Detailed explanation of the 2023 features of the new default theme in WordPress 6.1
2023 (Twenty Twenty-Three) is a new default WordPress theme launched with WordPress 6.1.
This is a minimalist theme with no images or additional features. It provides the best entry themes to build templates and style changes, and to test all the features introduced by the latest version of WordPress. The theme can be considered a true development and testing environment, although its minimalist style, responsiveness and portability make it a good choice for creating blogs and websites suitable for a variety of purposes.
In his introduction to 2022 themes, Kjell Reigstad talked about the future of default themes:
Innovations such as theme.json, block templates, and block patterns make theme development easier and provide users with new ways to customize websites. There is reason to believe that the community can use all this to build more frequent and diverse themes and customized solutions for our users in the years to come.
Channing Ritter made the following suggestions:
What if instead of emphasizing the theme itself, we emphasized a set of self-righteous style changes designed by community members? We can use 2022 as the basis for a new theme that has been stripped and minimized-a blank canvas that allows various styles to shine.
This is what happens with the new 2023 default theme. The community is required to actively participate in designing default WordPress themes, and we like this because it makes new themes the result of real engagement.

But before revealing the style changes bundled with the new WordPress default theme, let’s take a look at the basic features of 2023 and what it can apply to.
article directories
Page layout and style
As mentioned above, 2023 is a streamlined version of 2022. What is striking about the new default theme is its simplicity and lightness.The 2023 theme is very flexible and ideal for Gutenberg’s latest site editing features, for exampleTemplate editing, global style variations, fluid layout and block templates。
So it’s no surprise that in the screenshots shown in this article, you’ll see the smallest page that doesn’t have any bells and whistles but is perfect for customization and testing.
For example, the figure below shows a single post page with and without featured pictures.

The figure below compares the home page with the archive page.

Even though the new theme is a simplified version of 2022, 2023 presents some key differences compared to the previous default theme.
First, the size of the title has been reduced and the default serif font has been replaced with a system sans serif font.

In addition, different color palettes are applied.You can go to theme.jsonSee the new 2023 palette definition in the following code for:
{
"settings": {
"appearanceTools": true,
"color": {
"palette": [
{
"color": "#ffffff",
"name": "Base",
"slug": "base"
},
{
"color": "#000000",
"name": "Contrast",
"slug": "contrast"
},
{
"color": "#9DFF20",
"name": "Primary",
"slug": "primary"
},
{
"color": "#345C00",
"name": "Secondary",
"slug": "secondary"
},
{
"color": "#F6F6F6",
"name": "Tertiary",
"slug": "tertiary"
}
]
},
}
}

But the main feature of the new default theme is its set of style changes. 2023 comes with ten global style variants, each showing a different combination of colors, font families, and font sizes.

You will be in 2023styleFind the corresponding JSON file in the folder.
A full preview of page templates, styles, and style changes for 2023 is provided on Figma.

2023 Typography
In the smallest themes like 2023, typography plays a key role in making text readable, websites attractive, and ultimately providing visitors with a beneficial browsing experience, regardless of device and screen size.
To this end, 2023 comes with a new set of fonts and uses Fluid Typography introduced by WordPress 6.1.
font
2023 has a new set of fonts for style changes, which are characterized by simplicity and diversity:
- System Font –
var(--wp--preset--font-family--system-font)
- IBM Plex Mono –
var(--wp--preset--font-family--ibm-plex-mono)
- Inter –
var(--wp--preset--font-family--inter)
- Source Serif Pro –
var(--wp--preset--font-family--source-serif-pro)
- DM Sans –
var(--wp--preset--font-family--dm-sans)
IBM Plex Monois part of the IBM Plex font set, a new enterprise IBM font released under the SIL Open Font License ( OFL). You can see a preview of it on Adobe Fonts and the IBM website.

Interis a free open source font series produced and designed by Rasmus Andersson for computer screens. You can preview and download the font series on Rasmus Andersson’s website or on Google Fonts.

