Using full images can be problematic, as for the most part they will not conform to the size of everyone’s screen. Viewers with smaller screens will only see part of the image, and viewers with larger screens will see the image surrounded by white space. Even if you could get the image to stretch for larger screens, it would be distorted and pixellated, and this is where patterns come in.

In a sense, a pattern is a small image file which can be tiled seamlessly, thus adapting to any screen size. In WordPress, you can do this by uploading a small pattern image at Appearance -> Backgrounds in your Dashboard and choosing the “Tile” option under the Repeat section.

I did some digging earlier today for a personal project and found some great free patterns at Subtle Patterns and Background Labs, along with two great pattern builders at Pattern Cooler and BgPatterns. You could also build a simple noise-based background pattern in most photo editors by just dropping a noise texture into a small square with your desired color.

If you have ventured out on the hunt for background patterns before, we’d love to know which resources you prefer.

• Fluency Admin by Dean J. Robinson. A nice looking, well documented, well translated admin theme that is often updated.

Wait for it ….. thats it!! (that I could find, please let us know if you know of others that are of high quality and updated regularly) There are various useful and popular tools to control and modify your admin interface such as Ozh’s Admin Drop Down Menu or the Adminimize Plugin, however no admin theme market has developed. The initial momentum seems to have fizzled out. We feature hundreds of themes for your WordPress blog every month. I barely ever see one for the admin side.

It really sucks to know that there is such a demand for these, but no supply whatsoever. To encourage talented developers and feed this need in the WordPress community, I would like to offer up our services for what they are worth. If you create, build and support a high quality admin theme (we decide what is high quality) for WordPress and release it under the GPL as appropriate, we will let you feature your admin theme and your design services on this blog for our readers. Think of it as free advertising in exchange for some service to the community. (Please leave a comment or use the contact form linked above if you need clarification or have questions.)

Are you interested?

Baughxie – a polished but very lightweight two column theme.

Mini – Minimal and elegant three column theme.

Simple Green – Very professional and very fast.

R755 – Simple yet sophisticated. Can be either two or three columns.

Swift – This is actually more of a theme framework than a theme. It has a theme options page with layout, font, and color options. Nicely done.

So without further ado, especially if you want to play around with BuddyPress, please head over to the shiny new WLTC Community and register for either a username or a blog. I hope to meet you there!

Learn some new tricks and discover new tools and plugins to speed up your WordPress blog. I have run into some scalability issues with this blog recently and have learned quite a bit.

Jean-Baptiste tells us about 10 awesome .htaccess hacks for your WordPress blog including the ability to redirect visitors to a maintenance page while you can continue to see and work on your blog.

If you like a theme, want to make small changes to the way it looks but do not want to make changes to the core theme files (for future updates etc.), child themes are the way to go. Remember to send Demetris a thank you if you like the work he has put into this documentation.

[EDIT] James provided a preview of all 100 themes here.

Linking to an image I found on a quick Google image search, this is what I was able to come up with. Click on the image to see the full size.

Big Huge Labs allows you to edit your result, save the image or share it through links or email. You can also elect to start over if you choose.

Although I hate seeing Kubrick being used all over the place, it’s nice to see such a generator service for those that would like to do things this way. I realize the default Kubrick theme has the option to upload a new header image but it’s no where near as nice as this generator.

I just tried out some of the features including addition of pictures and related links but the soup generated is not pretty and I personally do not care for it. But it is still Alpha code but it sure is fun to play with and discover related and relevant content to display to your readers. If you are a WordPress (or Blogger) user, give it a try and let us know what you think.

Blue Lily

Blue Lily is a three column theme which is quite simple and attractive, the main background is a striking blue with green color for the header. The navigation menu is right on the top of the page making it easily visible.

Content area is big enough and has a gray background. There are two sidebars which you can use to show off additional information.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock.

Validations: Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Invalid CSS with 1 error

Demo | Release Page | Download

Blue Dream

Blue Dream is a three column theme with a graphical header and rounded navigational menu on the top of the page. The theme comes built in with RSS icons on top of the page to make it easier to subscribe to feeds.

There are two sidebars which can be used to display additional information and advertisements.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock.

Validations: Invalid XHTML 1.0 Transitional with 32 errors | Valid CSS

Demo / Download

Airborne

Airborne is a three column theme which makes use of clouds in the header and footer sidebar section as a background. The main content area is a bit small which does not allow you to add big images into the content.

There are two sidebars for showing additional content, it also has a footer sidebar where you can add more content allowing you pack all the information like top posts, recent posts etc in a single page.

Note: The release page is in German.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock.

Validations: Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Valid CSS

Demo / Download

Two Column Themes

GreenTech

GreenTech is a two column theme with pleasant colors. It makes use of a mix of brown and green colors. The background is creme in color. There are plenty of advertisement options available in this theme.

Author comments on the blog are styled differently than the other comments. Overall a good looking theme.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock. The header section appears broken in Opera.

