A quick question about customizing themes

[raferties]

Hi! I was considering finding a Halloween theme for my RP site, for a little fun, but I had a question about how much adjusting I can do in general with the themes, namely in the font style and size. A couple of our members are dyslexic and have said that certain fonts and sizes are easier to read than others. I know how to adjust this in the Visual Editor but I was wondering if this was considered improper or impolite or anything. Silly question, I know, but I really hate the thought of doing it and offending someone or breaking a rule I don't know about.

[Kami]

Generally speaking, people don't care if you make minor modifications on their themes to fit your site -- colours, font size, etc. As a theme creator, on a personal and professional level I do not mind if you adjust the themes I create for accessibility -- it should be pretty standard anyway (though sometimes the #aesthetic does get the better of me). I think all theme creators should be supportive of this as well.

What people do mind is using themes as a base for your own work / drastically altering the appearance of the theme to the point where it's unrecogniseable as the creator's work.

That said, there are some themes where the creator has specified that no modifications at all may be made -- this is usually outlined in their support thread. If they explicitly state this, then I'd avoid it, but otherwise I would feel comfortable in changing fonts / sizes for accessiblity on any theme.

[Retread]

Oct 15, 2018 6:52:35 GMT -8 raferties said:

Hi! I was considering finding a Halloween theme for my RP site, for a little fun, but I had a question about how much adjusting I can do in general with the themes, namely in the font style and size. A couple of our members are dyslexic and have said that certain fonts and sizes are easier to read than others. I know how to adjust this in the Visual Editor but I was wondering if this was considered improper or impolite or anything. Silly question, I know, but I really hate the thought of doing it and offending someone or breaking a rule I don't know about.

Hello raferties

That question isn't the slightest bit silly. It's a very good question. The answer depends on the author of the theme in question. Some authors insist that you make NO alterations. Others specify the types of alterations which are acceptable but insist that the acknowledgement of the original author embedded in the theme shall remain intact. Some authors just put their work out there for any and all to use, as-is or with any modifications you see fit.

For instance, with this theme: Happy Halloween you shouldn't make any alterations at all (without getting permission directly from the author). There is language in the description which indicates that.

Please do not alter this theme and do not remove our logo.

In general, if an Author requests you not alter their theme, you definitely should respect that. If you don't see any stipulations in the description which prohibit alterations, you're probably okay.

[raferties]

Thank you both so much for the information! That makes a lot of sense, especially when I see one that has such a request in the details (the one I was looking at didn't say anything about it). It's a relief to know that I should be okay then.