Source Serif Prois a font from Adobe Originals and you can use it for free through your Adobe Fonts account (read more about Adobe Font Licensing).

DM SansIs another font licensed under the SIL Open Font License (OFL), commissioned by Colophon Foundry and commissioned by Google, and designed by Colophon Foundry, Jonny Pinhorn and Indian Type Foundry.

Fluid typesetting and spacing
2023 Use the fluid typography and spacing presets introduced by WordPress 6.1.
The new default WordPress theme provides a good example of smooth typography implementation in WordPress themes, which you can use as a template to add support for this feature in your theme.
following code showstheme.jsonsettings.typography.fluid
ofsettings.typography.fontSizes[]
Attribute definition:
"settings": {
...
"typography": {
"fluid": true,
"fontSizes": [
{
"fluid": {
"min": "0.875rem",
"max": "1rem"
},
"size": "1rem",
"slug": "small"
},
{
"fluid": {
"min": "1rem",
"max": "1.125rem"
},
"size": "1.125rem",
"slug": "medium"
},
{
"size": "1.75rem",
"slug": "large",
"fluid": false
},
{
"size": "2.25rem",
"slug": "x-large",
"fluid": false
},
{
"size": "10rem",
"slug": "xx-large",
"fluid": {
"min": "4rem",
"max": "20rem"
}
}
]
}
}
thetypography.fluid
Settings add support for smooth typesetting, whiletypography.fontSizes[].fluid
Minimum and maximum font size values are set.
In addition to Fluid Typography, 2023 also supports fluid spacing.
Before WordPress 6.1, you could only set custom spacing values in the editor. This means that before WordPress 6.1, theme authors could not specify fixed values for padding, margins, and gaps. This led to some restrictions. For example, it is impossible to easily transfer spacing settings between different themes or maintain spacing values when copying and pasting content and block patterns between different sites.
Themes can use new spacing.spacingScale
andspacing.spacingSizes
Set claims fluid spacing support (read more in Theme.json: Add spacing size presets). In 2023, this is done with the following settings:
"settings": {
"spacing": {
"spacingScale": {
"steps": 0
},
"spacingSizes": [
{
"size": "clamp(1.5rem, 5vw, 2rem)",
"slug": "30",
"name": "30"
},
{
"size": "clamp(1.8rem, 1.8rem + ((1vw - 0.48rem) * 2.885), 3rem)",
"slug": "40",
"name": "40"
},
{
"size": "clamp(2.5rem, 8vw, 6.5rem)",
"slug": "50",
"name": "50"
},
{
"size": "clamp(3.75rem, 10vw, 7rem)",
"slug": "60",
"name": "60"
},
{
"size": "clamp(5rem, 5.25rem + ((1vw - 0.48rem) * 9.096), 8rem)",
"slug": "70",
"name": "70"
},
{
"size": "clamp(7rem, 14vw, 11rem)",
"slug": "80",
"name": "80"
}
],
"units": [
"%",
"px",
"em",
"rem",
"vh",
"vw"
]
}
}
The following video shows the practical application of fluid typography in the 2023 theme.
You can check typography and spacing presets here.
Templates and template sections
With 2023, you will see all the features and site editing improvements that come with WordPress 6.1. This is especially true for templates and template sections.

When you launch the site editor and run 2023 on your website, you will see a list of 11 templates and 4 template sections.
The following figure shows the 404 template in the site editor.

You will be in 2023templateandportionFind the corresponding HTML file in the folder.

