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.

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.

Another 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.

Threaded 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.