This handbook is about customizing the look and feel of a Drupal
site. We'll show you how you can modify the appearance of your Drupal
site without requiring expert knowledge of programming. And if you wish
to go further, we cover that too.
This guide assumes some knowledge of HTML and CSS but no PHP
programming knowledge is necessary. It also assumes you have
administrator's privileges to a Drupal site. You might also want to
familiarize yourself with some of the terminology used in Drupal. We concentrate on Drupal 7 with notes for Drupal 6 where applicable.
Other Places to Explore
- Installing Themes - To install existing, contributed themes, please visit Installing themes
- Contributed Themes - Free Contributed themes at drupal.org. See demos of some of them at Theme Garden.
- Custom Themes - Unique custom themes created by Drupal designers that you can hire.
- Theming Tutorials - View a number of theming videos which guide you through common scenarios
- Support - Having problems? Check the troubleshooting FAQ, ask in the theming forum or contact us on IRC @ #drupal-themes.
- Module Developer's Guide - Module developers can consult the module developer's guide, specifically Using the theme layer (Drupal 7.x) and (Drupal 6.x)
- HTML and CSS techniques - See the best practices page
Overview
We start with customizing the appearance using an existing theme.
You may be surprised how customizable an existing theme can be simply by
changing a few settings. From there we discuss ways to make your own
theme based on an existing theme, and then show you how to tweak it
through the use of CSS stylesheets.
Next we'll explore how to override various theme's parts; regions and
node types. We then move onto creating your own theme from scratch;
which isn't all that difficult. Finally we'll cover more advanced
topics employing PHP coding.
Our concentration throughout this document will be on using preferred
techniques. We touch briefly on what's possible but our discussion
will center on Drupal's preferred theming engine and best practices.
This involves, among other things, copying files and modifying the
copies, overriding files with your own versions rather than modifying
the originals and housing all your modified theme's files under the sites/all/themes directory. This is a step towards upgrade-proofing your site and facilitates future maintenance.
This entire handbook is currently undergoing a reorganization to help
make this information more accessible. Please pardon the dust. Everyone
can help with this project. You can find out more information about
this reorganization and how to join in on the working group's project page.