Introduction

The following documentation serves as your guide to the new theme. Since this is Ghost theme documentation, it is assumed that you have a basic knowledge of the Ghost.

If you’re new to Ghost, it’s recommended to explore the guides in the official Ghost Help Center. Checking these resources will provide you with all the available information.

Uploading a theme

This is where the magic happens! You are able to upload, activate and delete a theme in the Ghost Admin of your publication.

Step-by-Step

1. To upload a theme, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin and click 'Change theme' in the bottom right corner.
2. Then click the 'Upload theme' button in the upper right corner.
3. Once uploaded, click 'Activate' to activate the theme on your site.

Dark & color version

The dark and color version introduces a fresh and distinctive appearance for your website, bringing a modern and stylish aesthetic that enhances the visual experience for your visitors.

Step-by-Step

1. Go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Site-wide' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Color scheme' position.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select your option.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: How to add a global background color?

1. To add the global partial background color, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Site-wide' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Global background color in hex string' position.
3. Paste your color – color must be a valid hexadecimal string, e.g. #052cff – you can generate the color on the site htmlcolorcodes.com.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: Dark & color version depending on operating system preferences

Modern operating systems (Windows, macOS, iOS, etc.) allow users to choose their preference for light or dark system themes. The below feature is used to detect if the user has requested the system to use a light or dark color theme.

1. To activate an auto dark version based on user operating system preferences, select the 'Auto' option.
2. Click 'Save' to activate.

Search function

By default, the theme uses a native search option. You can also use the search function specially designed for this theme — to do this, you must set the Content API key.

Step 1: Generating Content API key

1. To generate 'Content API key', go to the 'Integrations' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Click 'Add custom integration', then give the new integration a name, like 'Search', and click the 'Add' button.
3. Copy your 'Content API key' and click 'Save & close'.

Step 2: Activate the search function

1. Go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Site-wide' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Content API key for search' position.
3. Paste your 'Content API key'.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Featured section

Select which posts you want to featured in your publication.

Step-by-Step

1. Open the post you would like to add to the featured section.
2. Then, go to the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
3. At the bottom of the panel, you'll find a switch labeled 'Feature this post.'
4. Click the switch and close the panel.

Tip: How to remove featured posts from the main collection? (For advanced users)

1. Go to the 'Labs' settings in the Ghost Admin, click on 'Beta features' tab and you will find the 'Routes' section.
2. Upload the routes.yaml file with these settings:

routes:

collections:
  /:
    permalink: /{slug}/
    filter: featured:false
    template: index
  /featured/:
    permalink: /featured/{slug}/
    filter: featured:true
    template: index

taxonomies:
  tag: /tag/{slug}/
  author: /author/{slug}/

Social accounts

Link your social accounts to have them displayed in the footer of your publication.

Facebook and X

1. To add Facebook and X account to your publication, go to the 'Social accounts' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Once adding social accounts, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: Adding other social accounts to the footer (Requires theme editing)

1. Open ../partials/footer_icons.hbs file in your code editor.
2. Then, uncomment the block – remove the lines which contains {{!-- and --}} for the chosen profile icon.
3. Now replace the # for each href value with your own profile links.
4. Save your footer_icons.hbs file in ../partials/ folder.

Authors page

To present all authors from your publication in an elegant way, you can add a custom authors page.

Step-by-Step

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Authors' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Tags page

To present all tags from your publication in an elegant way, you can add a custom tags page.

Step-by-Step

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Tags' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Contact page

If you wish to have a direct way in which your readers can contact you, you can add a contact page based on Formspree or Getform.

Step 1: Add your Formspree or Getform endpoint

1. Go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Site-wide' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Contact form endpoint' position.
3. Paste your Formspree or Getform endpoint, e.g. https://formspree.io/f/xhyplkej
4. Finally, click Save to activate.

Step 2: Add a contact page

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Contact' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Logo

A publication logo is the primary logo for your brand and is displayed across your theme.

Step-by-Step

1. To upload a logo, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Brand' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Publication logo' position.
3. Click 'Upload logo' to upload your logo.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: How to change logo size?

1. To change logo size go to the 'Code injection' settings in the Ghost Admin and paste this code to the 'Site header':

<style>
:root {
   --height-logo-header: 36px;
   --height-logo-footer: 36px;
}
</style>

1. Change the current value to the expected value.
2. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Navigation

There are two types of navigation: 'Primary' and 'Secondary'. The primary navigation is used in the theme header, while the secondary navigation is used in the footer.

Step-by-Step

1. To add a navigation, go to the 'Navigation' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Once here, you can remove any navigation items that you want by using the trash icon to the right of the item. You can add new items by just typing them in. You can change the order by clicking on the icon on the left and dragging it to the spot you want.
3. Once your items are added, click 'OK' to activate new navigation on your site.

