iQ2 WordPress Photoblog Theme

iQ2 is a WordPress photoblog theme that fully integrates with the PhotoQ Photoblog Plugin. The main features of the theme at a glance:

  • Fixed width
  • Fully widget compatible
  • Built-in EXIF support (via PhotoQ)
  • Skinnable: Easily exchangeable color schemes allow customizing look of iQ2 to your liking

To see a demo of the theme, please visit http://www.whoismanu.com/iq2-demo/.

If you want to see a live website running on a customized version of the iQ2 WordPress Photoblog Theme you can visit my photoblog.

Screenshots

iQ2 WordPress Photoblog Theme A mosaic of archived photos.

Requirements

While theme iQ2 WordPress Photoblog Theme does no longer (as of version 1.1.) strictly require the PhotoQ Photoblog Plugin, it is still highly recommended. iQ2 assumes photo posts to be formatted in a certain way (e.g. the thumbnail in the excerpt, EXIF data in a custom fields called “photoQExif”). You certainly can enter this data by hand but it is cumbersome, so why not have PhotoQ do the job.

If used together with PhotoQ, iQ2 requires at least version 1.5 of PhotoQ.

Installation

  1. Download, install and activate PhotoQ.
  2. Download the latest version of the iQ2 WordPress Photoblog theme.
  3. Unzip and upload the ‘iq2′ folder to your ‘wp-contents/themes’ directory.
  4. Activate the iQ2 theme in the design tab of the WordPress admin section.

PhotoQ Settings for iQ2

This section explains what configurations you need to make in PhotoQ in order for iQ2 to look like it should. iQ2 being a fixed width theme for example implies that you need to set appropriate widths for the photos you plan to post. If you know how to tweak CSS stylesheets you can of course choose bigger sizes than the ones given here provided that you adjust the iQ2 stylesheet accordingly. In general, however, you go with the following PhotoQ settings:

  • Note: As of PhotoQ 1.8 you don’t have to configure any of the starred options (*) by hand anymore thanks to PhotoQ’s auto-configuration option. Just load the preset for iQ2 and you are done.
  • (*) Image Sizes -> Thumbnail: ‘Landscape Width’ 80px.
  • (*) Image Sizes -> Main: Any size that restricts the maximum width to 700px will do. For example, ‘Maximum Dimensions’ 700×525px.
  • (*) Views -> the_content: ‘Single Photo’ main. Also make sure that neither the “Photo Description” nor the “Exif Meta Data” checkboxes are checked. iQ2 shows both photo description and exif information directly in the theme without inlining, so if you check either of these it will show twice.
  • (*) Views -> the_excerpt: ‘Single Photo’ thumbnail.
  • If you want EXIF information to be displayed, you need to choose the tags to be shown in the EXIF settings.
  • If you want you can of course also add a watermark to your photos. See the PhotoQ documentation for details.

Configuration of iQ2

iQ2 Settings can be found under ‘Design->iQ2 Settings’ in your WordPress admin section. There you can decide whether to show EXIF information or not and what should be displayed in the footer. You can also conveniently switch the color scheme / skin.

To add an archive page showing all your photos you need to do the following:

  1. Add a new WordPress page under “Manage->Pages”.
  2. Give it a suitable title, e.g., ‘Archive’ or ‘Photos’ or ‘Mosaic’ or…
  3. You can leave the page body empty.
  4. Under “Page Template” choose “Archives”.
  5. “Page Order” lets you change the order of the entries in the iQ2 navigation bar.

To add a static front page:

  1. Add a new WordPress page under “Manage->Pages”.
  2. Give it a suitable title, e.g., ‘Front Page’ …
  3. Fill the page body with whatever should appear on your front page.
  4. Under “Page Template” choose “Static Frontpage”.
  5. Save the page.
  6. Under “Settings->Reading->Front page displays” set the radio button to “A static page” and select the page you just created in the drop-down list under “Front Page”.
  7. Save the changes.

