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Commander1024 2026

A clean, retro-tech inspired classic WordPress theme for commander1024.de. It uses standard PHP templates rather than Full Site Editing templates, while providing a modern Gutenberg authoring experience through theme.json and matching editor styles.

The theme is intended for a traditional personal blog with articles, static pages, category/tag archives, search, comments, and media-rich technical content.

Scope

This theme provides the presentation layer for WordPress. It does not bundle content, plugins, analytics, SEO tooling, caching, contact forms, or e-commerce functionality.

It is designed to work with WordPresss normal post/page workflow and with the block editor. The PHP template hierarchy remains conventional and easy to maintain:

  • index.php — posts index
  • single.php — individual posts
  • page.php — static pages
  • archive.php — category, tag, date, and author archives
  • search.php — search results
  • 404.php — custom error page
  • front-page.php — configurable video hero and front-page content

Features

Site experience

  • Responsive classic theme with a clean retro-computing visual language
  • Sticky header that hides while scrolling down and returns while scrolling up
  • Multi-level primary navigation:
    • first-level dropdowns open below their parent
    • nested dropdowns open beside their parent
    • menu hierarchy remains expanded and touch-friendly on small screens
  • Expanding search panel with automatic input focus
  • Three-state color-mode control:
    • Automatic — follows the visitors system preference
    • Light
    • Dark
  • Color-mode preference stored in the visitors browser
  • WordPress admin-bar offset for logged-in visitors
  • Custom 404 page

Content and taxonomy

  • Wide article identity area for post/page titles, metadata, categories, tags, featured images, archive headings, pagination, and post navigation
  • Readable, narrower measure for article body text
  • Category/tag chips and archive support
  • Responsive images, galleries, captions, embeds, and code blocks
  • Threaded comments with avatars, readable metadata, and non-numbered reply hierarchy
  • Previous/next post navigation with directional markers

Front page

Configure the hero from Appearance → Customize → Home page video hero:

  • Select a video from the WordPress Media Library
  • Set a custom overlay heading
  • Set optional overlay copy
  • The site subtitle is shown as the hero eyebrow

Gutenberg support

theme.json defines the themes editor design system while the site remains a classic PHP theme:

  • Commander 1024 color palette, gradients, and duotone preset
  • Local font-family choices
  • Font-size and spacing scales
  • Content width: 760px
  • Wide width: 1180px
  • Wide and full block alignments
  • Buttons, tables, quotes, pullquotes, covers, galleries, Media & Text, Group, and Columns styling
  • Matching block-editor canvas styles in editor-style.css

Code blocks

Core Code blocks and the optional Syntax Highlighting Code Block plugin are supported.

  • Berkeley Mono is used for code
  • Syntax-highlighted blocks use Monokai Light in site light mode
  • Syntax-highlighted blocks use conventional Monokai Dark in site dark/automatic-dark mode

The syntax-highlighting plugin is not bundled with this theme and must be installed separately if desired.

Fonts and licensing

All font files are self-hosted in fonts/ and are used by both the frontend and block editor. Monospace stacks prefer Berkeley Mono and fall back to Source Code Pro before the browsers generic monospace face.

Font Usage Files License / redistribution status
Alpha Lyrae Site headings, display titles, retro stylistic sets AlphaLyrae-Medium.woff2 Free for commercial use under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.
Crimson Pro Body copy crimson-pro-latin-wght-normal.woff2, crimson-pro-latin-wght-italic.woff2 SIL Open Font License 1.1.
Berkeley Mono Preferred code, metadata, navigation, and UI face BerkeleyMono-*.woff, BerkeleyMono-*.woff2 Privately licensed by the site owner. It is not an open-source font and must not be redistributed or reused outside the applicable licence.
Source Code Pro Automatic fallback for Berkeley Mono in code, metadata, navigation, and UI SourceCodePro-Regular.woff2, SourceCodePro-Bold.woff2, SourceCodePro-Italic.woff2, SourceCodePro-BoldItalic.woff2 Downloaded from the public Google Fonts distribution; SIL Open Font License 1.1.

Alpha Lyrae OpenType features

The supplied Alpha Lyrae font includes stylistic sets ss01 through ss05 and ligature support. The theme uses Alpha Lyrae as its heading face; individual features can be selected with CSS, for example:

.retro-heading {
  font-family: "Alpha Lyrae", sans-serif;
  font-feature-settings: "ss01" 1, "liga" 1;
}

Use one stylistic set at a time. See the CSS around .hero-title for a live theme example.

Installation

  1. Place this directory in wp-content/themes/.
  2. In WordPress administration, activate Commander1024 2026 under Appearance → Themes.
  3. Configure the custom logo under Appearance → Customize → Site Identity.
  4. Assign the Primary and Footer menus under Appearance → Menus.
  5. Optionally configure the front-page video hero in the Customizer.
  6. Review block-editor palette, typography, spacing, and alignment controls when authoring content.

Development notes

  • style.css contains frontend styles and the WordPress theme header.
  • editor-style.css styles the classic editor and block-editor canvas.
  • assets/js/theme.js contains the color-mode, scroll-header, search-panel, and mobile-navigation interactions.
  • functions.php registers theme supports, menus, editor assets, Customizer controls, and custom comment rendering.
  • theme.json is the source of truth for Gutenberg tokens and editor controls.

The theme declares the GNU General Public License v2 or later in style.css. This applies to the theme code. Font assets remain subject to their respective licences above.

Validation

The repositorys editor diagnostics are used for static validation. Visual testing should be performed on the local/staging WordPress environment, including both color modes, responsive navigation, nested menus, Gutenberg wide/full blocks, code blocks, and threaded comments.