Tip: How to change the number of items before 'chevron' element in the header navigation? (Requires theme editing)

1. You’ll need to open the theme’s ../partials/navigation.hbs file in your code editor.
2. At the top, you’ll see the 'Header navigation' section.
3. Replace the current to="3" and from="4" value with your own, for example to="4" and from="5".
4. Save your navigation.hbs file in ../partials/ folder.

Tip: How to add your own column names in the footer navigation? (Requires theme editing)

The theme has four columns in the footer (of which one column is 'Social'). By default, every five elements a new column is started.

1. To add your own column names, you’ll need to open the theme’s ../locales/en.json file in your code editor.
2. Then, add your own translations, for example:

{
    "Column 1": "About",
    "Column 2": "Features",
    "Column 3": "Support",
    ...
}

1. Save your en.json file in ../locales/ folder.

Tip: How to change the number of items in column? (Requires theme editing)

1. You’ll need to open the theme’s ../partials/navigation.hbs file in your code editor.
2. At the middle, you’ll see the 'Footer navigation' section.
3. The columns have a limit and from parameter, that needs to be changed. For example, to change the number of items to 4 for each column:

{{#foreach navigation limit="4"}}
...

{{#foreach navigation limit="4" from="5"}}
...

{{#foreach navigation from="9"}}
...

Another possible case is when you change elements up to e.g. 6 only for second column:

{{#foreach navigation limit="5"}}
...

{{#foreach navigation limit="6" from="6"}}
...

{{#foreach navigation from="12"}}
...

1. Save your navigation.hbs file in ../partials/ folder.

Publication cover

A publication cover is an optional large background image that can be used with your publication.

Step-by-Step

1. To upload a publication cover, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Brand' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Publication cover' position.
3. Click 'Upload cover' to upload your image.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: How to change background cover opacity?

1. To change opacity, go to the 'Code injection' settings in the Ghost Admin and paste this code to the 'Site header':

<style>
:root body {
   --opacity-cover-image: 0.2;
   --opacity-post-image: 0.2;
   --opacity-tag-author-image: 0.2;
}
</style>

1. Change the 0.2 value to the expected value — 1.0 is the maximum value.
2. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: Publication cover only on the homepage

By default, the publication cover is displayed on all pages. If you want to show the publication cover only on the homepage, change the 'Publication cover only on homepage' setting in the Ghost Admin.

1. Go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Site-wide' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Publication cover only on homepage' position.
3. Use the switch to activate the option.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Accent color

Primary color used in your publication.

Step-by-Step

1. To change the accent color in your publication, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Brand' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Accent color' position.
3. Choose your color.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Hero title

Add and customize your own title on the homepage directly below the header on homepage.

Tip: How to add your own hero title?

1. To add your own hero title, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Homepage' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Hero title text' position.
3. Enter your own hero title.

Tip: How to align the hero title to the left?

1. If you want to align the hero title to the left, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Homepage' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Hero title position' position.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Left' option.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Tip: How to activate overlap? (example)

1. If you want the hero title to overlap the images in the featured section, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Homepage' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Hero title position' position.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Center and overlap' or 'Left and overlap' option.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Colors of post background

You can easily add color to the header post background.

Step-by-Step

1. To add the color of background on post header, just add an adequate internal tag in 'Post settings' panel to the published post.
2. For example, add an internal tag #bg-ruby (tags which are prefixed by a # character, are internal tags within Ghost).
3. Click 'Update', to activate.

1. The tag slug should be hash-bg-colorname, for example hash-bg-ruby

A palette of light colors

A palette of vibrant colors

A palette of dark colors

Tip: How to add your own color?

1. To add your own color, go the 'Tags' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Then, open 'Internal tags' tab and click 'New tag'.
3. Create for example #bg-arctic and add your color, for example #aac7ff.
4. Click 'Save', to activate just add #bg-arctic in 'Post settings' panel to the published post.

1. The tag slug should be hash-bg-colorname, for example hash-bg-arctic

Tip: How to force the default color?

If you are also using a global background color for the whole site, you may want to use a default color for the post – to do this, add #bg-default internal tag to the published post.

1. The tag slug should be hash-bg-default

Special section

You have the option to add a special section with posts on the homepage, below the 'Load more' button.

By default, the section located on the homepage displays related posts to the most recent post if it has a 'primary tag' added.

Tip: How to add a special section with posts for selected tags?

1. Go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Homepage' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Tags for special section' position.
3. Enter your tag (or tags) slug, e.g. story,lifestyle,design

Post header layouts

The theme includes a collection of post header layouts, allowing you to customize text and images in relation to each other.

Templates only work when a featured image is added.

