HTML5 and CSS3 glory for Concrete5

A Brilliant Theme for a Brilliant CMS

HTML5 is quickly becoming the hot new thing in the world of web. The Obsidian theme is completely coded in HTML5, using elements like "section" and "nav" to bring you a cutting-edge theme that matches beautiful aesthetics with semantic simplicity. Combined with Concrete5, you have a powerful mixture that will put any portfolio, business site, or blog at the forefront of current web technologies that's short on spaghetti code but big on SEO-friendly semantics. Best of all, Obsidian is pre-loaded with HTML5 shivs so that browsers that don't yet understand HTML5 won't be left in the dust.

All The Power of CSS3

On top of simple semantics, Obsidian leverages all the power of CSS3. Dynamic gradients, rounded borders, and text shadows put the sleek skin on the HTML5 muscle. And since it runs in Concrete5, all of these are controllable. Customizable styles that create rounded gradient borders on images can be turned on and off at will. Best of all, Obsidian will degrade gracefully into older browsers that can't deal with CSS3, so you don't need to worry about it breaking completely if someone visits your site in IE7.

The Page Templates—Do Tell!

Obsidian includes four Concrete5 Page Types, or templates: Thin Column (what you're viewing presently), Full Width, Left Sidebar, and Article, which is designed for news and press-related pages. The main navigation bar is fixed, so it always stays with the visitor as they scroll. Additionally, there is a second navigation bar at the bottom of the browser viewport which can be used for additional global navigation or social networking icons. This can be turned on and off in a page's properties—literally with the checking of a box.

Custom Templates Included

Obsidian comes pre-loaded with a number of custom templates. They include:

• An Auto-nav block template which adds a glowing home button to the header navigation
• A second Auto-nav block template designed for sub-navigation within the main content area
• A "Rounded Gray Box" template for the Content block, which adds a gradient background to your content (use sparingly).
• An Obsidian-style template for Jereme's lovely Tweetcrete block, if you want to include a Twitter feed on your site.

Powered by… Rainbows?

If all that weren't enough, Obsidian includes Dragon Interactive's "Codename Rainbows" jQuery plugin, which adds dynamic gradients to any block level text. Two styles of gradients are included: a dark one and a light one (the dark one is show above). This is also integrated with Concrete5's style system, so you can turn them on an off at will. They can be process-intensive however, so use them wisely.

Thanks to Dragon Interactive for providing such a great plugin under the MIT license.

Sounds good! Anything else?

Obsidian is available from the Concrete5 marketplace for $45. It is designed by me, Daniel Anderson of proteuscreative.com. I will be actively supporting Obsidian along with any other themes I sell, so if you have a problem with integrating Obsidian with your Concrete5 site, don't hesitate to let me know: design@proteuscreative.com.

Before you buy the theme, please be sure to check out the Known Issues, where I've noted the theme's limitations and drawbacks.

The Obsidian theme is a commercial product, so please do not freely give it out. This theme has been a labor of love and I would appreciate it if people compensated me for the work that was put into it. Thanks!