Whilst a huge number of people now run self-hosted blogs with Wordpress, or other opensource CMS systems, I don’t need to tell you that a substantial number of people still use free services such as Blogger, and infact – that they too are growing in popularity.
But I just did. (Ever notice how people do the whole “I don’t need to… BUT bla-bla-bla” thing? Just wanted to make a point.)
Today we’ll look at some of the top-designed freely available (and most functional, I may add) Blogger.com (Blogspot) themes available for download…
#1 – Masinop for Blogger
Demo | Download | Original Author | Blogger Converter
Sleek, stylish, and slightly rainbow-esquent. Yes, made up words are the in-thing. Shizzlap.
First up is the ever-so-bewilderingly-named “Masinop”. It’s got a grey-theme to it, which we like. Sleek ‘n’ sexy.
We’re not totally sure what’s going on with the pimped-out rainbow-band around the top, but tone down the saturation in Fireworks or Photoshop, rasterize the layer, drag the contrast up a deal and then mess about with the hue to get a colour of your choice. Unless of course you like the rainbow-styling, in which fair dues to you.
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#2 – Color Paper for Blogger
Demo | Download | Original Author | Blogger Converter
A bit grungey, a bit retro... We like (mostly).
Next on the chopping block (again, no idea why I’m using these stupid pointless phrases… one may argue I’m attempting to mimic a real journalist, God help me) is the Color Paper theme. A bit grungey, a bit retro… We like (mostly).
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#3 – Hello Wiki for Blogger
Demo | Download | Original Author | Blogger Converter
A theme that looks the part and plays it too... definitely suited towards the more "sophisticated" crowd.
If you’re a business or organization (or even just a 12-year old kid trying to start one out of your bedroom as I was not all that long ago), a quasi-swish looking theme can help in making the right impression.
Course, if you’re serious – you’ll spend $10 and get a domain, and a few more dollars will get you hosting. Enough to run Wordpress, but till then – y’all gotta start somewhere. HelloWiki is simplistic and effective. Approvalz from teh meerkat man.
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#4 – Glass for Blogger
Tastes like chicken, looks like glass. That's real web 2.0 right there folks...
Call it Web 2.0 and I’ll have you shot. Get it right. It’s glossy. Something isn’t Web 2.0 because of how it looks, and heck – if such a thing as a “2.0″ of the web exists, I’d argue it’s not user-collaboration at all as most claim.
And even if it was – how does that relate at all to a glossy look, a tacky logo, and a big bad beta sign? I’ve digressed here from my point. It’s a sexy theme. Just don’t make it out to be something it’s not. Maybe you weren’t going to anyway.
We’ll shutup and let you download the damn thing, shall we?
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#5 – Dilectio for Blogger
Dilectio... We'd make some joke about it being delectable but that would be lame.
A pretty theme, it goes for subtler colours and a more muted theme than some of the prior reincarnations of rainbow explosions featured above.
It opts for the soothing, smooth-fratal backgrounds above grunge or boldness and actually looks pretty darn good too, weighing in at number five.
One Response
Great post, really nice collection of themes!
Thanks.