Fernlight Theme 1.2.40

Released 2026-06-29 to the WordPress.org theme directory (supersedes 1.2.39).

What changed

Reversed the 1.2.36 default — automatic dark mode is now off on fresh installs (the fernlight_disable_dark_mode option defaults to 1 again), bringing the theme back in line with the Companion setup wizard, the capabilities API, and the performance-diagnostics defaults. Readers who prefer dark can still enable it, and existing sites keep whatever setting they already have.

Mega-menu text polish (1.2.38) — mega-menu navigation text now matches the standard nav bar’s scale, weight, and transform for tighter visual continuity.
Contrast pass (1.2.39) — higher-contrast navigation text across normal and submenu states, on both desktop and mobile.

Archive card-grid fix — the blog and archive card grid now uses a proper auto-fit layout (repeat(auto-fit, minmax(280px, 1fr))) instead of collapsing to a single narrow column, with a clean single-column breakpoint on small screens.
SEO-plugin metadata guard — when a major SEO plugin is active (Rank Math, Yoast SEO, All in One SEO, SEOPress, or The SEO Framework), the theme now steps aside and stops emitting its own title tag and meta description, preventing duplicate output.

No database changes. Update via Appearance → Themes or wp-cli. If you had dark mode toggled on manually, that setting is preserved and unchanged.