Theme settings guide
Blyton, setting by setting.
Blyton gives you twenty controls in Ghost Admin — typography and colour scheme, the homepage hero, your featured book, newsletter wording, membership tiers and the shape of the feed. Most of an author's site is writing rather than settings, so this guide covers both: what each setting does, and how Books, Start here, Now and Archive are made with ordinary Ghost pages and tags.
Where the settings live
The twenty settings are in Ghost Admin, in one place:
Settings→Design & branding→Customize→Theme
Ghost groups them into Site wide, Homepage and Post — the three groups used below. Your logo, publication icon, cover image and accent colour live one tab over, in Ghost's own Brand tab, and navigation is under Settings → Navigation.
Every setting has a sensible default and sections hide themselves until they have content, so the theme never shows an empty block. Treat the settings as refinements rather than a setup checklist.
First hour
Just activated the theme? These steps make it look like the demo. None is required for the theme to work.
- Brand it. Under Brand, add your publication title and description, a logo and icon, and a cover image. The cover doubles as the author portrait in the default hero. Pick an accent colour; Blyton adjusts text colours on top of it automatically.
- Set up navigation. A useful primary menu is Home, Essays, Start here and Books, with About as a secondary item.
- Add your book by filling in Featured book title, subtitle and cover, and a Book CTA URL if you sell it. Skip this if you have no book yet.
- Feature three or four essays using Feature this post in each post's settings. They become the homepage's Essential essays.
- Describe your tags. Add public tags with descriptions and optional images. The six most-used become the homepage topic directory.
- Create your pages from the table in Page templates, each with its template.
- Turn on Portal and newsletters in Ghost Admin so the signup forms and Subscribe button appear.
All twenty settings
Use the search box to jump to a setting — it matches names, descriptions and placements as you type.
Site wide
Applies across the whole site.
Literary Serif sets headings in a light serif. Modern Editorial and Clean Sans use a heavy sans for headings. Reading text stays in Newsreader and the interface in Inter, both bundled with the theme.
Where it appears: headings across every page.
None of the three options contacts a font service. Fonts chosen in Ghost's own Brand settings are also supported.
Light and Dark force one palette for everyone. System follows each visitor's device. Visitor toggle adds a button to the header so readers choose for themselves, and remembers the choice on their device.
Where it appears: every page. The choice is applied before first paint, so there is no flash of the wrong colours.
Logos render as white silhouettes on dark surfaces. If your logo is a colour mark, upload a light version in Design & branding.
The heading used in newsletter signup modules. Write it as an invitation in your own voice.
Where it appears: the newsletter module on the homepage and after posts.
Chooses where the main newsletter module appears: Homepage only, Posts only or Everywhere.
Where it appears: the homepage, the end of each post, or both.
Signup forms hide on their own when signups are off, the site is invite-only, or the reader is already a member.
Homepage
Shapes the front page.
Book First leads with your featured book. Author Portrait and Newsletter First use your publication cover image. Portrait-oriented artwork of 1200 × 1500 px or larger works best.
Where it appears: the top of the homepage.
With no Featured book title set, Book First falls back to the Author Portrait hero, so an unconfigured site never shows a placeholder book.
Overrides the hero title. Leave it empty to use the book title or your site title.
Where it appears: the hero heading.
The label on the hero's signup button.
Where it appears: the hero, when signups are open.
Adds a Learn more link to the homepage intro, for example /about/.
Where it appears: the homepage intro.
Leave it empty to hide the link.
Adds a Browse the archive link above the feed, for example /archive/. See Page templates to create the page.
Where it appears: above the latest essays feed.
Leave it empty to hide the link.
Turns on the featured book. A value here shows the book showcase and the Book First hero. Clear it to remove both.
Where it appears: the hero and the full-width book showcase.
Short supporting copy shown beneath the book title.
Where it appears: the hero and the book showcase.
The cover image for the showcase and hero. A 1000 × 1500 px portrait cover works best.
Where it appears: the hero and the book showcase.
The label on the button beside the featured book.
Where it appears: the book showcase.
Where the book button goes: a Ghost page, a retailer, Shopify, Gumroad or any valid URL.
Where it appears: the book showcase.
Leave it empty to hide the button.
Shows your public paid tiers on the homepage as a Support the work section, with monthly and yearly prices and each tier's benefits. Sign-up opens in Ghost Portal.
Where it appears: the homepage, for signed-out visitors.
It needs paid memberships (Stripe connected) and signups open to Anyone. Otherwise the section stays hidden.
The label above the topic directory, which lists your six most-used public tags.
Where it appears: the homepage topic directory.
A short positioning line above the hero title, for example Author of The Work That Matters. Empty shows a neutral line.
Where it appears: above the hero heading.
Essay List is a clean list, Editorial Grid a grid of cards and Magazine a lead-story layout.
Where it appears: the latest essays feed on the homepage.
Post
Applies to individual essays.
A slim progress indicator while a reader works through a post. It is decorative and hidden from assistive technology.
Where it appears: the top of every post.
Builds a compact contents list from the post's H2 and H3 headings.
Where it appears: beside long posts on wide screens.
