Theme

Fernlight is a calm, editorial full-site-editing block theme for writers and slow-living blogs. Everything it ships with, on one page — see it live on the demo.

Fernlight began as a house theme for an editorial blog, then was rebuilt as a clean, generic, reusable theme for anyone who wants calm defaults and full control. It's opinionated about calm and agnostic about everything else.

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Native AI details in the theme

Fernlight 1.2.51 makes the site legible to AI tools without turning the theme into an AI product. It ships passive structure only: pattern intent, semantic families, slot definitions, starter-site and template manifests, token descriptions, marker descriptors, and prompt guidance.

• Pattern intent metadata tells tools what each pattern is for, where it belongs on a page, what human input is still needed, and what nearby patterns make sense.
• Semantic families and slots label areas like intro, proof, email capture, next step, reading path, resource, and support so an owner can ask better questions without losing editorial control.
• Starter-site, template, and token manifests describe the Writer starter structure, layout intent, typography rhythm, color roles, and accessibility posture.
• Hard boundary: the theme does not call AI services, expose write tools, create prompt UI, store AI settings, or edit content. Companion exposes the read-only discovery layer; Pro owns reviewable draft workflows.

Reading & typography

• Cormorant Garamond (display) + DM Sans (UI/body), self-hosted WOFF2, on a measured reading column.
• Six one-click editorial block styles: Lede, Deck, Kicker, Baseline, Display, Compact.
• Documented reading/editorial measures, baseline rhythm, and a 7-step fluid type scale.

Style variations — eight looks

Default (slate-blue), Sage, Ink, Warm Sand, Clay, Sky, Dusk, and a true Dark. Switch in the Site Editor; because everything is built on semantic color roles, changing one palette value re-skins the whole site. Automatic dark mode follows the reader's system setting and is off by default on fresh installs.

Patterns — 80+ across six groups

• Heroes & headers (6) · Editorial sections (13) · Post building blocks (13)
• Newsletter & calls to action (3) · Post lists & archives (10) · Full-page layouts (7)

Drop a pattern in and replace the words. See them live on the demo →

Full-site editing

Header, footer, every template (index, single, page, home, archive, search, 404), colors, and fonts are editable in the Site Editor. Centered and Minimal header/footer variations plus an FSE-native desktop mega-menu. No page builder, no lock-in, no shortcodes.

Performance & accessibility

• Zero front-end JavaScript; conditional CSS with an always-loaded base under 10 KB; self-hosted, preloaded fonts.
• WCAG 2.2 AA contrast across every variation, a proper skip link, strengthened focus states, single landmarks.
• Reduced-motion-aware View Transitions, a reading-first print stylesheet, and styled RSS/Atom feeds.

Fernlight Child

Companion generates a Fernlight child theme on demand (Appearance › Fernlight › Settings), stamped with your current parent version, for custom CSS or template overrides that survive parent updates — no separate download to track.

Requirements

WordPress 6.7+ (Abilities API on 6.9+), PHP 8.0+, GPL-2.0-or-later, translation-ready with a bundled POT, full RTL, and Polylang / WPML compatibility.