Blanky

Blanky — Documentation

Blanky is the ultimate minimalist WordPress block theme built on the concept of "Build whatever you feel like building." Like a blank canvas, it gives you a free space to shape your ideas. With Full Site Editing (FSE), you can customize everything from header to footer with the block editor.

Table of contents

  1. About
  2. Requirements
  3. Installation
  4. Using the Site Editor
  5. Customizing with a child theme
  6. Support & resources

About

Key features:

Requirements

WordPress 6.6 or later
PHP 7.4 or later
Tested up to WordPress 7.1
Browsers Modern browsers

Installation

  1. Log in to the WordPress dashboard
    Open your WordPress admin and log in.
  2. Go to Appearance → Themes → Add New Theme
    From the left menu, select "Appearance" → "Themes" and click the "Add New Theme" button.
  3. Search for "Blanky"
    Type "Blanky" in the search field and press Enter.
  4. Click "Install"
    Click "Install" on the Blanky theme and wait for it to finish.
  5. Click "Activate"
    After installation, click "Activate" to apply the theme.
  6. Activation complete
    You'll see "New theme activated." Click "Visit site" to check it.
  7. Open the Editor
    Go to "Appearance" → "Editor" to start customizing your theme.

Using the Site Editor

Fonts, layout, logo, background and colors, and menus are all set in the Site Editor.

  1. Go to Appearance → Editor
  2. Click Design → Styles
    Fonts, colors, backgrounds, and page layouts can all be set in Styles. Settings here apply to the entire theme.
  3. Click Design → Templates
    Edit the templates for the front page, posts, pages, archives and more, as well as the header and footer template parts. You can also create your own templates.
  4. Click Design → Patterns
    Browse and use the patterns included in Blanky (such as the hero and the post list). Each pattern is a set of editable blocks, and you can also create your own patterns.

What you can do in a block theme editor

Blanky is a block theme (Full Site Editing theme). Unlike traditional themes, you can freely edit the entire site, including the header and footer, in the editor.

Editable elements:

Real-time editing:

Traditional themes required editing PHP files, but with a block theme you can customize the entire site with the visual editor alone. No programming knowledge is needed.

Customizing with a child theme

Important: PHP and WordPress knowledge is required. Theme updates overwrite the theme files. If you edit the theme files and want to keep your changes, the standard practice is to use a child theme. Simple edits in the Site Editor are saved in the database, so they don't need a child theme.

  1. Create a folder
    Create an empty folder named blanky-child in wp-content/themes/.
  2. Create the files
    Create style.css and functions.php. A child of a block theme doesn't need index.php.
  3. Edit style.css
    Add the following code at the top of style.css. This registers it as a child theme. 
    /**
 * Theme Name: Blanky Child
 * Template: blanky
 * Text Domain: blanky-child
 */
  4. Edit functions.php
    Add the following code to functions.php. Blanky loads the style.css of the active theme, so your child theme's style.css is loaded automatically. This code adds the parent Blanky style.css. 
    <?php
function blanky_child_enqueue_styles() {
	wp_enqueue_style(
		'blanky-parent-style',
		get_template_directory_uri() . '/style.css',
		array(),
		wp_get_theme( 'blanky' )->get( 'Version' )
	);
}
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'blanky_child_enqueue_styles' );
  5. Copy template files
    Copy the template files you want to change from the parent blanky theme to the same place in your child theme (e.g. blanky-child/templates/single.html). Make your changes in the child theme files. CSS and functions.php changes also go in the child theme files.

Support & resources

Official resources

Community