Screenshots for a theme
This page is for designers preparing the images that show a theme on GitHub, Packagist, a project page or a product page. Screenshots are the first proof of quality people see.
The set to make
| Screenshot | Size | Shows |
|---|---|---|
| Front page, light | 1440 px wide | The overall look |
| Front page, dark | 1440 px wide | That dark mode is designed, not an afterthought (if the theme has one) |
| An article (full view) | 1440 px wide | Typography and reading comfort |
| A list or search result | 1440 px wide | Line views and paging |
| Phone | 375 px wide | The responsive layout |
| 200% zoom | 960 px wide at scale 2 | That the layout holds when people enlarge text |
The Exponential project checks its own pages at 1440 px, 960 px at scale 2 and 375 px, in light and dark mode; using the same sizes lets users compare.
Step by step
- Install the theme on a demo installation with demo content (Demo content for a theme).
- Use a browser window of the exact width, or a headless browser that you can run again for each release.
- Take each screenshot of the table. Save as PNG or WebP with descriptive names:
front-light-1440.png,front-dark-1440.png,article-375.png. - Keep them in the repository, for example
doc/screenshots/, so the README can show them with a relative path. - Write a short alt text for each in the README: what the image shows.
- Run the Screenshot checklist.
Never in a screenshot
- Real customer content, names, email addresses or faces without consent.
- An administration page showing user names, server paths or settings.
- Browser extensions, bookmarks or other tabs.
- Content you have no right to show (others' photos, logos).
Related pages
- Running a demo site
- Testing at zoom levels
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
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