Drupal 6.x Starter Theme Comparison

This table shows the current crop of themes that identify themeselves as starter themes for Drupal.

A starter or "base" theme is one that typically has very little style and is designed primarly for the purpose of building your own unique Drupal theme. For more information about theming Drupal view the Drupal 6 Theme Guide.

In case you dont know, Drupal is an Open Source Content Management Framework built with PHP and supported by a huge community. Visit Drupal.org to learn more.

To view each theme in its "raw" unstyled glory, please visit the Drupal starter themes test site, where you can switch between the various candidates and view the source code etc. You can log into the demo site and see some of the admin features and edit some content which will show more of the base themes handling of forms etc - user: demo, pw: demo. The test-site resets every few hours. In due course I will be adding Forums, Aggregator content and other blocks to the test site so we can have a better over-view of the output of each candidate theme.

When selecting a starter theme it is highly advisable for you to first visit the themes project page and view its issue queue.

To report a mistake or inconsistancy in this over-view, or to add a comment about it, please see http://drupal.org/node/324902.

	Zen	Genesis	ATCK	Basic	Beginning	Blueprint	Clean	Flexible 2	Foundation	Framework	Hunchbaque	Tendu
Regions²	left sidebar right sidebar navigation bar content top content bottom header footer closure	Leaderboard Header Blocks Secondary Content Content top Main Content Content bottom Tertiary Content Sidebar Left Sidebar Right Footer	Left sidebar Right sidebar Content top Content Bottom Footer	Left sidebar Right sidebar Content Header Footer	Right sidebar Left sidebar Header Featured Content Bottom content Footer top Footer left Footer middle Footer right	Left sidebar Right sidebar Content Header Footer	Left sidebar Right sidebar Content Header Footer	Header Top Header Bottom Left Sidebar Content Top Content Bottom Right Sidebar Footer Top Footer Bottom	Left sidebar Right sidebar Content Header Footer	Left sidebar Right sidebar Content Header Footer	Header Top content Content Primary blocks Secondary blocks Footer	Header Main navigation Left sidebar Right sidebar Above Content Content Beneath Content Footer
Tabeless CSS layout	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Layout Technique	Opposing Floats, Negative margins, Border Politics Method.	Float left, Negative margins, Layout Gala method.	Float left.	Zen layout (modified)	Float left, Negative margins	Float Left, Blueprints float left/margin right method	Float left.	Float left.	Float left.	Opposing floats, depends on sidebars	Floats, Negative margins, text-align	Opposing floats.
Fluid/Fixed	Fluid & Fixed	Fluid & Fixed	Fixed & Fluid, 4x px widths to choose from, 4x em widths + % widths supported	Fluid & Fixed	Fixed 960px	Fixed 950px	Fixed 910px	Fluid	Fluid & Fixed width supported	Fixed 960	Fluid, some support for fixed width	Fluid & Fixed
SEO Source ordered	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
Sidebars/Cols	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Left/Center/Right 2 cols right Variable widths, all collaspible 7 optional layouts via body ID selector	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout, you can use an online Grid builder to build more complex layouts. page.tpl.php included is just an example/guide for building your own.	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout	Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout

