Fernlight
A calm, editorial block theme for writers and slow-living blogs.
Fernlight is built for one thing: long-form writing that's a pleasure to read. A curated palette, a serif/sans type pairing, and a generous reading measure come set out of the box — so your words look considered from the first paragraph.
Download Fernlight · Browse the pattern library · Getting started
Who it's for
Essayists, newsletter writers, slow-living and personal bloggers, and anyone who wants a quiet, typographic site without wrestling a page builder. If you care about line length, rhythm, and white space, Fernlight is already pointed in your direction.
What you get
A reading experience, designed. Cormorant Garamond for display, DM Sans for body, a 720px measure, and a consistent spacing scale — tuned together so posts feel coherent without any custom CSS.
52 block patterns. Heroes, editorial sections, post building blocks, newsletter and call-to-action sections, post lists, and seven full-page layouts. Build a homepage, an about page, or a long essay in minutes by dropping in patterns.
7 style variations — including dark. Sage, Clay, Dusk, Ink, Sky, Warm Sand, and a true Dark mode. Switch the whole site's look in two clicks; every pattern re-skins itself because the theme is built on semantic color roles.
Full site editing. Header, footer, templates, colors, and fonts are all editable in the Site Editor. No builder, no lock-in, no shortcodes.
Accessible and fast. A strengthened focus state and proper skip-link, critical fonts preloaded, and WooCommerce styles kept off the page unless you actually run a shop.
An optional companion plugin. Want a platform-agnostic newsletter block, post callouts, a post hero, or a related-posts grid? Add Fernlight Companion. Don't want them? The theme is complete on its own.
Style variations
- Sage — the default: soft green and blue, editorial calm.
- Clay — warm, earthy neutrals.
- Dusk — cooler, low-light tones.
- Ink — high-contrast and crisp.
- Sky — light and airy.
- Warm Sand — paper-warm and gentle.
- Dark — a full dark palette for night reading.
Built right
theme.json v3, WordPress 6.6+, PHP 7.4+, translation-ready, GPL-2.0+. Linted against WordPress Coding Standards and the WordPress.org theme-review action in CI.
Get started
- Install and activate Fernlight.
- Pick a style variation.
- Build your first page from patterns.