Activate 'Default Image With Background Image' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Default Image With Background Image' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Activate 'Background Image' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Background Image' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Activate 'Center' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Center' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Activate 'Center With Background Image' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Center With Background Imager' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Activate 'Center Image With Background Image' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Center Image With Background Image' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Activate 'Full Image' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Full Image' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Activate 'Full Image With Background Image' template (example)

1. Open the 'Post settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Post Full Image With Background Image' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Responsive tables

The responsive table will display a horizontal scroll bar if the screen is too small to display the full content. The following description applies to the table added using the markdown card.

By default, the table adapts to the window width. If you have a table that is too wide, you can add a container <div class="responsive-table"> element with around the table, and it will display a horizontal scroll bar when needed.

Step-by-Step

1. To add a responsive table, use the 'Markdown card'.
2. Add a container <div class="responsive-table"> element with around the table (in markdown there always needs to be a blank line between any HTML and markdown).

<div class="responsive-table">

| # | Heading | Heading | Heading | Heading | Heading |
|:--|:--------|:--------|:--------|:--------|:--------|
| 1 | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    |
| 2 | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    |
| 3 | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    | Cell    |

</div>

Tip: What it takes to generate a table?

To generate a table, you can use the tool Markdown Tables Generator.

Footer copyright

Customize your own text in the footer by replacing the default value 'Published with Ghost and (...)'.

Step-by-Step

1. To change footer copyright text, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Site-wide' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Footer copyright' position.
3. Enter your own copyright text.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Custom pages

The members feature allows you to turn any site into a membership business with member signup, paid subscriptions and email newsletters.

The members feature is enabled by default. However, you need to create the following pages to avoid the 404 error.

Step-by-Step

1. Create an Account page.
2. Create Signup & Signin pages.
3. Create a Membership page.

Tip: What to do in case of an 400 error with message e.g. 'Missing template members/signin.hbs for route /signin/'

The error indicates that there was previously used a routes.yaml file with another theme that required it. To solve the problem, reset the routes.yaml file to its default settings.

routes:

collections:
  /:
    permalink: /{slug}/
    template: index

taxonomies:
  tag: /tag/{slug}/
  author: /author/{slug}/

Login panel

The login panel is a navigation component that shows 'Join' button when a member is logged out, and 'Account' button when a member is logged in.

Tip: Replacing 'Membership' with 'Sign up' (Requires theme editing)

1. You can easily replace the 'Membership' page with 'Sign up', for this purpose open ../partials/members/login_panel.hbs file in your code editor and find:

<a href="{{@site.url}}/membership/" class="global-button-arrow">{{>icons/site/arrow}}{{t "Join"}}</a>

1. Then, replace with:

<a href="{{@site.url}}/signup/" class="global-button-arrow">{{>icons/site/arrow}}{{t "Sign up"}}</a>

1. Save your login_panel.hbs file in ../partials/members/ folder.

Account page

The account page shows your members the type of account they’re having and gives them some subscription specific data.

Step-by-Step

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. Provide the appropriate 'Page URL' as /account/
3. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
4. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Account' template, close the panel.
5. Finally, click 'Publish'.

There is also a special template called 'Account Basic' which does not display pricing plans. This template is a good choice when you do not offer paid plans and you don’t have posts marked as 'Paid-members only'.

Signup & Signin pages

The 'Signup' and 'Signin' pages are allowing your visitors to sign up to your site in order to access members only content.

Step-by-Step

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. Provide the appropriate 'Page URL' as /signin/ for the 'Signin' page and /signup/ for the 'Signup' page.
3. At the bottom of the panel, you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
4. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Signin' for the signin page and 'Signup' for the signup page.
5. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Membership page

The 'Membership' page is helping your visitors to quickly visualize and compare the different pricing plans you offer.

Step-by-Step

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Membership' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Tip: How to add premium tier?

1. Go to the 'Tiers' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Click on the 'Connect with Stripe' and configure your Stripe account.
3. If you have Stripe connected, click '+Add tier' – add your own tier name, description, monthly and yearly prices and list of benefits.
4. Click 'Save & close'.
5. Making tiers available to visitors – from the 'Portal settings', you can control which tiers appear on your site.

Tip: How to add description and list of benefits to free tier?

1. Go to the 'Tiers' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Click 'Free' position and add your tier description and list of benefits.
3. Finally, click 'Save & close' to activate.

Tip: How to add position to FAQ?

You can add FAQ items in your page content using the HTML card by pasting the code below:

<details>
  <summary>Your title</summary>
  <p>Your description</p>
</details>

The page content on the Membership page only serves to add FAQ items, it is not designed for other types of content.

Subscribe page

The subscribe page is allowing your visitors to sign up to your site in order to access members only content and receive the premium newsletter.

