WordPress: OpenBook premium theme available for download

by Jean-Baptiste Jung. 101 Comments -

Looking for a premium Wordpress theme, with magazines features and a very cool design, but don’t want to pay a single buck? If so, you’re just at the right place. Here’s OpenBook, a theme I originally made up for my personnal weblog lyxia.org, but which is now available for free download.

As I said previously, I originally made up OpenBook for my personnal weblog lyxia.org. But after receiving a few compliments aboout it, I decided to offer it to everyone, for free.

This version is 2.2 and it is the first to be translated in English. Don’t worry, any future version will be available in English too ;)

Wordpress premium theme:openbook

OpenBook offers many features, so here’s a quick list:

  • Magazine-style homepage, including 2 columns and SmoothGallery for your featured posts.
  • 100% Gravatar compatible.
  • 3 availables custom fields to insert images on the homepage featured gallery, on homepage posts and categories posts.
  • Magazine-style dropdown-menu for your categories.
  • Not manual editing of files required. OpenBook have a special tab in wordpress admin panel where you can set up the options for the theme, including featured posts, featured category, blog logo, number of posts to display on the gallery, categories to display on the blog homepage…
  • Integrated IE6 killer. If checked, IE6 will litterally crash.
  • Compatible with Firefox 2, Firefox 3 beta, Safari, Opera, Internet Explorer 7 and 6.
  • Widget-ready sidebar
  • SEO-friendly titles
  • 3 page templates: normal, Links and Archives
  • Compatible with WordPress 2.3 to 2.5.1

Wordpress premium theme:openbook

OpenBook live demo and Download

You can download Openbook v3.0 here. If you want to see how it looks, just have a look at lyxia.org. OpenBook 3.0 is compatible with WordPress 3.X, support sidebar widgets and WP 3.0 menu system.
I just ask you one thing, if you use the theme, please leave the backlink in the footer. Thanks in advance!

I had a few support request from people who doesn’t know how they can retrieve a particular category id, I guess this tutorial will help :)

Feel free to comment, or request support, I’ll try to help you as much as I can ;)

Comments (101) - Leave yours

  1. Thème wordpress magazine: Openbook v2.2 est disponible said:

    [...] Vous l’avez peut-être remarqué, depuis quelques jours j’expérimente sur mon blog une nouvelle version d’OpenBook, mon thème WordPress magazine. Cette nouvelle version corrige quelques bugs, apporte pas mal de nouvelles possibilités mais, comme il se doit, est toujours 100% gratos. Speak English? Download the OpenBook theme, in English, here. [...]

  2. Zhu said:

    Nice theme!

    I was looking for a new one a couple of weeks ago, I wish I had known. I settled for the Option Theme which is pretty cool too but I really like this one.

    It’s amazing to see how evolved themes have become… or how talented people have become!

    Is there actually a kill IE6 feature? :lol:

  3. jbj said:

    Thanks for your compliments Zhu! I’m agree that the Option Theme is very cool, and your blog looks good!

    Yeah OpenBook gots a “kill IE6 feature”: If checked, when someone will try to visit your website with IE6, it will crash. This is radical, trust me ;)

    If you’re interested in codes to crash IE6, you should suscribe to the rss feed, because I wrote a post named “6 html codes to crash IE6″ ;)

  4. Jack said:

    Great theme!

    Are there any instructions on how to easily implement it, for instance how to define the custom image for the SmoothGallery?

    Thanks.

  5. jbj said:

    Hi jack, you`ll find what you need on hqck woordpress: http://hackwordpress.com/free-magazine-wordpress-theme-introducing-openbook/

    See ya!

  7. steve said:

    hey there, awesome theme.. I have installed works rel good on firefox and safari.. but then the smoothgallery comes in at the wrong dimensions on inetrnet explorer..

    any ideas?

  8. jbj said:

    Hi Steve, and thx for the compliments! I had to reduce the Smooth Gallery width on IE because it didn’t worked properly with the right width, wich is 600px.
    Let me now if you found how to fix this problem.

  9. jan said:

    hi~
    cant download…if i clcik on the download link the download window appears and when i click on save it just disappears and nothing happens.

    why do u think is that?