Customizing iQ2

The easiest way to customize iQ2 is by adding a new color scheme. Color schemes are a sort of skin for iQ2 and are found in ‘wp-content/themes/iq2/colors/’. A color scheme is basically a CSS file with a file name that starts with ‘iq2-colors-’ and that contains CSS color definitions. You can create your own skin by copying for example the default ‘iq2-colors-aubergine-meets-lime.css’ file and giving it a new name (remember though that you need to keep the ‘iq2-colors-’ prefix, otherwise iQ2 will not recognize the file. Also the file needs to be located inside the ‘colors’ folder). You can then change the color definitions inside your new color scheme to your liking. To activate your new color scheme go to ‘Design->iQ2Settings’ and select your scheme from the drop down list.

Note that the color scheme is loaded after the main stylesheet. This means that you are not really restricted to color definitions only but you should be able to overwrite virtually any CSS property of the iQ2 theme in your color scheme.

If you made a nice looking color scheme for iQ2 please let me know. I would be more than happy to include it in the list below or even in the next release of iQ2. Currently the following color schemes are available:

  • Aubergine Meets Lime: The dark default skin that is shown on the demo page.
  • Cherry Chocolate: A dark skin with a brownish background, yummy!
  • Winter Day: The bright default skin for those who don’t like the dark ones ;-)
  • Fire: Set your blog on fire with this user contributed color scheme by Edd Scorpio.

iQ2 in Your Language

Currently, iQ2 is available in English and German. Both languages are already included in the .zip file. I am always looking for translators, so if you would like to translate iQ2 into your language, please let me know. All i18n related files can be found in the “/lang” directory inside the theme folder. Currently, the translation status of iQ2 is the following:

For errors, suggestions, questions or whatever regarding a translation please contact the translator directly whenever possible. Thanks.

Support iQ2 – Help to Make iQ2 Better

You like iQ2? Here’s what you can do to support iQ2 and help make it better:

  • Any comments, suggestions, bug reports, feature requests, contributions to future versions, etc., etc. are highly appreciated. Any help to improve iQ2 is more than welcome. I cannot fix/improve anything if I don’t know what is wrong.
  • Spread the word. Tell everyone how great iQ2 is. Blog about it. Recommend it on your website. There are a lot of possibilities…
  • You created a color scheme / skin for iQ2 that you would like to share? Great, let me know and I’ll link to it or even include it in the next release.
  • You are using iQ2 on your photoblog? Let me know and I might link to your site.
  • Of course you are also always allowed to donate something via the donate button on this page if you feel it is appropriate.

Troubleshooting

  1. “After updating to PhotoQ 1.6 it doesn’t work anymore!”. Did you update iQ2 as well? You need at least iQ2 1.0.1 to work with PhotoQ versions bigger than v1.6.

Troubleshooting PhotoQ is explained on the PhotoQ homepage.

Version History

  • 22.11.2009 – 1.2.3: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.8.3.
  • 22.09.2009 – 1.2.2: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.8.1. Frontpage now again always has image link.
  • 20.08.2009 – 1.2.1: New options to: change description/keywords html meta info, hide WP version, disable main image link to previous post
  • 18.08.2009 – 1.2: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.8. Add possibility to have a static front page.
  • 23.07.2009 – 1.1: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.7. Adds i18n, paged archives, photo description in RSS feeds, custom welcome message, new skin.
  • 08.04.2009 – 1.0.6: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.6.5. Photo description now has “photoQDescr” CSS class.
  • 18.03.2009 – 1.0.5: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.6.4.
  • 11.03.2009 – 1.0.4: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.6.3.
  • 25.01.2009 – 1.0.3: Better interaction between iQ2 and PhotoQ, singleton pattern updated.
  • 23.01.2009 – 1.0.2: CSS change for archive pages: thumbs are now horizontally centered and their default height is now equal to their default width.
  • 12.12.2008 – 1.0.1: Compatibility update for PhotoQ 1.6.
  • 19.11.2008 – 1.0: First public release.

 

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