Validations: Invalid XHTML 1.0 Transitional with 29 errors | Invalid CSS with 1 error

Demo | Release Page | Download

Three Column Themes

My Starcraft 2

My Starcraft 2 is a theme based on Starcraft 2. The theme uses dark and vibrant colors with a mix of black and gray. The links are orange color making it more visible on the darker background.

Overall looks are quite good with ample advertising options. The theme is available in English and German versions

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers.

Validations: Invalid XHTML 1.0 Transitional with 11 errors | Invalid CSS with 3 errors

Demo / Release Page /Download

Four Column Themes

Techicon

Techicon is a wide 4 column theme with beautiful use of colors. It is simple and classy at the same time. The theme comes with a sub header with 3 columns which can be used to display information such as Latest posts, popular posts etc.

The main content area is quite wide and can easily accommodate large images, the sidebar is huge and is made up of three smaller sidebars. Overall a great theme with ample advertising options.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers.

Validations: Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Invalid CSS with 3 errors

Demo | Release Page | Download

Plugin Releases

Set Email “From” Address

The default emails that get sent out by WordPress is usually wordpress@yourdomain.com. This plugin allows you to change the from address to any email you want to so that all outgoing emails go out with your personalized email address.

Compatible Versions: WordPress 2.0 and above

Category: Administration

Release page | Download

SmartLinks Widget

This plugin allows you to automatically display content from Amazon, Netflix, Last.fm, IMDB etc. The items have SmartLink rather than links which opens up a small inline window with the best information from around the web without the user have to leave your site. (Disclosure: SmartLinks is an advertiser on this blog)

[EDIT] from the comments:

Smartlinks offers personalized Widgets for Netflix Queue, Amazon Wishlist, and Last.fm playlists. Each contains a SmartLink that allows you to monetize the content in a number of ways.

Compatible Versions: Up To WordPress 2.3.2Category: Widgets

Release Page | Download

Berri Technorati Reactions on Dashboard

WordPress 2.3 and above displays incoming links from Google Blog Search, this plugin displays you the Technorati Reactions of your blog in the Admin Dashboard.

Compatible Versions: WordPress 2.3 and above

Category: Administration

Release Page | Download

One Column Themes

DePo Skinny

A very simple one column theme with easy integration for your Flickr pictures at the top of the page. It is a real bare bone theme and is only 500 pixels wide. Though DePo Skinny does not have a sidebar it makes it up in the footer with a bottom sidebar to display additional information.

Being a one column theme main advertisement options are within the post itself.

Widget Ready: No Sidebar Options

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers.

Validations: Invalid XHTML 1.0 Transitional with 30 errors | Valid CSS

Demo | Download

Two Column Themes

Twister 2.0

Twister 2.0 is made up of dark colors with a mix of gray and black with on a grayish background. The links are white in color and easy to spot with the darkish background. However the text color is harder to read in bright lights. This is an update over the earlier version which includes CSS code cleanup a fix for sidebar in IE6 and a new addition of 3 new columns in the footer.

Overall a good looking theme which is a bit more than simple. Main flaw is that there is very limited advertisement options.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers.

Validations: Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Invalid CSS with 90 warnings

Demo | Download

Codelog

Codelog is a minimalistic two column theme with sparse use of colors. The theme consists of a sidebar and navigation to the left side. The right side consists of the content area.

Codelog theme is quite simple and makes use of 3-4 colors. Advertising options are limited to the content area.

Widget Ready: No

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers.

Validations: Valid XHTML 1.1 | Valid CSS

Demo | Download

Three Column Themes

Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace is a fast loading theme made with light colors that are variants of green. There are two levels of menus one on the top of the page and one included in the header which are quite diversified to gain maximum user attention on the top of the page.

The link colors are a bit dull and a darker shade would look more better. Other than that a good theme which can be optimized to include better advertisement options.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE6, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers.

Validations: Invalid XHTML 1.0 Transitional with 45 errors Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional| Valid CSS

Demo | Download

ColorblindS

Colorblinds is a dark 3 column theme with minimal use of colors, the background is made up of gray and black with small squares and rectangles forming part of the background image. The text is again gray with the links a mix of variations of green. Comes built with a drop down menu which I don’t see would be useful for regular blogs. Overall quite a simple theme and good for blogs which do not want much fanfare.

The major backdrop is advertising options are quite limited for both contextual as well as banner ads.

Widget Ready: Yes

Compatibility: There were no issues that I saw with this theme on Firefox 2+, IE7, Flock and Opera browsers. In IE6 I could see some color loss in the content area.

Validations: Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional | Valid CSS

Demo | Download

• WP Tiger
• Spotmilk
• JS Spotmilk
• Planet X7
• afd WordPress2
• WordPress NiceAdmin
• WordTunes2
• Shuttle
• Digg
• Barunio

Unfortunately, two of the admin themes, Digg and WordTunes2 are MIA but I did manage to dig up one more that should be mentioned. If I missed a couple, please leave a comment and I will add it to the list.