_blank is the starter theme I use, when creating a WordPress theme for my clients.

I have come to find that I like adding stuff much more than removing or deleting stuff. So rather than trying to include every possible feature and function, I opted for making my starting point as lean as possible, leaving out all the overhead I probably wouldn't need anyway, but sill have something that gives me a head start when building a new theme.

Some background/explanation up front:

• Most of my clients use WordPress as a Content Management System - and not a "classic" blog, so some stuff is deliberately missing.
• No comments: 99% of the websites I create for my customers don't use comments. That's why there isn't anything comment related in the theme.
• get_template_part() is a great way to split things up and reuse parts of a theme, but I left it out of _blank intentionally. As I said before: I didn't include anything that I am not 100% sure I will actually need.

_blank uses Sass. (As should you - in all your projects!)

_blank uses grunt with the following pre-configured tasks:

• grunt-contrib-uglify

• grunt-contrib-sass

• grunt-autoprefixer
• grunt-svgstore
• grunt-respimg
• grunt-rsync
• grunt-contrib-watch

_blank incorporates the following third party libraries:

• normalize.css
• modernizer
• carouFredSel (jQuery Plugin)

1. Do a find and replace to change "_blank" to the name (space) of the theme you want to create. Remember to rename the theme folder using the same name.
2. Install grunt (+ grunt plugins) like this: Open a new terminal window and change to the theme's directory. Then type: npm update To run grunt, just type grunt

As I said before: I don't like unnecessary stuff. Many of the themes you can buy, try very hard to give you all the features you could (n)ever need (and much more).

I like to provide my clients with a custom, hand crafted theme, that fits in one folder and has as little dependancies as possible. They get something, that is easy to maintain and extend.

For additional functionality, I create a separate plugin. (And you should, too. Always! Don't create custom post types with your theme!)

• Technologies, requirements and tastes are changing continuously and so will this starter theme. I will get rid of stuff I don't need (anymore) while adding new stuff, that I find myself using on a regular basis.

Hope you find this somewhat useful. :)