How the homepage builds itself
The homepage is assembled from your content, and sections appear only when they have something to show. From top to bottom:
- Hero — Book First, Author Portrait or Newsletter First, with your headline and signup button.
- Introduction — your site description, with Learn more and Browse the archive links when you set their URLs, beside the three most recent essays.
- Topic directory — your six most-used public tags, labelled by Featured topics label.
- Essential essays — up to four posts marked Feature this post, most recent first.
- Book showcase — a full-width dark band, when a Featured book title is set.
- Latest essays — the paginated feed, in your chosen layout.
- Support the work — your public paid tiers, when paid memberships are on and the visitor is not a member.
- Newsletter — Ghost's own signup, shown only when signups are open.
The standard paginated feed continues at /page/2/ and beyond.
Page templates
Create a Ghost page, then choose its template in the page settings. For each, the page's own content appears above the generated list.
| Page to create | Template and what it does |
|---|---|
| Archive | Archive — a chronological list of up to 100 recent posts. Publish it at /archive/ and enter that address in Archive page URL. |
| Books | Books — lists every Book page, newest first. Until you create one it shows the featured book from Customize. |
| A book | Book — a book detail page. See Books. |
| Start here | Start here — a numbered reading path from posts tagged #start-here, oldest first. Falls back to your featured posts. |
| Now | Now — a “what I'm focused on” page with an automatic Last updated date. |
Books
Each book gets its own page, listed together on a Books page.
- Create a page and choose the Book template.
- Upload the cover as the feature image and write the subtitle in the excerpt.
- Put the description in the page content. Add Button cards for where to buy.
- Add the internal tag #book so the page is listed on the Books page.
Source sizes that work well: book cover 1000 × 1500 px, post feature image 1800 × 1125 px, tag image 1200 × 900 px and author portrait 800 × 1000 px.
Members and paid content
Blyton uses Ghost's native memberships, so there is nothing extra to install.
- Signup forms appear only when signup access is Anyone can sign up. They are hidden for invite-only sites, sites with memberships off, and signed-in members.
- Members-only and paid posts show a badge on cards and a themed paywall. Signed-out readers are invited to join or sign in, and free members are invited to view plans.
- Support the work is built from your public paid tiers. Turn it off with Show membership tiers.
- Comments appear on posts when they are enabled in Ghost and the visitor has access.
- Private sites show a clean access-code page if you password-protect the site.
Reading features
- Reading progress and the table of contents can each be switched off in the Post group.
- Select-to-share quotes work on desktop: highlight a sentence to copy it with the title and link, or post it on X. Every post also has keyboard-accessible share buttons.
- Search uses Ghost's native search, including the Cmd/Ctrl + K shortcut. No search service or key is needed.
- Recommendations, when enabled in Ghost, show up to four in the footer with a Portal link to the full list.
- Print styles remove navigation and conversion modules from long-form posts.
Beyond the settings
Translations
Every visible string uses Ghost's translation helper and is listed in locales/en.json. Copy it to locales/<code>.json (for example fr.json), translate the values and set your publication language under Settings → General. Missing strings fall back to English.
Small changes
Design tokens live at the top of assets/css/screen.css. For small changes, use Ghost's Code Injection so theme updates stay easy. For larger changes, keep a private Git repository and reapply them when you update.
Do not remove {{ghost_head}}, {{ghost_foot}}, {{body_class}}, {{post_class}} or the asset helpers. Ghost depends on them.
Updating
Back up your customised files and export your content, upload the new ZIP, preview it, then activate it. Setting keys stay stable between compatible releases. See the main documentation for the full steps.
Troubleshooting
The book showcase or Book First hero is missing
Both need a Featured book title. With it empty, Blyton shows the Author Portrait hero instead. The book button also needs a Book CTA URL.
The signup form or Subscribe button is missing
Forms appear only when signup access is Anyone can sign up, under Settings → Membership, and the visitor is not already a member. Check Newsletter CTA placement too.
Support the work does not appear
It needs at least one public paid tier, which means connecting Stripe, signups open to Anyone, and Show membership tiers switched on. Signed-in members do not see it.
Essential essays is empty
It shows posts marked Feature this post in the post settings. Feature three or four.
The Start here page is empty
Tag posts with the internal tag #start-here. With none tagged it falls back to your featured posts.
My book is not on the Books page
The page needs the Book template and the internal tag #book.
Browse the archive or Learn more links are missing
Each appears only when its setting, Archive page URL or About page URL, has a value.
The dark mode toggle is missing
Set Color scheme to Visitor toggle. Light and Dark force one palette, and System follows the device without a button.
I cannot find the theme settings panel
Blyton must be the active theme, not merely uploaded. Activate it under Settings → Design & branding → Change theme, then reload Ghost Admin. Custom themes also require Ghost(Pro) Publisher or higher, or a self-hosted install.
Still stuck?
Email [email protected] with your Ghost version, the Blyton version, the page URL and a screenshot. If you have customised the theme, say what you changed. I aim to reply within two business days, and support covers installation, documented settings and confirmed defects.
For installation, updates and licensing, see the main documentation. For release notes, see the changelog.