• Cutline 2.2 (black and white)
• Cutline 1.4 Three-Column Right
• Cutline 1.4 Three-Column Split

As I’ve written previously, the upgrade is for compatibility with the new features of WordPress 2.7. A summary of fixes in these editions:

1. Gravatar support (which replaces the comment numbering)
2. Threaded comment support (if activated within WordPress settings)
3. Post classes (you can differentiate the look of sticky and other posts)
4. Image class support (compatible with the classes used by WordPress image uploader)
5. Some under-the-hood tweaks

I’m currently working on setting up a preview site for all four versions. If you’re upgrading your theme, be sure to upload the entire thing, as many of the files have been edited. Don’t forget to backup.

Enjoy Cutline!

And so we are pleased to announce the release of Cutline 1.4, which is an upgrade of Cutline 1.3 (two-column, right sidebar). This stems from the original Cutline release, in contrast to version 2.1 and the three-column versions, which are newer variants.

We consider this new release to be a major one, but users might not notice the difference from the outside. Much of the improvements we did are under the hood. Cutline 1.4 was an update by our resident designer, Sophia Lucero, who has also done several other designs in Splashpress Media’s blog network.

Update

The following editions have also been updated. Same basic release notes apply.

• Cutline 2.2 (black and white)
• Cutline 1.4 Three-Column Right
• Cutline 1.4 Three-Column Split

What’s in this Release

1. Threaded comments

WordPress 2.7 allows up to 10 nested levels, but in this case, we recommend only a few (up to 5 perhaps), especially because of the width of the main column, which might not accommodate more.

We replaced comment numbering with gravatars. The comment permalinks can be accessed through the comment time stamp.

2. Post classes

Each post in The Loop is now wrapped with its own DIV. Sticky posts have the corresponding CSS classes. These are unstyled as of now, but the update gives you the option of changing the styling of sticky posts.

3. Image CSS classes

Cutline 1.4 now supports WordPress’ built in image classes (.alignnone, .alignleft, .aligncenter, .alignright), image captions, and image galleries.

4. Minor tweaks to several other theme files.

5. wp_page_menu() was not used.

Why? It’s just a wrapper around wp_list_pages and adds extra code that we don’t need for the top menu.

Notes

Note that you should only use Cutline 1.4 with WordPress 2.7 up. Cutline 1.4 is not compatible with older versions of WP.

If you are upgrading from an older Cutline version, we recommend that you replace all your existing theme files with this one (be sure to make a backup, if you made some customizations). While you might not notice many changes from viewing your blog, much of the work we did here were under the hood.

Also, we wanted to release all the updates in one go, but since we’re still working on the other editions, we will just update this post with incremental releases.

You can download Cutline 1.4 here.

This might take some time, though, but we’ll do our best to come up with the updates before the year ends.

And so, let me introduce our rates:

• Email consultation for $50. We can provide technical and design-related support via email, wherein one of our designers or programmers would delve deep into your blog’s design or code, and do the edits on-site. Here we can walk you through how you can do these edits yourself.
• Design overhaul or customization for $200. We can help with design customizations and big changes, as long as it still works within the Cutline framework (meaning no major changes to the underlying WordPress code will be done). This also includes creating custom headers and other graphics, so your site will look unique. The pricing is just enough to give our designer an incentive to primp up your site, but it’s just a fraction of the cost of designing a theme from scratch.
• Cutline premium forum subscription for $3.99 per month. In the premium support forum we can directly respond to user/reader inquiries in a timely manner. We will still maintain the existing forum free, but this would be mostly for user-to-user discussion and support (and all content that was previously free will still remain accessible to the public).

We already welcome consultations and design overhauls–please get in touch with us through our Contact Form and we can discuss your needs.

We do hope these rates are reasonable enough. But of course, if all you need are really quick fixes that would likely only take us five minutes to do, then you don’t have to worry about paying a cent for those.

