Signocore Slate is a WordPress theme for content sites, shops and course sites. You design the site in the WordPress Customizer, with a drag-and-drop header and footer builder and global colors and fonts, and you build pages in the block editor with the theme's own blocks and a pattern library that ships inside the theme.
The theme is free, has no license key and needs no account. See Installation and child theme to get it running.
What the theme includes
- Header and footer builder: drag elements such as the logo, menus, search, buttons, social icons and a cart into three header rows, with a separate header for tablets and phones and a slide-out drawer. The footer has three rows of up to five columns. See Header and footer builder.
- Global colors and fonts: a palette of 15 colors that the whole site and the block editor share, typography for body text and every heading level, and layout settings per content type. See Colors, typography and layout.
- Blocks: more than 30 blocks in a Slate Blocks category in the block inserter, including rows and sections, advanced text and buttons, tabs, accordions, sliders, post grids, testimonials, forms, a table of contents and a header block. See Blocks and the pattern library.
- Local pattern library: more than 600 section patterns and around 40 full-page layouts ship inside the theme folder, and you can save your own patterns and share them with your other Signocore Slate sites.
- Dark mode: let visitors switch between your normal palette and a dark one, with a floating switch or a switch in the header or footer. See Dark mode.
- Block visibility: hide rows and sections by device, show a row only to logged-in or logged-out visitors, and remove blocks you do not use from the inserter. See Block visibility.
- Import and export: move Customizer settings, widgets and content between sites. See Import and export.
- Integrations: styling and settings for WooCommerce, LearnDash, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS, The Events Calendar, bbPress and Elementor, among others. For WooCommerce this includes a header cart, an off-canvas filter sidebar for the shop and infinite scroll for products. See Plugin integrations.
- Performance features: Google Fonts served from your own server by default, Gravatar images cached on your server, lazy loading for embedded frames, lazy-loaded block backgrounds when the performance optimizer is on, and infinite scroll for blog, search and product archives. See Fonts and performance.
How the settings are organized
Most design settings live in the Customizer at Appearance → Customize. Signocore Slate adds these panels and sections:
| Customizer item | What you set there |
|---|---|
| Colors & Fonts | The global palette, content links and backgrounds, typography and the three button styles |
| Header | The header builder, every header element, the sticky and transparent header, and the mobile drawer |
| Footer | The footer builder, footer rows, widgets, navigation, social icons and the copyright text |
| General | Content width, sidebars, images, scroll to top, the 404 page, comments, breadcrumbs, social links, performance, infinite scroll and dark mode |
| Posts/Pages Layout | Layouts for pages, single posts, the blog archive and each custom post type |
| Search Results | The layout of the search results page |
| WooCommerce | Shop, product, cart and account layouts. Shown when WooCommerce is active |
| Custom Scripts | Code to add to the page head, after the opening body tag or in the footer |
| Import / Export | Export, import or reset the theme's Customizer settings |
LearnDash, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS and bbPress get their own panels when those plugins are active.
Many sections have a General tab and a Design tab at the top. Layout and content options sit on General; colors, fonts, spacing and borders sit on Design.
The theme also adds two menus to the admin sidebar:
| Admin menu | Items |
|---|---|
| Signocore Slate | Forms, Navigations and Headers store what you build with the form, navigation and header blocks. Import takes content, Customizer settings and widgets from another site. Block Visibility removes blocks from the inserter. Settings shows an overview of your content with shortcuts and an option to add a Headers shortcut to the admin bar |
| Slate Patterns | Library shows how many patterns you have. Patterns holds the patterns you create. Settings controls pattern sharing between sites |
In the block editor, each page and post also gets a Page Settings or Post Settings sidebar where you override the layout for that one page. See Override the layout on one page or post.
No license and no account
Signocore Slate has no license key, no activation step and no licensing server. It does not track you or your visitors.
The theme contacts Signocore in two situations:
- Update checks: WordPress asks Signocore's update server for new versions of the theme. See Updates.
- Pattern previews: while you browse patterns in the editor, preview images and example media load from Signocore's CDN. Images you insert are copied to your media library when you save. See Pattern images and privacy.
Where to start
- Install and activate the theme, and decide whether you need a child theme. See Installation and child theme.
- Set your colors and fonts under Appearance → Customize → Colors & Fonts.
- Open Appearance → Customize → Header, click Logo to add your logo, then build the rest of the header.
- Build the footer under Appearance → Customize → Footer.
- Choose the default layout for pages, posts and archives under Appearance → Customize → Posts/Pages Layout.
- Create your first page and insert a pattern from the Design Library. See Blocks and the pattern library.
If you add your own code, read Customizing with code and the hooks reference.
Requirements
Signocore Slate needs a recent version of WordPress and PHP. See platform support for the current minimum versions and how they change.