On the Internet hundreds of free Joomla templates are available. Joomla CMS (content management system) could be used for deployment of any type of web site, from company presentation to blogs or e-commerce web sites, due to the fact that it is very easy to use and templates are easy to create and customize.

In order to be able to customize or to create your own templates, you must understand the basic structure of Joomla templates. Joomla templates can be installed using the installer available in Control Panel, but sometimes many templates are impossible to install in this way. In this situation a solution exists: you can unzip the templates directly in templates directory, inside the main Joomla installation folder.

In the templates folder there are by default some templates already installed in Joomla CMS. Any template directory contains: an image directory and the next files of different types: index.php, template_thumbnail.png, template.css and templateDetails.xml.

The file index.php has all information necessary to create the web site layout (modules positions). The XML file holds data regarding template author name, copyright, description, images file names and more. You can edit this file to reflect your identity and the name of your image and CSS files. The XML file content is used by Joomla when a user installs a template.

The image folder holds all images used in template construction. For example, if you want to change a logo in a certain template, you must identify the image name and size, then replace it with your own logo, with the same image file name, type and image size (width and height). The CSS file will allow you to customize the text font and color, document layout and more. It is recommended to customize templates sequentially, in many stages and with website preview after every modification of a certain file contained in the template directory, in order to gain time and to obtain optimal results.