Width, padding, margin values etc	Pixels & ems	ems	Ems & percentages	Pixels & ems	Pixels & ems	Pixels & ems	Pixels & ems	Uses percentage widths with a pixel min-width type setup	Percentages & Pixels	Pixels & ems	Pixels & ems	Pixels, percentages & ems
Typograhical values	ems	75% (12px) set relative in ems	ems	ems	ems	ems	ems	Keyword small & ems	13px, set relative in percentages	75% (12px) set relative in ems	ems	ems
Vertical/Baseline grid	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
RTL support	No	Some, IE not well supported	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes - by far the best of all starter themes.
CSS Reset*	No	No	YUI reset	Yes (YUI reset, commented out by default)	Yes, * universal 0 reset method	Yes	Yes, * universal 0 reset method	No	Effectively yes.	Effectively yes.	Yes	Yes
Print CSS	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Defined in .info, but not included in the download
IE fix	Yes, via .info file (template conditional-styles.inc)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes, nice php function included	Yes
#Stylesheets	7 + 1 IE (8)	A lot, I lost count...	2 + 2IE (4)	5 + 2 IE (7)	1 (1)	4 + 2 IE (6)	6 + 2x IE (8)	2 (2)	1 (1)	2 + 2x IE (4)	4 + 2 IE (6)	1 + 2 IE (3) + full RTL support (+3 RTL)
Extra CSS classes, such as body, node, comment classes	Yes + standard phptemplate.	Yes + standard phptemplate.	Yes	Yes + standard phptemplate.	Standard phptemplate only	Extra body classes for layout, comment & block classes + standard phptemplate.	Standard phptemplate only	Add extra classes via theme settings + standard phptemplate.	Standard phptemplate only	Defines own for layout only, no added body_classes	Yes + standard phptemplate.	Yes + standard phptemplate.
Heavy / Lite³	Medium/Heavy	Medium/Heavy	Medium/Heavy	Medium/Heavy	Medium	Lite	Lite	Heavy	Lite	Lite	Lite	Lite
Additional support for Subthemes ⁴	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Ease of customisation	Good	Good	Excellent	Good	Untested	Good	Good	Debatable	Good	Good		Good
Support	Good, large community of users	Good						Good	Good	Good	Satisfactory
Documentation	Excellent (best)	Good	Good	Excellent (much of the Zen docs would apply)	None	Excellent	None	Good	None	Ok	None	None
Dev tools	Wireframe CSS & registry rebuid theme settings	Registry rebuild in template.php				"drupal flush all caches" in template.php, off by defaut		CSS theme settings + many preconfigured block styles + accessability settings.			Registry rebuild in template.php (on by default)	Registry rebuild in template.php (on by default)
Observations	StarterKit can be somewhat tricky to setup for some newbies, however the documentation is excellent. Zen is complex but also extremely flexible, widely deployed, well supported by the mainatiner and highly innovative.	Follows a top down approach to theming whereas most other starter themes follow a bottom up / bare bones approach. This is a new project that will mature with time, expect new releases as the framework improves.	Unsets much of Drupals CSS - the only starter theme to take this approach. Includes a YUI like set of sub unit classes and feels like a "full on" CSS framework. Some legacy code hanging around that ideally should be removed.	Basic is a stripped back version of Zen. Basic modifies the positioning and source order placement of the Nav elements (by moving them above the content).	Uses seperate stylesheets for header & footer. Some HTML in PHP. Its quite heavily styled out-of-the-box which could give you a head start over other themes.	Some HTML in template.php, meta tag handling may conflict with Nodewords module, hides forum navigation. Typography is good (baseline grid is perfect). Includes a patch for system-menus.css.	Fancy blog and comment submission dates, node-blog.tpl.php included, fully abstracted CSS. Sets a large relative font size of around 14px.	The theme settings & block styles make this feel more like an end user theme. Theme settings complicate page.tpl.php for those wanting more raw HTML. A unique and highly configurable theme that has clearly had a tonne of development.	Lightweight, simple and easy to modify. The tpl files are nicely formatted for easy reading. AFAIK this is one of the oldest starter theme projects, so its very mature.	Page title in Breadcrumb support (off by default), prints the logo, site name & slogan in the same H1 tag, via a conditional statement which may make it tricky for a designer to customise the header (similar to Garland). Nice out-of-the-box look and feel.	Sets a global line-height to 1.5em, should consider unitless line-heights (some headings are broken on default install). Uses non-standard regions instead of Left & Right. Lightweight HTML make this attractive.	Uses Drupals standard node, block, box and comment templates. Major strength is RTL support at which this theme excels over all others.
Requirements			Download of a 3rd party stylesheet that provides the layout classes.			Download and installation of the Blueprint Framework
XHTML Validation	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict	1.0 Strict
Browser compatibility⁴		Fx2/3, IE6/7, Op, Ch			Fx, IE7, Op, Sf, no IE6 support				Fx2/3, IE6/7, Op, Ch, Sf

