Automattic Theme Wrangler Ian Stewart announced a new HTML5 theme for users on WordPress.com, as well as for those from the WordPress.org end of the spectrum. Stewart describes the new theme, deemed Toolbox, and compares it to a certain theme framework that you’re probably familiar with:
Much like the Sandbox theme, Toolbox provides all the markup you need to build your very own theme with CSS alone–with one difference. Toolbox uses some really exciting new HTML5 elements–like <article>, <header>, and <nav>–that better describe what your content is all about.
What can you do with it? Anything you want.
Since HTML and CSS go together like peanut butter and jelly we’ve put together a small demonstration.
A Toolbox theme demo shows some of what is possible with the theme. To take advantage of the CSS capability on WordPress.com you’ll need to pay for a Custom CSS Upgrade. But if you run your own WordPress sites you can grab the theme from the .org Theme Directory and sling as much CSS as you want. For free.
Is your site supported by HTML5 yet? What do you think of the various HTML5 WordPress theme options that are available right now?
Toolbox is a really nice base theme. I’ve used it to start a number of projects, including http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/portfolio-press, http://www.popgunbooking.com and http://www.eduardograca.com.
Having something like that on WP.com will make it really nice for people who just want to customize the stylesheet and call it a day.