The Structure theme was discontinued in January of this year. By that time, the theme had amassed over 60,000 downloads and was the most-downloaded theme I had ever created.
I had several reasons for letting it go, but I always thought it might be a theme I’d bring back in some form.
Version 2.0 is now a child theme of the Hybrid theme framework. The theme has been returned to its purest form — a typographically-beautiful, pixel-perfect theme that should suit just about any blogger’s needs. This version is much closer to my original vision than earlier versions.
Why bring it back?
What many of you might not know is that the Hybrid framework was actually built with the original code from Structure. Nearly every project I done for over a year started with the code I had built into that theme. While other themes were discontinued at the same time, it was the only one I was a bit sad to see go.
After asking a few of you if you’d like to see it returned and reading your responses, it was a no-brainer.
Will we see the return of Options and Visionary? I know that’s probably on some of your minds, so I’ll answer that now — it’s not likely. I have no plans to bring back those themes at the moment, but you never know.
What’s different about this version?
For starters, it’s now a child theme. I suppose that’s a huge change, but there are some other differences:
- It has all the features of the Hybrid theme (e.g., drop-downs, widgets everywhere, excellent code, etc.).
- The code has been rebuilt from the ground up to be as lightweight as possible.
- Special care has been given to the typography.
- Created purely with CSS (i.e., no images were harmed in the creation of this theme).
- It’s a bit wider, so there’s more breathing room for your content.
- The theme has an additional widget area in the header (plus all of Hybrid’s widget areas).
- It has a custom-built home page that features excerpts and thumbnails.
Download the theme
Before installing and activating the theme, make sure you’ve installed the Hybrid theme.
I hope everyone enjoys this release.
oh ! structure is back, as a child theme for hybrid ! this is cool
good job !
Thanks. I’m just glad to have it back in the list of themes. It was great working with it again.
Wow ! Great ! Going to set this up from my mobile as usual.
P.S: Just curious, how good is Hybrid, compared to Thesis, on SEO ?
No matter what theme you use, SEO is all about your content. That’s Rule #1 when it comes to SEO.
Don’t be fooled by people telling you that their theme is going to put your content at the top of search engines. It’s, quite simply, not going to happen.
How can a theme help you with SEO? That’s the question. Your theme should have semantically-correct markup. Hybrid provides this. As far as I can tell, so does Thesis.
Quite right. Keep that ‘don’t get fooled by get rich quick scam sites’ line on the frontpage always.
IMHO, Thesis’s only advantage is the customization that it brings ( which Hybrid could surpass, possibly by v1.0 ? ). When it comes to widgets, Thesis is no good at all.
I’m not certain why you’d want to compare Hybrid and Thesis at all. They’re two completely different themes with two completely different purposes.
To answer the question of customization options: No, Hybrid will never have an options page like that.
Justin,
Got curious with your last response. I am being around for sometime now but it is more than likely I havent dedicated enough time to take most of Hybrid so far.
Please, be so kind to present us all your vision on the crucial differences between Hybrid and Thesis. Why are you so positive on affirming that Hybrig will not have an “options” page like Thesis.
Does any fundamental Hybrid´s philosophy would get hurt by something like this? Thanks.
Big Big Thanks !
I’m one of those 60k people who downloaded and used Structure Theme.
and I visited this site and your blog ( justintadlock.com ) every week, to
learn something new. Actually I think it’s safe to say that you are the top
key person on wp theme framework.
It’s good to see new childtheme on Hybrid.
I’m just glad to finally get this out the door. I’ve been working overtime on it just to make sure it was a good release.
I hope you enjoy this version.
This looks really, really good. I’m certain this will help me migrate two themes that I still haven’t converted to Hybrid. Thanks, Justin.
That’s good to hear. I’m trying to make everyone migrate to Hybrid. With the number of folks still using the old Structure, this may prove to be a great transitioning tool.
Please… re-consider to make the Options light theme a child theme of Hybrid.
Stefan, Stockholm-SWE
It’s just not on my list of things to do right now. I never was a big fan of Options. To me, it was just a bit of an experiment to see if I could do a few things.
From a user’s standpoint, it is probably great. From a developer’s, it’s a nightmare working with all those “options.”
If anything, you may see some elements from the theme come back in other themes.
This might just make me switch from Options
I’ll be happy to see more folks start using the Hybrid framework.
I was wondering, since there appears to be interest, would you let someone else remake Options and Visionary as Hybrid Children? Not me, at the moment I’m a bit busy, but someone in the community might be able to do it with your blessing.
I’ve been asked this question a million-and-one times, and the answer has always been yes. I’m completely fine with someone porting those themes. The interest is there, but no one has stepped up to do it.
The apprentice becomes the master. I love it
And to think that I used to call this my masterpiece in its earlier versions. Now, it’s actually a theme I wouldn’t mind using on my own site.
Hi Justin,
Great Job..!! Sadly i never used the original Structure theme on any of my sites, Options was my theme of choice…
But it is great to see this theme in action… Keep them coming…
Regards
TJ
Thanks. I’ll try to keep them coming as the ideas come to me.
The funny thing about this is I always considered Options the real giant among Justin’s themes. Now I know Structure was the real King.
Well, Hybrid is quickly becoming the giant. Structure was definitely the top-downloaded theme though. I imagine this was in large part because of its simplicity.
Thanks for Structure, Justin! Although I’d love Options Light, I understand it’s quite a bear to program so many user-definable options. Of course, I wouldn’t need all the options – as long as the child theme made the same choices I did on my site.
You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it.
I wish I knew a bit of coding.
It’s completely surreal to hear you say ‘ I never was a fan of Options’ theme. As a user, I find Options to be the best news theme ever on WordPress.
I know there is something called as Hybrid news, but that is no where near the standard of Options (I said I don’t know coding).
All I want to say is work on as you have been all this time but consider (at least a little bit) the users request. I am sure there are thousands of ppl out there like me who are ready to buy Options like crazy if it comes back. But sadly since you’ve moved to a different platform of making free themes, that would be a waste of an idea.
Yes, I can see you don’t know much about coding.
You could ask anyone that knows a lick about code, and they’d tell you the same thing I’ve said earlier. I’m not sure why you’d compare Hybrid News and Options though. Apples and oranges.
Fortunately for me and unfortunately for some people, the Options theme will not be revived.
I’m unfamiliar with the Options Theme. What does the Options Theme have that is missing from the Hybrid News or Structure Themes? Widgets? User Interface? Color Scheme? Layout choices? Downloads for the Option Theme are no longer available, so it is impossible for me to make a determination.
Thanks for your time!
It really doesn’t matter. It’s no longer a theme. It had more options and was more of a pain to work with.
Nothing is “missing” from Hybrid News or Structure though.
Very excited to see Structure reborn! I’m one of the earlier Structure users. Later when Options became available, I played around with its CSS to make a Structure like Options. Now I’m looking at starting another site and this new CSS only Structure is very appealing. Thanks for bringing it back.
Great to see this – thanks Justin.
Only thing I noticed about this theme update is the photo gallery pages, you have images getting cut off on the right side of the content area. Might need a little CSS clean-up there.
Otherwise, looks great to me so far.
I love this one but have a question.
Is it reguired to display the footer because i can’t get it to display?
Sorry, i must something done wrong because its displaying now!
hello Justin, congratulation.
i try hybrid 0.7 with structure 2.0 but error message :
Fatal error: Call to undefined function add_theme_support() in /home/sloki/user/h73298/sites/milissehat.web.id/www/wp-content/themes/hybrid/library/extensions/get-the-image.php on line 22
pls help me
thank you
vian
Please stop by the support forums with any issues you’re experiencing.