Theme settings guide
Splash, setting by setting.
Splash is a red-top tabloid theme for Ghost. It has twenty controls in Ghost Admin: the masthead and its ears, the bar and highlight colours, headline style, the breaking ticker, the front page layout, section rails, sign-up placement and the details of a story. Most of a newspaper site is the stories, so every setting has a default that already looks right.
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 and accent colour live one tab over, in Ghost’s own Brand settings, and fonts are on the Typography tab.
Changes preview live and nothing goes public until you press Save.
First hour
Just activated the theme? These steps make it look like the demo.
- Set the accent colour. Under Brand, pick a tabloid red such as #E10600. Ghost’s default pink shows until you change it.
- Build the navigation. The black strip under the masthead is your primary navigation. Add one item per section, each linking to a tag page such as /tag/news/. Put About, Contact and Privacy in the secondary navigation, which becomes the footer.
- Colour your sections. Give each section tag an accent colour under Tags. The colour flows into cards, the section rails and the navigation underline.
- Add the ears. Type a short note into Masthead ear, left and right, such as “Edition 3 · 80p”.
- Feature a story. Open a story, switch on Feature this post in its settings, and it becomes the splash.
- Turn on members under Settings → Membership if you want sign-ups, a paywall and comments. Splash styles all of them.
All twenty settings
Each setting is listed with its internal key, its control type and its default.
Site wide
Applies across the whole site.
Solid colour block is a red band with a white wordmark. Light with colour bar is a white band with a red wordmark box and a red bar. Compact is a slim, single-row masthead.
Where it appears: the top of every page.
A reversed (white) logo for the red masthead. Without one, Splash sets your site title as a bold wordmark in a box.
Where it appears: the masthead.
The Light and Compact styles use Ghost’s normal publication logo instead.
A boxed note beside the title, like a newspaper’s ear: the price, an edition, a teaser for a story inside. Keep it under about 30 characters.
Where it appears: the left of the masthead title.
Leave it empty to hide it. Not shown in the Compact style.
A second boxed note on the right of the title.
Where it appears: the right of the masthead title.
Leave it empty to hide it. Not shown in the Compact style.
The yellow used for flashes, the ticker and the “THE FACTS” callout. Text on top of it is chosen automatically so it stays readable.
Where it appears: the ticker, the Don’t Miss strip, flashes and callouts.
The top strip, the section navigation, the footer and the ticker label. Text, icons and focus rings adapt to the colour you choose, so dark colours such as navy, charcoal or deep green work well, and light colours work too.
Where it appears: the navigation bar, the top strip and the footer.
Condensed caps uses Anton in capitals. Condensed mixed case keeps Anton in sentence case. Heavy serif uses Source Serif 4 Black.
Where it appears: every headline.
If you pick a headline font in Ghost’s Typography settings, that font is used instead, and Splash scales it to suit. All bundled fonts load from the theme with no font service.
The page background. Newsprint is a warm off-white. White is plain white. Dark is a dark page. Match system follows each visitor’s device: newsprint by day, dark by night.
Where it appears: every page.
Off hides the strip. Breaking tag only shows stories tagged #breaking. Latest headlines shows your newest stories. The label reads “Breaking” or “Latest” to match.
Where it appears: under the navigation on every page.
The strip disappears if nothing qualifies. It has a pause button and stops moving for visitors who prefer reduced motion.
Keeps the section navigation at the top of the screen as readers scroll. Turn it off for a navigation that scrolls away with the page.
Where it appears: the navigation bar.
The headline in the red sign-up bands.
Where it appears: the front page band and the end of stories.
Leave it empty to hide the bands completely.
Everywhere shows the front page band, an end-of-story box and a footer form. Front page and footer drops the end-of-story box. Footer only keeps just the footer. Nowhere turns all three off.
Where it appears: the front page, the end of stories and the footer.
Sign-up prompts only appear when members are on, signups are open and the reader is signed out.
Replaces the copyright line at the very bottom of the footer.
Where it appears: the bottom of the footer.
Empty shows “© Your site title” and the year.
Homepage
Applies to the front page.
Splash: panel over image puts a red headline panel over the lead picture. Splash: headline above image sets a full-width newspaper headline above it. Splash with sidebar moves the Don’t Miss strip into a column beside the splash and rails. Wall of headlines shows the splash and then your 24 latest headlines.
Where it appears: the front page.
The splash is your latest featured story, or your latest story if none is featured. Section rails are not shown in the wall layout.
A comma-separated list of tag slugs, in the order you want them, with no spaces. The slug is the last part of a tag’s address, so /tag/showbiz/ is showbiz.
Where it appears: the front page, below the three-story spread.
Up to five rails are shown. A slug that does not exist is skipped. Leave it empty to hide rails.
Shows a strip of stories carrying the internal tag #dont-miss.
Where it appears: the front page.
Post
Applies to individual stories and the cards that link to them.