	Zen	Genesis	ATCK	Basic	Beginning	Blueprint	Clean	Flexible 2	Foundation	Framework	Hunchbaque	Tendu

Core features ¹

All

All
secondary_links off by default

node user picture not supported

All

search_box, primary_links, secondary_links, feed_icons not directly supported (must be enabled in a block)

All

Regions²

left sidebar
right sidebar
navigation bar
content top
content bottom
header
footer
closure

Leaderboard
Header Blocks
Secondary Content
Content top
Main Content
Content bottom
Tertiary Content
Sidebar Left
Sidebar Right
Footer

Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Content top
Content Bottom
Footer

Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Content
Header
Footer

Right sidebar
Left sidebar
Header
Featured
Content
Bottom content
Footer top
Footer left
Footer middle
Footer right

Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Content
Header
Footer

Header Top
Header Bottom
Left Sidebar
Content Top
Content Bottom
Right Sidebar
Footer Top
Footer Bottom

Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Content
Header
Footer

Header
Top content
Content
Primary blocks
Secondary blocks
Footer

Header
Main navigation
Left sidebar
Right sidebar
Above Content
Content
Beneath Content
Footer

Tabeless CSS layout

Yes

Layout Technique

Opposing Floats, Negative margins, Border Politics Method.

Float left, Negative margins, Layout Gala method.

Float left.

Zen layout (modified)

Float left, Negative margins

Float Left, Blueprints float left/margin right method

Float left.

Opposing floats, depends on sidebars

Floats, Negative margins, text-align

Opposing floats.

Fluid/Fixed

Fluid & Fixed

Fixed & Fluid, 4x px widths to choose from, 4x em widths + % widths supported

Fluid & Fixed

Fixed 960px

Fixed 950px

Fixed 910px

Fluid

Fluid & Fixed width supported

Fixed 960

Fluid, some support for fixed width

Fluid & Fixed

SEO Source ordered

Yes

Sidebars/Cols

Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout

Left/Center/Right
2 cols right
Variable widths, all collaspible
7 optional layouts via body ID selector

Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout, you can use an online Grid builder to build more complex layouts. page.tpl.php included is just an example/guide for building your own.

Standard 3 col Left/Centre/Right collapsible layout

Width, padding, margin values etc

Pixels & ems

ems

Ems & percentages

Pixels & ems

Uses percentage widths with a pixel min-width type setup

Percentages & Pixels

Pixels & ems

Pixels, percentages & ems

Typograhical values

ems

75% (12px) set relative in ems

ems

Keyword small & ems

13px, set relative in percentages

75% (12px) set relative in ems

ems

Vertical/Baseline grid

Yes

RTL support

Some, IE not well supported

Yes - by far the best of all starter themes.

CSS Reset*

YUI reset

Yes (YUI reset, commented out by default)

Yes, * universal 0 reset method

Yes

Yes, * universal 0 reset method

Effectively yes.

Yes

Print CSS

Yes

Defined in .info, but not included in the download

IE fix

Yes, via .info file (template conditional-styles.inc)

Yes

Yes, nice php function included

Yes

#Stylesheets

7 + 1 IE (8)

A lot, I lost count...

2 + 2IE (4)

5 + 2 IE (7)

1 (1)

4 + 2 IE (6)

6 + 2x IE (8)

2 (2)

1 (1)

2 + 2x IE (4)

4 + 2 IE (6)

1 + 2 IE (3) + full RTL support (+3 RTL)

Extra CSS classes, such as body, node, comment classes

Yes + standard phptemplate.

Yes

Yes + standard phptemplate.

Standard phptemplate only

Extra body classes for layout, comment & block classes + standard phptemplate.

Standard phptemplate only

Add extra classes via theme settings + standard phptemplate.

Standard phptemplate only

Defines own for layout only, no added body_classes

Yes + standard phptemplate.

Heavy / Lite³

Medium/Heavy

Medium

Lite

Heavy

Lite

Additional support for Subthemes ⁴

Yes

Ease of customisation

Good

Excellent

Good

Untested

Good

Debatable

Good

Support

Good, large community of users

Good

Satisfactory

Documentation

Excellent (best)

Good

Excellent (much of the Zen docs would apply)

None

Excellent

None

Good

None

Dev tools

Wireframe CSS & registry rebuid theme settings

Registry rebuild in template.php

"drupal flush all caches" in template.php, off by defaut

CSS theme settings + many preconfigured block styles + accessability settings.