  13. JR said:

    Hey JBJ,

    I absolutely LOVE the theme. Thanks so much for it. I just have one small question. When I place an image on the homepage using the “Image” custom field…the articles on the right column wrap nicely around the image…the images on the left do not for some reason. Any Suggestions? You can see what I mean here:

    http://www.truthmerchants.com

    Thanks again,

    JR

  14. jbj said:

    Hi JR, and thanks a lot for your compliments.

    I known the problem you’re talking about, and it will be fixed for the next version.
    For now, just edit the style.css file and find the following lines:

    #rightcol img {
    float:left;
    margin:3px 10px 4px 0;
    }

    #leftcol img {
    display:block;
    margin-bottom: 4px;
    }

    Delete it, and paste this instead:

    #rightcol img, #leftcol img {
    float:left;
    margin:3px 10px 4px 0;
    border:1px solid #000;
    }

    The problem will be solved. Happy blogging ;)

  15. hypatia said:

    Hey just wanted to let you know about an incompatibility between SmoothGallery and the Formbuilder Plug-in by TruthMedia Internet Group.

  18. Wet Squid said:

    I was wondering if this theme is designed only to work for posts which only have a single category. Some of my posts belong to multiple categories, and this seems to create lots of duplication in the main page’s category posts.

    Another issue is in the setup screen. We see this twice:

    Categories to display on left column:
    Categories to display on left column:

    Do they mean the same thing?

    Anyway great theme, looking forward to the next version.

  19. jbj said:

    You’re right, this function isn’t that great when osts belongs to more than one category. It will be removed in the next OpenBook version anyways. :)

  24. FreeSoftNews new Theme said:

    [...] comments For testing is now activated new FreeSoftNews theme. This theme is modified version of OpenBook theme. I made color and graphic changes, so that new theme looks like old Cordobo Green Park [...]

  25. FreeSoftNews said:

    Hi

    Thanks for great theme. I really like that and so I made my own theme, based on Your (changed some graphic and colors).

    You can look my new theme at: http://freesoftnews.com website.
    My old theme was Cordobo Green Park, and I want, that new theme looks similar to old one. So I take the colors from Cordobo Green and added these to new one.

    Thanks again

    FreeSoftNews team

  28. toto said:

    This is probably very easy but I’m trying to change the colour of the green text header for each post..under each category in the main section…I have changed some other coours, just the post t5itle I cannot fine. I just can’t find which line it is in the style.css. any help appreciated..cool theme by the way and very easy for a novice like me.

  30. Leonaut.com said:

    OpenBook…

    OpenBook a widget-ready Magazine-style theme, including 2 columns and SmoothGallery for your featured posts. 3 availables custom fields to insert images on the homepage featured gallery, on homepage posts and categories posts. Magazine-style dropdown-m…

  31. Anand said:

    Browser: IE 7

    There is a big black space below the gallery and the main page content. The page however looks fine with FireFox.

    I am not sure as to which file I need to edit. I have not completed the site as of yet and hence I can’t give the URL here. I will contact JBJ directly.

    Is there any fix for this problem?

    Anand

  35. Anand said:

    How can I edit the logo?

    It is in JPG format and not in PSD format? Do you have PSD format?

    Also how ca I replace logo with the text heading?

  36. Anand said:

    Hi,

    Archives and Blogroll are displayed only in full post pages and not in index page. Is there any way to show them on the home page as well. Also tags are not displayed on the single page of the post if I enable widgets.

  37. jbj said:

    Anand, just edit the sidebar.php file: You’ll find some conditionnal php function like is_home() or is_single. Delete theses function (but leave the code between the { and } ) and the blogroll/Archives/Tag cloud will be displayed on every page.

  38. Lorenzo said:

    hello, Thanks for this beautiful theme,

    I need some help:
    I would use the “photo user” plug in with which a user can upload his photo,
    teorically I could use “local avatar” plug in to associate LOCAL PHOTO, GRAVATAR and other..
    How can add User uploaded photo to your theme?

    thank you..

  39. jbj said:

    @Lorenzo, I never heard about this plugin before so to be honest, I don’t know. Try to edit the the gravatar code in the footer.php file.