Step-by-Step

1. Create a new page, add a page title, and open the 'Page settings' panel using the icon in the top right of the screen.
2. At the bottom of the panel you’ll see a dropdown menu titled 'Template'.
3. Use the dropdown menu to select the 'Subscribe' template, close the panel.
4. Finally, click 'Publish'.

Comments

The native comments feature in Ghost allows you to invite members to join the discussion and participate in a community directly on your website. Alternatively, you can opt for the Disqus option.

Ghost comments

1. To enable native comments, go to the 'Access' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. Change the 'Commenting' level to 'All members' or 'Paid-members only'.
3. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Disqus comments

1. Go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin.
2. On the right you’ll see the tab 'Post' – expand this settings list and go to the 'Disqus shortname' position.
3. Paste your 'Disqus shortname', e.g. copy only your-site from your-site.disqus.com
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Editing a theme

To edit files, you will need to unzip the theme archive — at this point you will have access to the necessary files indicated in the theme documentation.

Step-by-Step

1. To edit your theme files, download a copy of the theme. For this purpose go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin and click 'Change theme' in the bottom right corner.
2. Use the 'Installed' tab menu in the upper right corner to download your theme, then unzip the theme locally.
3. Once the theme is unzipped, the files can be edited using an code editor – make the changes indicated in the theme documentation.

You can edit files using applications (code editor) such as Sublime Text, Visual Studio Code or Brackets. Using native text editors like TextEdit on macOS may add formatting may cause the theme to work incorrectly.

1. When you’ve finished making changes to the theme code, re-zip the theme directory for uploading back to Ghost.

To create a zip archive on a macOS, right-click on the theme folder to view the context menu. Then, click the 'Compress' option. On Windows right-click on the theme folder, select 'Send to', and then select 'Compressed (zipped) folder'.

1. To upload a theme, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin and click 'Change theme' in the bottom right corner.
2. Then click the 'Upload theme' button in the upper right corner.
3. Once uploaded, click 'Activate' to activate the theme on your site.

Updating a theme

Updates to the theme ensure compatibility with the latest Ghost version, performance improvements and minor bug fixes. So it is important that you use the latest available theme version.

If your theme features custom code, updating it with the latest versions will overwrite all your customizations.

Step-by-Step

1. Download the latest version of the theme, then unzip the archive locally.
2. Choose a theme version that is compatible with your Ghost version.
3. To upload a theme, go to the 'Design & branding' settings in the Ghost Admin and click 'Change theme' in the bottom right corner.
4. Then click the 'Upload theme' button in the upper right corner.
5. Once uploaded, click 'Activate' to activate the theme on your site.

Tip: What if you’ve already edited the theme, and want to update it without losing your changes?

That’s a bit trickier to deal with but not impossible, as long as you can remember what the changes were, or more specifically which files you edited. Unfortunately in Ghost when updating a theme you have to re-enter your changes.

For more advanced users, it can be helpful to use a comparing files app like Sublime Merge – that way you can find your changes if you don’t remember them.

Tip: After uploading the theme my settings in Design section were reset, what should I do?

The best solution is to always use the same name e.g. theme-name.zip – that way you will not have to enter your settings again after uploading a theme.

Ghost assigns the settings in the 'Design & branding' section to the name of the uploaded archive. If you upload theme-v1.zip and theme-v2.zip – Ghost will recognize them as two different themes – so the settings will reset.

Theme translation

Translations are used both when you want to add a new language and when you want to edit current phrases used in the theme.

Editing current phrases used in the theme (Requires theme editing)

1. You’ll need to open the theme’s ../locales/en.json file in your code editor.
2. Change the sentences used in the theme following the pattern:

{
    "Old translate": "New translate",
    ...
}

1. After making your changes, save your file, compress the theme into a zip format, and upload it to Ghost.

Translation to another language (Requires theme editing)

1. Inside the ../locales/ folder, add target language file for example es.json for Spanish and pl.json for Polish (a valid language code must be used).
2. Based on the translation from the en.json file, add translations for your language in your code editor. For example, for Spanish, use in the es.json file:

{
    "Back": "Volver",
    "Newer Posts": "Artículos Siguientes",
    "Older Posts": "Artículos Anteriores",
    ...
}

1. After making your changes, save your file, compress the theme into a zip format, and upload it to Ghost.
2. Then, go to the 'Publication Language' settings in the Ghost Admin.
3. Enter the correct language code into the 'Site language' field.
4. Finally, click 'Save' to activate.

Posts per page

The number of posts provided will depend on the 'post per page' setting which you can configure in your package.json file.

Step-by-Step (Requires theme editing)

1. You’ll need to open the theme’s package.json file in your code editor and find:

"config": {
    ...
    "posts_per_page": <value>
    ...
}

1. Change the current value to the expected value.
2. Save your package.json file in root folder.