By “content dense” I mean that I’m writing 2,000 word essays for a business or academic audience, which doesn’t seem to match any of the common use cases for the themes I’m browsing. A few examples:
I use long multi-paragraph block quotes, and I never want them formatted as “pull quotes” that are larger than the body text
Even for the body text, I generally want a slightly smaller point size and slightly wider margins than what I see in most themes
Decent print formatting is a priority, as I like to print my drafts to mark them up by hand, and even expect a few of my readers to print out posts and read them
I want to prioritize clear navigation over discovery — e.g. the “archive” in most themes is what I want for the home page, rather than the latest post or a magazine-style collage of posts
Zero interest in SEO tricks (like hiding date on posts) and no plans for monetization or user authentication
I realize these are boring and niche requirements : ) and I will probably have to modify any theme to get exactly what I want. But would really appreciate any suggestions for good themes to start with!
I was reminded of this while reading your note. I cannot say what the current version is like but I had a good experience with the developer a couple of years ago. Laminim (curiositry.com)
Thank you @lorcand. By a curious coincidence, just today I ran across your kind review on my Creative Market shop page, and was remembering our conversations years ago here on the forum!
@pl22 If you decide to go for Laminim, I’d be happy to help out with a few customization (like tweaks to the print styles and blockquotes).
If you want to try it out with minimal commitment, a paid membership to autodidacts.io includes a license for all my premium Ghost themes for $5/mo (cancel any time), which is significantly below the Creative Market price.