Nocturne

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Theme Description

Nocturne is a dark blog theme for ClassicPress. Posts, widgets and comments sit in boxes on a deep blue-black page, with Merriweather for reading and Fira Sans for headings.

  • Requires ClassicPress 2.0 or later and PHP 7.4 or later.
  • Version 0.0.3, licensed under the GPL version 2 or later.

Features

  • Left sidebar, right sidebar or no sidebar, chosen in Customize → Theme: Content → Layout, with a live preview.
  • A primary menu that collapses to a Menu button on phones, and a social menu with icons.
  • Primary and footer widget areas.
  • Featured images, threaded comments and post navigation.
  • Ready for translation.

Nocturne is built on Chassis, which provides the page layout, the menu and the shared styles. The design (colors, fonts, spacing and widths) is set in the theme’s chassis.json file, with no build step needed to change it. The same design is used by the Novaris version of Nocturne.

Installation

  1. In your admin panel, go to Appearance → Themes and click Add New.
  2. Click Upload Theme, choose the theme’s zip file and click Install Now.
  3. Click Activate.
  4. Add widgets to the Primary sidebar in Appearance → Widgets, then choose a layout in Customize → Theme: Content → Layout.

Frequently Asked Questions

Changing the layout doesn’t do anything

The sidebar only shows when the Primary widget area has widgets. Add a widget in Appearance → Widgets, and the Left Sidebar and Right Sidebar layouts will show it.

How do I change the colors?

Colors, fonts and spacing are in chassis.json in the theme’s folder. The colors are named once in settings.palette, so changing one there changes it everywhere it’s used. To keep your changes through updates, make a child theme with its own chassis.json. It only needs the settings you change.

Changelog

See changelog.md.

Development

To build the theme or contribute to it, see docs/development.md.

Copyright and License

Nocturne, Copyright 2026 Benjamin Lu. Nocturne is distributed under the terms of the GNU GPL, version 2 or later.

This theme bundles the following third-party resources:

  • Chassis, Copyright Benjamin Lu. License: GPL-2.0-or-later.
  • Backdrop Framework and Backdrop Fonts, Copyright Benjamin Lu. License: GPL-2.0-or-later.
  • Merriweather, Copyright The Merriweather Project Authors. License: SIL Open Font License, 1.1.
  • Fira Sans, Copyright The Mozilla Foundation and Telefonica S.A. License: SIL Open Font License, 1.1.
  • Font Awesome Free icons (social and meta icons), Copyright Fonticons, Inc. License: CC BY 4.0.
  • Screenshot and layout images, Copyright 2026 Benjamin Lu. License: GPL-2.0-or-later.