UPDATE: Here’s what K2 looks like with the blueprint grid in the background, fyi. I set up the blueprint system as directed, but for some reason, it wouldn’t display until I pasted the “grid css” into my child theme style css.

Note on Update:

Eric Marden (a K2 co-creator) sez, “You may be interested in this, then:

github.com/xentek/shopp-architect

Its not really K2, but shares some of its DNA, and it uses the blueprint.css framework. Requires the (premium) Shopp plugin to really make it work.”

Thanks, Eric! The Shopp plugin (for readers who don’t know) enables e-commerce for wordpress sites. Eric has some other K2-friendly code at his site xentek.net.

And now we return you to our regular programming:

WPscape is where I come to try on WordPress themes. Today it’s the K2 (sometimes KayTwo) “theme framework”, Michael Heilemann’s follow-up to the “default” Wordpress theme Kubrick.

When you are grabbing themes and trying them out, you quickly discover that the theming world is an ocean wide and a quarter-inch deep, which is to say that themes usually contribute a “look” but not very much functionality. I think that is why the idea of the “premium” themes appears to be so popular, because the premium themes have “functions” that usually come delivered with some documentation and support.

Lately I’m a premium fan of Justin Tadlock and Brian Gardner because they both deliver themes that have toolboxes inside.

This K2 “theme framework” (now at version 1.0.2) interests me because it appears to provide reliable tools. In the new WordPress lingo, K2 looks like the sort of theme that would make a good “parent” theme. WordPress designers mostly interested in “eye appeal” could make good looking “children” from K2. Then there would be a nice division of labor between designers and coders: you can go looking for child themes of the the K2 framework.

As a default theme, the K2 framework competes with the Kubrick theme for graphical minimalism. It’s not a high-flying design to look at, but it is ready to function well. For example, the first thing I look for when trying a theme is how it handles edit and admin links. K2 does it nicely.

Already you are viewing a minimal “child theme” that I have named K2a and which looks exactly like its parent (with a few widgets activated in the sidebar). As the K2 documentation explains, only three things are need to produce a minimal child theme: a new folder in the theme directory (in my case K2a), a css file with the proper template name (in my case “K2″), and a graphic file copied from the K2 parent file (in my case “screenshot.png”). With just these three items I can go to my “Appearance” options and select the child theme K2a. Any modification from this point forward will allow me to incrementally transform the K2 default.

PS: Adopting K2 at a database project nonviolenceusa.org