    Good luck!

  40. Lorenzo said:

    Thank you I solved the problem, will let user to use gravatar =)

    Now I need another tip.. pleaseeee

    I’m building a quite complete portal for my town,
    quite hard work, quite professional structure, quite complete interface..

    I miss something to be good, somebody helps me?

    1) I would give the possibility to users to upload image on comments,
    it is very important
    1.1) There is a plugin?
    1.2) I perform it (manually, so bad) with the img tag, but the image has to be uploaded.. how can I let the user upload the image?

    2) I would let visitors to register with a different interface since the wordpress one.. which plugin do you suggest?

  41. jbj said:

    1: I don’t really know. It might be possible to let users upload images by developping a custom plugin, but I don’t know if a plugin already exists.

    2: Lucky you, koen just posted something like this on WpVote.com.

  43. jbj said:

    @TheWebpreneur.ca: What a cool idea. I’m currently making a new version of the theme, so you can expect a widgetized footer soon :)

  44. Lorenzo said:

    thank you =)

    what about (HERE) to share the most used plug in for this wonderful theme?
    I think my necessity are common.. and surely others useful.. nop?

  46. Da Lash said:

    Hi JBJ,

    I have implemented Openbook on my blog… www.abhilashkumar.com

    If you notice… there is a problem with the Travel Category. The images are displaying, but not the text. Any idea as to why this is happenning?

    I tried whatever I could think of. Also if I put the travel category on the right side then the images of the posts appear below each other but are indented to the right after the first post.

    Would appreciate your help.

    Thanks.

  47. Da Lash said:

    Hi JBJ,

    Another thing.

    Even when I go into the Travel Category the same thing is happening.

    You can check it out on my blog since its live.

    www.abhilashkumar.com

    Thanks.

  48. jbj said:

    @Da Lash: really weird. The page used in your travel category is the same as in your tachnology category, one works and not the other…Have you set an excert for each post?

    If you want, I can go to your blog and try to find/correct the problem, but it will be paid support.

  49. Da Lash said:

    JBJ,

    You solved my problem… earlier these posts were in the gallery category so the theme that I was using had applied the excerpts!

    I removed them and now its fine…

    Thanks a lot for your help.

  54. ct said:

    Thanks for the template. I’d like to use the template without bothering with the SmoothGallery and custom fields and custom images for multiple articles.

    How can I fill the big black box with the title(s) of one or more articles and perhaps a background image?

    Also, my site title is not showing up anywhere in the template. I don’t know if this is normal. Most template pull the title and tagline of the site in somewhere.

  55. jbj said:

    @ct: Yes, the site title didn’t show up anywhere. You should use a logo instead :)

    For the Smooth gallery, you should edit the #myGallery id with your bg image. The header right block automatically displays your last articles.

    Tell me if you need more help!

  58. MOin said:

    Open book is great jbj you really did some nice job with it i downloaded it a little while ago and editing it to my suit my needs. the admin panel options are great specially the logo url thats really easy for many people who dont know hard coding of themes and smoothgallery is also seeing nice (no matter how much do i edit it i promise your footer link will be intact)

  59. Andy said:

    Great theme!

    Are there any instructions on how to easily implement it, for instance how to define the custom image for the SmoothGallery?

    Thanks.

  61. Lynn said:

    Nice theme, and thanks for sharing it. A couple questions though…

    If I want to ad Adsense to it, can it be done easily with existing plugins? And if I want to remove the link at the bottom, can I pay a small fee?

    Thanks for answering my questions and for offering this theme without cost.

  64. Bill said:

    I have two blogs, one running 2.3.1 and the other 2.3.2. I’m going to use this on my oldest blog as it is running the least plugins. Thanks for allowing us to use your template jbj.

    Just out of curiousity, is the IE 6 killer a prank or is there a compatibility issue with IE 6?

  66. Vlad V said:

    This is a great theme, but i have some problems with it:
    1) The smooth gallery dosen’t quite work,the “animation/gif(image with some text on it)” isn’t working,the “css” isn’t working neither in Firefox or IE, visit the site to see exactly http://www.unsprezece.com
    2) Even tough I set the gallery to show just one post it shows more than one.
    3)In Internet Explorer the post in smooth gallery are shown above the categories.
    4)How can i make a post to always stay in the smooth gallery?
    Visit the site http://www.unsprezece.com in firefox and IE and you will have a better understanding of my problems.Please help.

