Quark is based on the Underscores (_s) and TwentyTwelve themes, so that means not only is it flexible, it’s extremely easy to customise. After upgrading the base html with a 12 column grid, I then added my own features that I constantly use when creating themes for my own clients. The code is clean and tidy and sprinkled with just the right amount of comments to help make editing a real breeze.

Quark has a lot of nifty features, most of which you wont see as they’re under the hood. If you’d like to know what makes this theme so special though, then read on my friend…

It’s using a responsive, 12 column grid, with percentage column widths and a default max-width of 1200px. Of course, it’s super simple to change this if you need to though.

It’s using rem font sizing (Root em’s) with fallback to px for IE8 and below. The rem unit is relative to the root—or the html—element. This allows for more consistent font sizing throughout the site as well as making it easier when working out your font sizes.

It incorporates the latest version of Normalize.css (v3.0.1) for making sure that browsers render all elements more consistently and in line with modern standards. As well as the latest version of Modernizr (2.8.3) for detecting HTML5 and CSS3 browser capabilities.

Creating Theme Options is super easy with the inclusion of the Options Framework by Devin Price.

Includes over 300 gorgeous, retina friendly icons. Powered by Font Awesome, these icons are infinitely scalable and extremely easy to style using css.

It utilises box-sizing:border-box for a more natural box layout model as well as incorporating some default stylings from HTML5 Boilerplate.

You can download Quark from the official WordPress.org Theme Directory

When viewed on mobile or tablet screens, the custom media query breakpoints keep the design looking sweet. With so many devices out there now along with a huge array of different screen sizes, using custom breakpoints makes sure your design works, no matter what screen it’s viewed on. No more worrying about what devices you should be targetting.

If you’d like to envoke a button toggle for the main navigation menu on small screens, simply uncomment a couple of lines from the functions.php file and you’re good to go.

Editing your Pages and Posts gives you a true WYSIWYG experience with the custom TinyMCE Editor styling.

When clicking on your blog posts to view the full article, it wont jump part way down the screen. Instead, it simply links to the top of the post.

Shortcodes have been enabled by default, in your sidebar widgets.

It utilises a WP Nav Menu filter to add an extra class for menu items that have children (ie. sub menus). This allows for some pretty styling on the drop-down menu items.

Both Custom Backgrounds and Custom Headers are supported, to make it simple to perform some basic styling right from the Dashboard.

The Login error message has also been changed so that it no longer advises whether it was the username or password that was incorrect. Instead, just a generic error message is displayed. This is just one more way that Quark makes it harder for hackers to determine your login Username or password.

There’s some extra user contact methods added to the User Profile screens that allow you to specify your Twitter, Facebook & Google+ profiles.

Quark comes bundled with the following Page templates and Post Formats…

Credits:

Quark utilises the following awesomeness:

Options Framework, which is licensed under the GPLv2 license
Modernizr, which is licensed under the MIT license
Normalize.css, which is licensed under the MIT license
jQuery Validation, which is dual licensed under the MIT license and GPL licenses
Font Awesome icon font, which is licensed under SIL Open Font License and MIT license
PT Sans font, which is licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1
Arvo font, which is licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1

Copyright & License

Quark is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPL).

This theme is copyrighted to Anthony Hortin.
2013 © Anthony Hortin. All rights reserved.