The following figure shows the comment Comments template section in edit mode:

You will find in theme.jsonCustom templates and template sections defined in.
custom template
In addition to default templates, 2023 also provides the following custom templates:
- blank
- Blog (alternative)
- 404
- Contains special pictures
- Include cover block
These templates are available intheme.jsonThe definition in is as follows:
{
"customTemplates": [
{
"name": "blank",
"postTypes": [
"page",
"post"
],
"title": "Blank"
},
{
"name": "blog-alternative",
"postTypes": [
"page"
],
"title": "Blog (Alternative)"
},
{
"name": "404",
"postTypes": [
"page"
],
"title": "404"
},
{
"name": "with-featured-image",
"postTypes": [
"page",
"post"
],
"title": "With Featured Image"
},
{
"name": "with-cover-block",
"postTypes": [
"page",
"post"
],
"title": "With Cover Block"
}
],
}
template portion
The template section is defined as follows.
{
"templateParts": [
{
"area": "header",
"name": "header",
"title": "Header"
},
{
"area": "footer",
"name": "footer",
"title": "Footer"
},
{
"area": "uncategorized",
"name": "comments",
"title": "Comments"
},
{
"area": "uncategorized",
"name": "post-meta",
"title": "Post Meta"
}
]
}
Global styles and style variants
As mentioned above, starting with WordPress 6.0, theme authors can bundle multiple sets of styles with their themes, allowing users to switch between style variants without having to change the theme.
This great WordPress feature is the main feature of the new default theme, as 2023 offers ten pre-built style combinations to choose from.

You can browse these styles in the global styles interface of the site editor. here, you can
- fromBrowse stylesPanel switches global styles.
- Customize typography settings-text, links, titles and buttons
- Edit default colors or change the colors of specific elements
- Customize the layout of the main content area
- Customize the appearance of specific elements

Once again, it’s worth noting that community participation is crucial when creating so many style changes. After the launch of the 2023 project, 38 submissions were received from 19 contributors in 8 different countries (you can browse all projects on GitHub).
Among the 38 styles, 10 styles were selected:
- Pitch is a dark version of the default style that uses Rasmus Andersson’s Inter font family.

- Canary uses a single type of size and narrow column widths. It also uses an interesting boundary radius effect.

- Electric uses bold colors for all typography across the site.
- Pilgrimage is a colored dark version of the basic theme.
- Marigold is a soft and pleasant change of basic style.
- Block-Out has a dual-tone effect on the image.
- Whisper showcases custom elements such as borders on page edges, button styles and unique link underlining.
- Sherbet has a unique bright and colorful appearance

- Grapes was selected for its pleasant color palette and font combination.
The coolest thing about style variants is that you don’t have to be a front-end developer to create styles.
If you are satisfied with the coding, you can choose from 23in the styles folder.jsonFile and use it as a template to build your style variants.
But if coding is not your business, you can use the official Create Block Theme plug-in, which you can download for free from the WordPress.org plug-in catalog.
First, install and activate the plug-in, and then navigate to the Style Editor. Here, customize the colors, typography and layout to your preferences and save your changes.

After you are satisfied with the changes, manage the menus in WordPressappearancefound underCreate a block theme.

Check the last item in the list:Create style changes。You will be asked to specify a name for your style change. enter a name and clickcreate topic。This will be based on the themestyleCreate a new one in the folder.jsonDocuments.

Now you can further customize your styles and even export them to other WordPress installations.
The Create Block Theme Plug-in is a valuable tool that can take full advantage of the theme and template creation capabilities provided by the latest version of WordPress. When you use it, you may look at all other options:
- Export 2023 themes
- Create 2023 sub-themes
- Cloning 2023 themes
- Covering 2023 themes
- Create a blank theme
- Create style changes

summary
At first glance, the new default WordPress theme may seem like a featureless empty box, but on closer inspection, it goes far beyond that, as it allows you to take full advantage of the latest WordPress site editing features.
In the 2023 theme, you will see many templates and template sections to customize, a set of 10 style variants that can be used as a basis for creating unique websites and support for all the new features available in WordPress 6.1, from fluid typography and an improved template system.
For 2023, the feeling is that the difference between website appearance and functionality is now obvious. The only function of a theme is to regulate the appearance of the website and add functionality to the plug-ins. From this perspective, 2023 has done a good job, providing WordPress users with all the latest Gutenberg website editing features. Customizing the look of a website has never been easier.
Okay, that’s all for the introduction of the 2023 theme. If you are very interested, you can install and test it yourself. Welcome to share your testing experience below.