  68. Voos Baratos said:

    Hello there! This thing looks great! A part of that what most is that you can configure it without having to go into the code and change it! I will download it and try it out for sure! Thank you very much

  69. kaisercrazy said:

    Hi,

    i use ur openbook theme (i translate it turksih for my website) and i manually fixed #myGallery line in ie.css for ie6 :) because homepage gallery (or slider) move to right on ie6.
    if anyone have a problem in the homepage gallery;

    open ie.css from theme editor and find

    #myGallery{
    position:relative !important;
    position:absolute; /* ie6 only */
    left: auto !important;
    left:157px;
    }

    and change left:157px; line like below

    left:30px;

    it’s all done. feautred images now seems like on firefox :)
    (sorry about my english)

    regards.
    http://www.kaisercrazy.com (Turkish)

  70. etoainshrdlu said:

    Thanks! it’s an awesome theme! my gallery seems to only show some of the images, and not others. Any idea as to why? They are all 600*250

  72. kaisercrazy said:

    Hi me again :)

    i add a little code in index.php and i have a little lovely main page on this theme :D

    i justify left and right columns.

    open index.php on your design section with editor.
    find
    (there are 2 lines like this)

    and replace with this code

    its all done! now look at your main page :)

  75. Download Games said:

    Wow! I can’t wait to put this up on my personal blog. It’s such a great theme. One question – does this theme come bundled up with plugins that needs to be installed prior to theme installation?

    Thanks for sharing this.
    Cheers!

  76. Jake said:

    Dear!!
    Wow It is good job.
    I want to use openbook theme in my blog.
    But I can’t download zip file. I think the link is broken.
    Can you send to me by e-mail or fix the link?

    Please!!!

  78. Lana @ Low Book Sales said:

    Nice theme. I have been using it for a few days now. It tuns ok on firefox but there are a few problems when it comes to IE7. I saw that there were comments with regards to this earlier as well. Any ideas???

  82. DonAndy said:

    Hello @ll , i have a Problem with the Smooth gallery ! I cant change the settings .Which files I must change with it this claps ?!? Please need help !

  84. The Plaid Rhino said:

    I like the theme design, but I really have no use for the section with the smoothgallery, as I don’t typically post a lot of images with articles.

    How would I edit the them to leave the basic structure and layout but remove the top/middle section with the rotating images on the left and the list of new articles on the right?

    Thank you for a great theme.

  87. Chad said:

    Brilliant theme, simply brilliant.

    One question for you, jd.gallery.css defines: “.jdGallery .slideElement” as having a “background-image: url(‘img/loading-bar-black.gif’);” However, this file does not exist. This is causing a 404 on my site. Where can I find this file? Also, this maybe a nice fix for the theme as well.

    Thanks again.

  88. sunday best said:

    Just what I’ve been looking for. This theme is perfect for my blog on designer wear. Thank you evry much for sharing it with us. I will let you know when I apply the theme to my blog. expect some changes. Thanks again.

  91. LMS said:

    That’s a super cool theme. It’s no wonder that the theme is a premium one. But thanks a million for getting it us for free. Really appreciate it. Cheers

  93. eloise said:

    Hello J-B,
    I’ve been using your theme since almost the day you released it and I really think it’s awesome.
    I am reluctant to upgrade to wordpress’s latest version only because I’m not sure that it won’t break my theme.
    So please JB, will you make it available for version 2.8+ of wordpress?
    Thank you for your time you put in making wonderful themes for us.

  96. V.L. said:

    I love this theme…it is beautiful! I was wondering if there is any way that I can still get it, as the download link no longer works. I would appreciate it very much.

    Thanks!!

  99. Lonce said:

    Dear Jean,
    sorry to ask but can we still download this OpenBook theme thru ur link?
    Let me know Thanks

    • kate said:

      download link is still down. Please tell me if there is another download location, I was looking forward to trying this theme

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