This is the beauty of the GPL license through which Linux is released.

However, this does not preclude businesses and individuals from charging for support for Linux-related activities. For example, people can charge for installing Linux. People can charge for training your personnel in the use of Linux. People can charge for telephone, email, or chat support, and so on and so forth. So this means there is a business model that can be built on free.

And if you’re using WordPress, the very same license applies. This means that if you are to create software that is built on WordPress, then you would have to distribute it with the same license.

Does this apply to WordPress themes?

That is the question. And I think that’s the issue that has been brought about by the news that Brian Gardner’s Revolution theme is going open source.

Revolution is currently sold as a premium theme, which means you need a license to legally use it on your site (or sites, depending on how many licenses you acquire, or if you get the bulk license). Sure there are a lot of paid themes out there, but Revolution catches our eye because it’s made by none other than Brian Gardner, and it’s so darn great. And while the announcement that Revolution would shift to open source does not necessarily mean it’s because of WordPress license problem, but this is the glaring possibility that creators of premium themes are now facing.

In Brian’s own words:

I contacted Matt and Toni to see if they would be gracious enough to carve out some time to meet with us, so we could ensure that our business model was in compliance with standards set forth by the authors of the GPL license as well as with WordPress.

And commented by Thord Hedengren on the Blog Herald:

So does this mean that the current premium theme model, in which you pay for using a theme that might or might not inherit the GPL license of WordPress, is something that Automattic dislikes, and might even fight in the future? I’m reading between the lines here, and there’s been a lot of discussions around the blogosphere regarding premium themes and their legality, with no obvious consensus. While I’m not sure Automattic, or anyone else, could force a premium theme publisher to release their work as GPL just because it builds upon the GPL’d WordPress base, I personally wouldn’t want to fight about it, if it was my business model.

Premium WP themes usually come with author support. So if you paid for a theme, in most cases you are entitled to getting help from the creator. Could premium theme authors then argue that it is, in fact, this support that the users pay for, rather than the theme itself? It could be something like a subscription- or membership-based setup, where you gain XXX years support in exchange for YYY amount of money. No sir, we don’t sell the theme outright–it’s free, but you only pay for our help (now or in the future).

It’s something worth thinking about. For now, as for us behind Cutline (at least for those of us who have inherited updates and support for the theme) we’re not thinking of charging for support anytime soon. Anyway it’s part of our job to help users the best we can.

But think of it this way. Would you pay for a theme, or support (whichever way you want to look at it), if it would mean you can better implement a theme on your site, and installing, maintenance and updates would be smoother and easier?

Cutline is still being developed, there are always changes to make, and this time, more than any other release I think I have changed the theme so average users can get into it easier.

Remember that Archive link in the header of every installation? I have since removed it, making sure to use WordPress’ built-in page listing code, so top level pages will be displayed automatically rather than having to edit the theme.

I have also taken some advice given freely to me by Gabriel Radic on his Timbru blog, so if you like the changes, please thank him.

There are no more italics in the blockquotes, I have added some text to the 404 page, so that non-web savvy users understand where they are, and I have removed the comments link from the index page meta-data line. I have also changed the meta-data line to use a san-serif font to be easier to read.

I have also checked the theme for WordPress 2.5 compatibility and haven’t been able to replicate any issues that others have mentioned.

As always, you can find the download link on the sidebar.

With this release, I fix some minor issues people were having, tighten up the stylesheet, and add my own flair to things. I have also removed comment forms on pages, and fixed their alignment.

If you are using the first Cutline 2.0 release, I recommend you upgrade.

Let me know if you have any issues with Cutline 2.1. To download, click the sidebar link for Cutline 2.1.

I have added an edit link for posts, so if you are logged in, and looking at your blog, you can easily and quickly edit posts. Cutline 1.2 supports WordPress 2.3 and above’s tags, so categories are up in the date area, and tags are in the bottom where “categories’ used to be listed. I have removed excess whitespace in the CSS in order to help decrease the file size of the theme by a little bit. I also added a max-width CSS declaration to stop images from going into sidebars in many modern browsers.

