On this page, I’ve tried to answer the most common questions about our templates and this site. However, since it’s likely I’ve left something out, please contact us if you have a question not answered here.
What is a website template?
Building a website usually requires you to design and then code your own layout, which can be a tedious task if you’re not artistically inclined or familiar with HTML. Website templates take care of this for you by providing you with a fully designed and coded layout, which you can then use to build your website.
What is a css website template?
In the past layouts were put together with the HTML TABLE tag, which was originally meant more for holding tabulated information than showing parts of a page’s actual design. However, with more standards-friendly browsers in use (such as Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and IE7+), more and more people are moving away from the TABLE tag and using strictly CSS for their layouts instead.
CSS makes design and overall site maintenance a lot simpler because it splits the design of your site (the stylesheet or .CSS file) from the actual content (the .HTML file) instead of mixing the two as is common with tables-based layouts. This makes your content very simple, lean, and easy to edit, with only the bare minimum markup to define logical things like paragraphs and headings. The design information is then stored in the stylesheet file, which can be edited to make site-wide design changes. You can even replace it with a different stylesheet to change the design of your site — all while keeping your content intact and unchanged!
So in short, a CSS website template serves as a starting point for building a standards-compliant, CSS-based website.
What can i use to edit a css website template?
If you know some HTML or CSS, a text editor should do the trick. Here are a couple of excellent text editors:
If you’re not familiar with HTML or CSS or just prefer a more visual approach, here are a few editors that can work with fully CSS-based layouts:
Who made all of these templates?
All templates shared on our site are open source and made by different developers.
Are these css website templates really free?
Short answer: Yes! 🙂
There are so many templates available, but i can’t find what i’m looking for. can i request something?
Sure. Just contact us with a description or theme. While we can’t guarantee we’ll fulfill every template theme request, it’ll at least give us an idea of where to go next.
How can i keep up with new releases?
Easy! You can follow us on Twitter or use our RSS feed.
i really enjoy your site and i’d like to link to you. do you have any banners?
Not yet, but we will soon. In the meantime, a simple link is more than sufficient.
i’d like to port one of your templates to [insert cms name here]. is this allowed?
Absolutely. You’re free to port any of our templates to WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or any other CMS (just remember to credit us on the converted theme/template/whatever :). Note that if you do port one of our templates, please let us know as we’d love to see it!
I came across a website using one of your templates and i need to contact the site’s owner. can you put me in touch with him/her?
Unfortunately, we can’t. Our templates are free for anyone and everyone to use and are distributed not only on this site but on many other free template sites, so there’s no way for us to know exactly who is using them.
i came across a website with content i find objectionable and/or offensive and it says you designed it. what’s the deal?
Since we release all of our templates under the Creative Commons Attribution license, those who use them are required to credit us for the design. Usually this just means linking to our website in some way, which is why the website in question references it/us.
However (and this is the important part) this reference does not mean we have anything to do with the website itself or its content. It simply means the individual who owns the website downloaded one of our free templates (either from our site or from another free template site) and used it to build his or her website. We do not know who owns the website or how to contact its owner, and above all (and this is the really important part) we have absolutely no control over the website, nor do we have any access to or responsibility for it or its content.
That said, if you need to get in touch with the website’s owner, try doing a WHOIS lookup on the domain name. This will usually get you their contact information, or at the very least their web host’s contact information (through which you can contact their abuse department).
Why do you only use photos from places like pdphoto.org?
Most stock photo companies and photographers release their photos under licenses that restrict how you use them, particularly when you plan to use them in a derivative work like a website template (assuming they even let you do that to begin with). If a template designer uses a photo for which he or she doesn’t have a license, the company or photographer who owns the photo might have a problem with that (as well as anyone else who’s used the template, since they’re now using the photo too!)
Now, obviously they’re well within their rights to do this; they are, after all, trying to make a living off their work. However, to keep things simple and to completely avoid the issue of licensing, our templates only use photos with permissive licensing like PDPhoto.org (Public Domain) and Wikimedia Commons (which has an entire section dedicated to public domain works here).
How do i search your site?
Just click on the search box and enter a few keywords.