Sharp is a free Thesis Skin that you can use to instantly customize your Thesis WordPress Theme powered site. All of the Thesis Sharp customizations are contained inside of the custom folder so no core Thesis files need to be touched.
December 14th Update: The skin has been updated to include the new color schemes and to fix some navigation menu display issues that occurred when the latest version of Thesis (version 1.6) was released. Go ahead and grab the updated skin files using the download button below and as always, any comments or questions are welcome!
Skin Features
- A widgetized header area for social networking icons, banners, or anything else you want to stick in there and also a widgetized footer area. You can access both of these areas and add or remove content directly from the widget panel inside wordpress.
- Fading page and sidebar backgrounds and several additional content area css classes to really make your images and links stand out.
- 8 Different Color Schemes in addition to the default gray you see here on the demo page. Additional colors are aqua, blue, purple, green, red, brown, orange, and pink. Instructions on how to change the color schemes is included in the custom.css file and involves copying and pasting a couple lines of code. You can see screenshots of the different color schemes here.
Download The Thesis Sharp Skin
Installation Instructions
Download the skin files which contain the two custom files (custom.css and custom_functions.php) and all background images. Backup your current custom files if you’ve got any customizations you want to save and then upload all files to your custom folder.
You need to make two small changes in your Thesis Options panel for the skin to display properly. In the Design Options panel, select Full-width framework and change the Outer Page Padding to 0 (zero). Save your changes using the Big Ass Save Button and refresh your site.
Check out the following video for a walk-though on how to set up this skin. For best viewing, try the HD and Full-screen options.
Customization Tips and Skin Updates
The skin is still a work in progress. I’ll be posting frequent updates to the skin as I make improvements and add new features so make sure you subscribe to the newsletter (see sidebar) or follow me on twitter to get notified when updates are posted.
I’ll also be adding some customization tutorials and videos to show you how to use the skin to its fullest, so again make sure you subscribe or follow me to get updated on the latest Thesis Sharp news.
Feedback, Support, and Spreading the Word
If you like this free Thesis Skin, I’d love to hear about it. Just drop a comment here or Connect with Me on Twitter and let me know what you think. I love meeting new people, so please do leave a comment or get in touch! If you need help with anything Thesis Sharp related, let me know and I’ll be glad to help.
And if you would like to see more free Thesis Skins, please take a minute and help me spread the word and as long as there is an interest, I’ll keep the free skins coming. Here’s how you can help.
1 Minute is all it takes
- ReTweet this post on twitter using the button at the top of this post or Retweet the video from the Screenr Page
- Use the ShareThis button at the bottom of this post to submit it to your favorite Social Networking site.
If you Really like Thesis Sharp consider
- Writing a short Thesis Sharp review post on your blog with a link back to this site
- Hiring Me to customize your Thesis Site
Running Thesis Sharp on your Site?
If you’re running this skin on your site, I’d love to know about it and take a peek. Just leave a comment with your address here so we all can admire 
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Chris, Thanks for the free skin and the free support for it. I’ve been a network guy for years but always lived in terminal or console mode. I played with blogger for a while and then decided to use WordPress. That led to Thesis and then to your Thesis Sharp Skin.
Its great. It allows me to have a really nice looking blog with some really nice functions right away. I can spend time on content while learning to customize.
There are a lot of options out there but when ever I need to pay for some help I will remember who helped me for free.
Bob – Thanks for the feedback!
Hi Chris,
Great skin you have developed! I really loved it and want to write about it soon. I had only one problem while customizing it. I’m using now Thesis 1.8 and when I upload a header logo, it didn’t work. I used the original new thesis header uploader.
Is there a way to fix it?
Thanks for any support.
I haven’t yet tested this particular skin with 1.8 but will try to do so this week and see if I can’t get an answer for you.
When You’ll be working on that (cause it’s not fully compatible with thesis 1.8), please make it compatible with Thesis Skin Manager. It’ll be much easier for us to play with that. Thank You
Chris,
I love this theme. It’s much better than most of the premium ones out there. Since I’ve upgraded to Thesis 1.8, I’ve had a few issues though. Will you be updating this theme for 1.8?
Thanks in advance,
Sean
Hi Chris! I downloaded Sharp and unzipped it. Then I used FTP to install the folder in Thesis 1.8 at my host site (Bluehost). But it didn’t take! I got rid of the outside padding. The site is already on full width. I also got rid of the background site color to see if that’s the problem. Still no go.
So I deleted it from my host site with the intention of starting over. This time, I opened the Thesis Sharp folder before moving it to my host, but unless I load each file separately, I still have to load the entire folder. So once I did reload the folder, I opened it on my host site. Still no go.
What am I doing wrong? I’m excited to try Sharp, and I’ll be happy to write a review for you once it’s up and running.
By the way, will I still be able to make customizations of my own and use plugins? I assume so, but just in case… Thanks!
Great skin! I bought Thesis just to use this skin. I think I have everything set up just about right, however I cant seem to get the top navigation menu to look like yours. I am new to thesis so I might just be missing some customization options somewhere. Did you have to make some changes somewhere to get your top navigation menu to look like it does? Thanks!
Very nice skin.
I noticed in the video that the look of the navigation is not the same as it is here on this page.
What changes would I need to make so that the customization is similar to this site.
I’m talking about how you have the nav links in the top left.
Thanks,
John
Hello,
I tried installing the free thesis sharp skin and I’m having problems.
I up loaded the folder that I down loaded from you and sent in over to my server. Then I went to my WP control panel and WP tells me that my theme is incomplete that I need a style.css file. I notice in the video that their is a layout.css. I’m I missing a file. Could you give me more detail info please.
You wouldnt believe how long ive been searching for something like this. Browsed through 6 pages of Google results and couldnt find anything. One search on Bing. There was this…. Gotta start using that more often
Buddy, I really like Thesis very much but I am so lazy to customize it. your theme helps a lot. I have just installed in http://testing.novicebloggers.com/ to customize it and then move to my site http://www.novicebloggers.com/ I will let u know once I am done with customizations.
Once again thanks for the wonderful and easy to install skin.
But Kindly let me know how can I change the color schemes.
Hey,
Thanks for the great skin. I can’t seen to get my header test small enough. It only goes down to 36 in the design options section, and what font are you using in your header? Thanks in advance for your help.
Great skin but any chance getting it thesis 1.8 compatible ?
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