Why I Love the Twenty Twelve WordPress Theme

WordPress releases a new theme under the banner Twenty Somethings every year, since 2010 when it first released Twenty Ten. Subsequently Twenty Eleven was released in 2011 and this year saw the new version of WordPress, WP 3.5 which came bundled with a default theme Twenty Twelve. The Twenty Somethings are the no-nonsense kind of themes with less jazz and more emphasis on crispness of the layout. Twenty Twelve just redefined neatness.

Twenty Twelve is highly responsive on all platforms, and indeed works wonderfully on mobile devices – iPod, iPad and any mobile phone. It gives blog owners a chance to greet a new reader with a good homepage. Unlike Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven which come with a default header image, Twenty Twelve comes with no default image. You can use all the space for content, graphics or play with all the white space.

Why I Love the Twenty Twelve WordPress Theme

2011 has a default header image, 2012 thankfully has none

Twenty Twelve also enables one to use the full width of the web page for maximum effect. You can choose to do away with Sidebars and the Widgets in them. Instead, you could just widen up your content space and give the reader just your blogspace.

A spacious look when you dispense with sidebars and use the entire screen

Here’s content with the sidebar

Although Twenty Twelve looks quite similar to Ten and Eleven, there are features that might just leave you clinging on to Twelve and never switch back again. Like the other two Twenty Somethings, Twenty Twelve has infinite scroll too. Infinite Scroll means you need not go to a different page for the other blogposts. For example, take a theme, maybe ‘iTheme 2′. Beyond 6-7 posts, you need to go to another page which is not the case with Twenty Twelve. All posts are on a single page enabling the reader to view all posts just by scrolling.

Unlike recent developments in other themes that go for dazzling colours and eye-catching designs, Twenty Twelve catches the reader’s pulse and rests neatly on the screen giving some much needed breathing space on all sides.

You can add a header image in 2012 if you want

A header image and a twitter image on the right

The new theme also works wonders for different post formats. Be it pictures, text, videos or even a link, Twenty Twelve has been developed to perfection. Careful attention to detail is visible in every part of it. The shadowy effects of the content board and the default rounded corners for images gives the theme a lovely look.

A composite view of some different post formats

Twenty Twelve offers a lot more than its predecessors, but the weight it carries with it is also quite difficult to manage. To load every page, the site downloads webfonts that take up close to 125KB, not good thing for mobile users. If one can deactivate the download in the theme’s code, the site becomes whole lot lighter to handle.

If you are looking to create a site with a lot of jazz and fervour, 2012 is not the theme for you. But, if you are looking for a theme that is no-nonsense and gives your site a professional look, 2012 is going to be your best buddy until WordPress comes up with the next Twenty Something. In web designing, this is as simple as it gets.

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