Jul 29, 2015 / Layout & Design

Colors and Lines: A Quick Customization Roundup

From header images to custom widgets, these posts will help you achieve the blog design you’re after.

Whether it’s in Community Pool comments or discussions in the Blogging U. Commons, it’s clear that bloggers care a great deal about making their site look just right — often even before they publish their first post.

Sometimes you only realize a feature is right for you when you see it in action. If you’d like to browse through some gorgeously customized blogs, be sure to check out the Customization category on The WordPress.com Blog.

This makes total sense: the design and feel of your blog says almost as much about your personality and the type of blogger you are as your posts. It can sometimes be overwhelming to start customizing, though (so many options!), so we’d like to help. Here are some of The Daily Post‘s most popular posts on the topic of customization — give them a try!

Setting the stage

Before diving into the nitty-gritty details of customization, it’s important to think about the why: what should you be aiming for with your site’s visual brand?

A good customization often hinges on finding a color palette that matches your content and works well with your theme. This intro explains how to think about colors with your audience in mind.

Nuts and bolts

A custom header sets the tone for your blog, and is often the first visual cue your readers notice. This tutorial shows how you can create a bespoke header quickly using image editing service PicMonkey.

Custom image widgets are a visual element that can instantly make your site look more polished and professional — and this tutorial shows how easy they are to create.

Custom backgrounds have a subtle-but-crucial effect on the way visitors approach your site: they anchor all the other pieces in place, and can help (or, when done wrong, hurt) your posts’ readability.

More tips on choosing the right custom background for your site, with helpful pointers on how to select colors and photos that complement your overall design.

Resources and tools

A similar tutorial to the one in the previous section, this one invites you to try out Canva, another user-friendly online image editor.

From customizing your social messages to creating custom headers and widgets, these two (free) online tools can help you add an extra layer of polish to your site.

Many of the features discussed in this roundup require high-quality images to work well. If you don’t have any, no worries — the web is full of gorgeous images that you can use for free on your blog.

If you have any design tip to share or a favorite tool you’d like to recommend to others, please let us know in the comments.

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  1. My header was black and white. A photo on my husband and me taken before The Accident. As I worked through grief back into joy, my blog changed. A few months ago my header changed. To a color photo of us laughing as we biked along Lake Michigan in Chicago.

    The look of our blog should match the content.

    Liked by 9 people

  5. I usually read these wordpress tips but clearly I missed on 2 recent ones on custom free header photo and design tools. Glad you highlighted them for us again. Maybe a lot of us are on summer vacation..

    Liked by 1 person