down gracefully for mobile devices. Minnow also includes a slide-out sidebar widget area. The primary navigation menu is pinned to the top of the sidebar, above any widgets.

Check out the live demo to see Minnow in action. You’ll have to install the theme on your site in order to see the slide-out sidebar and navigation menu, as it is currently omitted in the demo.

If you’re looking to jump start your blog for the upcoming new year, Minnow is an excellent choice. The clean design offers visitors a pleasant reading experience. Download it for free from WordPress.org.