Registry rebuild in template.php (on by default)

Observations

StarterKit can be somewhat tricky to setup for some newbies, however the documentation is excellent. Zen is complex but also extremely flexible, widely deployed, well supported by the mainatiner and highly innovative.

Follows a top down approach to theming whereas most other starter themes follow a bottom up / bare bones approach. This is a new project that will mature with time, expect new releases as the framework improves.

Unsets much of Drupals CSS - the only starter theme to take this approach. Includes a YUI like set of sub unit classes and feels like a "full on" CSS framework. Some legacy code hanging around that ideally should be removed.

Basic is a stripped back version of Zen. Basic modifies the positioning and source order placement of the Nav elements (by moving them above the content).

Uses seperate stylesheets for header & footer. Some HTML in PHP. Its quite heavily styled out-of-the-box which could give you a head start over other themes.

Some HTML in template.php, meta tag handling may conflict with Nodewords module, hides forum navigation. Typography is good (baseline grid is perfect). Includes a patch for system-menus.css.

Fancy blog and comment submission dates, node-blog.tpl.php included, fully abstracted CSS. Sets a large relative font size of around 14px.

The theme settings & block styles make this feel more like an end user theme. Theme settings complicate page.tpl.php for those wanting more raw HTML. A unique and highly configurable theme that has clearly had a tonne of development.

Lightweight, simple and easy to modify. The tpl files are nicely formatted for easy reading. AFAIK this is one of the oldest starter theme projects, so its very mature.

Page title in Breadcrumb support (off by default), prints the logo, site name & slogan in the same H1 tag, via a conditional statement which may make it tricky for a designer to customise the header (similar to Garland). Nice out-of-the-box look and feel.

Sets a global line-height to 1.5em, should consider unitless line-heights (some headings are broken on default install). Uses non-standard regions instead of Left & Right. Lightweight HTML make this attractive.

Uses Drupals standard node, block, box and comment templates. Major strength is RTL support at which this theme excels over all others.

Requirements

Download of a 3rd party stylesheet that provides the layout classes.

Download and installation of the Blueprint Framework

XHTML Validation

1.0 Strict

Browser compatibility⁴

Fx2/3, IE6/7, Op, Ch

Fx, IE7, Op, Sf, no IE6 support

Fx2/3, IE6/7, Op, Ch, Sf

Core features include:
- logo
- name
- slogan
- mission
- node_user_picture
- comment_user_picture
- search
- favicon
- primary_links
- secondary_links
The Drupal phptemplate engine defines 5 standard regions (structural page divisions). Themes can define & print new custom regions to enable greater flexibilty in design layout and content output. Regions can be made "collaspible", allowing other regions to expand to fill a void if no output is defined for a region (normally via a "block"). The standard regions are:
- Left sidebar
- Right sidebar
- Content
- Header
- Footer
Heavy / Lite refers to the amount of HTML in the templates. There is no actual benchmark used and this is more of a relative measure (relative to all the other starter themes listed), therefore it is up to you to make your own decision about what constitutes a lot of HTML. IMO, compared to yesteryears nested tables layouts almost all the starterthemes can be considered relative featherweights.
While most themes can be subthemed, themes identified here typically include additional features for subthemes, such as a preconfigured subtheme, theme settings and/or special preprocess function support for subthemes.
Browser support: Full testing takes a lot of time, my brief assessment is that all the themes, except where stated, have excellent cross browser support for all A Grade browsers (Yahoo! YUI A Grade support equivalent). Here is the Key:
1. Fx - Firefox
2. IE - Internet Explorer
3. Op - Opera
4. Ch - Chrome
5. Sf - Safari
6. K - Konqueror

*Reset: While some themes do not load an actual reset stylesheet (in the traditional sense) almost all do load additional CSS, along with Drupals own CSS, which effectively acts to set/reset styles.

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