Download your favourite Cutline 1.2 version over to the right, and enjoy!

I will be working on some tutorials, and screencasts to help people with the issues they are having customizing Cutline, so watch out for those. Also, I will be working on Cutline 2.0 in February, so watch for that.

You need to edit your header.php and the footer.php for this and add the new container and background to the stylesheet of your theme.
Lets look at the recently released Cutline 1.1 Blue how you can add your favorite background.

Cutline 1.1 Blue has a gradient image as background, completed with the background color.

And this is not just a mod, but a totally differently looking Cutline, showcasing the power of CSS… and some more.

As I wrote when I announced the new release, this Cutline remake is dedicated to some of the best designers online. Obviously Chris Pearson, creator of Cutline, naturally also Brian Gardner, who managed Cutline earlier on and then my all time favorite, the person who taught me everything about grid design, Khoi Vinh (yes it was straight love, when I discovered Subtraction years ago!). And last but not least, I added some touches too.

What is new in Cutline v2.0?

First of all, the new Cutline comes with integrated Microformats.

And things get better!
There are 2 different releases! One for WordPress 2.1+ and there is a Cutline 2.0 for the soon to be released WordPress 2.3! With tags implementation!
Those of you who only want to upgrade to WP2.3, when released, but don’t want to use the new tag features in WP2.3, can use the WordPress 2.1+ version.

Improved Usability!

Years long have I cursed entries with many comments. It has happened more than once that I wanted to comment on an entry, but after reading lots of comments I wanted to react on comments and had forgotten what I originally wanted to respond. Enough of that!

Revolutionary change!

Cutline v2.0 has the comment form immediately UNDER the entry. Now you can comment immediately after having read the post, without having to scroll through tons of comments first!
OK, OK… maybe not all that revolutionary at all… but I thought ‘Let’s be original!’.

I already hear the smart thinkers under you. What if I want to read the comments and then reply???

Fear not… even that has been thought of.

At the bottom of every single page you find now a new bottom navigation with links to the top of the entry, the comment form and also next/previous and the front page of your blog. If now you want to read all the comments and THEN respond, with one click (on ‘respond’) you are brought to the comment form.
From the main page, you can jump to both the comment form (Respond link in the post-meta side-block) and the comments (No Comments/1 Comment / % Comments – under the Tags line) directly.
But, due to the bottom navigation, the next/previous post navigation above the entry is no more.

New sidebar!

Cutline has a new sidebar. But I’ll immediately start with the bad news. Certain widgets are known to break the formatting. This Cutline mod was entirely focused on WP’s template tags flexibility, using specific settings for sidebar blocks. Sadly widgets don’t always offer this flexibility without hacking the code.

What’s new/different in the sidebar?

First off, the flickrRSS sidebar block has moved to the top and is optimized for 3/6/9/aso square images. Use <li> and </li> to have the optimal display. All these settings can be made in the flickrRSS control panel under Options. If you want to prevent slow loading times for the flickr thumbnails, use the caching options of the FlickrRSS plugin.

Cutline v2.0 now comes with built-in support for Brian’s Latest Comments plugin.

Both flickrRSS and Brian’s Latest Comments are optional and will not be displayed if you don’t use the plugins.

All the categories are now shown in the sidebar. In the WP2.3 version, you’ll find your Top25 tags listed, not as a cluttered cloud, but as a list.

Further features

Of course all the classic Cutline features have been conserved in this remake.

• Great SEO
• Random header images Cutline style
• Great image handling

Furthermore, Cutline 2.0 has been gridified.

Longest theme release post?

Did I manage it?

One more thing

Cutline 2.0 is available… NOW!
Go play with our demo.

• Download Cutline 2.0 for WP 2.1 and above
• Download Cutline 2.0 for WP 2.3