WordPress Debuts HTML5 Theme

HTML5 is all the rage on the web right now, despite the standard and the technologies associated with it not being fully baked yet. But it's getting better, most browser offer support for HTML5 and web developers are taking advantage of the new possibilities. Not to be left behind, WordPress is now introducing a new HTML5-based, sandbox type theme, dubbed Toolbox.

"The streets of the future probably won’t be filled with flying cars and hover boards but the Web will be filled with more semantic content thanks to new markup elements introduced in HTML5," WordPress' Ian Stewart wrote.

"Today’s new theme will let you take advantage of that future right now, right here, on WordPress.com. It’s called Toolbox. Much like the Sandbox theme, Toolbox provides all the markup you need to build your very own theme with CSS alone–with one difference," he announced.

"Toolbox uses some really exciting new HTML5 elements–like <article>, <header>, and <nav>–that better describe what your content is all about," he explained.

The Toolbox theme showcases some of the neat new things in HTML5 and how you can take advantage of them with CSS. The version offered to users is rather bare-bones enabling them to create custom designs, building on top of what the theme offers.

Toolbox is similar to the existing Sandbox theme in this respect, but it's built with HTML5 in mind. If you're a WordPress.com user, Toolbox is ready for you to install.

However, to take full advantage of it you will need the Custom CSS upgrade, a paid feature. If you want to customize the look and feel of your blog with utmost precision, you will need to pony up $14.97 per year for the Custom CSS feature.

If you're hosting your own blog though, you can simply grab the Toolbox theme from the WordPress Theme Directory and start hacking away. You can check out a demo of what you can achieve with Toolbox on its dedicated blog.