Bold first paragraph sets the opening paragraph in bold, like a standfirst. Drop cap makes a large first letter. Plain leaves it unstyled.
Where it appears: the top of a story.
Standard shows avatars and reading time where they suit the card. Minimal: name and date shows just the author and the date. Full: avatars and reading time everywhere shows both on every card.
Where it appears: cards and story headers.
Time ago reads “3 hours ago”. Date reads “14 Oct 2026”. Date and time adds the time.
Where it appears: cards and story headers.
The sticky share bar beside a story, and three related stories from the same section at the end. Choose both, either one, or neither.
Where it appears: story pages.
How the front page builds itself
The front page never shows the same story twice, and blocks with nothing to show disappear. From top to bottom:
- The splash: your latest featured story, or your latest story if none is featured.
- The spread: the next three stories, the first one larger.
- Section rails: one block for each tag in Section rails, each with a coloured header, a lead story and a list of headlines. They alternate left and right.
- Don’t Miss: stories tagged #dont-miss.
- Sign-up band: hidden from signed-in members.
- Elsewhere in the paper: the next eight stories not already shown, with a link to page 2.
The standard paginated feed continues at /page/2/ and beyond.
Story templates
Choose a template from the Template menu in a story’s settings.
| Template | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Default | An ordinary story. |
| Splash Story | A big exclusive: a full-bleed picture with a giant headline over it. Use a wide picture. |
| Live Blog | Live coverage. Every Heading 3 starts a new entry, and a time at the start of the heading, such as 16:47, becomes a time label. |
| Opinion | Columnists. A large portrait taken from the author’s profile image, the column name and an italic serif headline. |
| No Feature Image | Text-led stories. Any feature image is deliberately not shown. |
Members and paid content
Splash uses Ghost’s native memberships, so there is nothing extra to install.
- Sign-up forms appear in the front page band, at the end of stories and in the footer, as set by Signup placement. They are hidden for invite-only sites, sites with memberships off and signed-in members.
- Members-only and paid stories show a padlock on their cards and a styled paywall. Readers see an introduction, then a box inviting them to sign in or subscribe. Add a Public preview card in the editor to choose where the teaser ends.
- Comments appear under stories when they are enabled in Ghost, and the comment count shows in the story header.
- Recommendations, when enabled in Ghost, appear in the footer as “Recommended reading”. Without them, the footer shows a newsletter box instead.
Reading features
- Ghost’s native search opens from the top strip.
- A sticky share bar uses the device’s native share sheet, with a copy-link button.
- Every editor card is styled: images, galleries, bookmarks, callouts, toggles, buttons, headers, products, files, audio, video, signup cards, embeds, quotes, code and tables.
- The theme is built to WCAG 2.2 AA, works by keyboard and respects reduced-motion settings.
Beyond the settings
Translations
Fixed wording such as “Elsewhere in the paper”, “Stay in the loop” and “Sections” is listed in locales/en.json. Ghost has no screen for editing it, so to change a phrase, edit that file and upload the theme again. A site set to plain English uses the British strings.
Small changes
For small tweaks, such as extra CSS, use Ghost’s Code Injection under Settings → Advanced so theme updates stay easy. Do not remove {{ghost_head}}, {{ghost_foot}} or the asset helpers. Ghost depends on them.
Updating
Download your current theme as a backup, upload the new ZIP, check the front page, one story and one section page, then activate it. Your settings are kept, and new settings take their defaults. See the main documentation for the full steps.
Troubleshooting
My site looks pink, not red
Ghost’s default accent colour is pink. Change it under Settings → Design & branding → Brand → Accent colour.
The section rails are missing
Check Section rails. Slugs must be lowercase, comma-separated and have no spaces, and each tag needs a few stories. Rails are also hidden in the Wall of headlines layout.
The ticker does not show
In Breaking tag only mode it needs at least one story tagged #breaking. Switch to Latest headlines to show recent stories, or set Ticker to Off to hide it.
The sign-up band is missing
Bands appear only when members are on, signups are open and the reader is signed out. They are also hidden when Signup CTA text is empty or Signup placement is Nowhere.
A story is not in Don’t Miss
It needs the internal tag #dont-miss and Show Don’t Miss must be on. A story that is already the splash or in the spread is not repeated.
My live blog entries look like normal headings
Choose the Live Blog template and start each entry with a Heading 3. Put the time first, such as 16:47 Full time.
I cannot find the theme settings panel
Splash must be the active theme, not merely uploaded. Activate it under Settings → Design & branding → Change theme, then reload Ghost Admin. Custom settings appear under Customize → Theme.
Still stuck?
Email [email protected] with your Ghost version, the page URL and a screenshot. If you have customised the theme, say what you changed. Support covers installing Splash, its documented settings and confirmed defects, and replies usually come within two business days.
For installation, updates and licensing, see the main documentation. For release notes, see the changelog.