It’s been roughly 2½ years since Elliot Jay Stocks first released Starkers, a completely naked WordPress theme for designers and developers to build on.

Like so many others I found Elliot’s theme invaluable, and so about 7 months ago I decided to create an HTML5 version that others would be able to use.

Starkers is a bare bones WordPress theme created to act as a starting point for the theme designer…Elliot Jay Stocks, Starkers

With the introduction of WordPress 3.0 I’m pleased to unveil the new version of Starkers HTML5, just like the previous version this one has been based on Elliot’s Starkers, which in turn was based on the new default theme known as Twenty Ten.

So what’s new?

Thanks to WordPress 3.0 theme developers now have new APIs that allow them to easily implement custom backgrounds, headers, shortlinks, menus, post types, and taxonomies.

The Twenty Ten theme shows off all of these new features, whereas Starkers leaves the functionality but strips back the styling.

For a more comprehensive look at everything that has improved in WordPress 3.0 you can check out the 3.0 Codex page.

Final notes

Starkers HTML5 comes packed with Modernizr, a small and simple JavaScript library that helps you take advantage of emerging web technologies (CSS3, HTML5) while still maintaining a fine level of control over older browsers that may not yet support these new technologies.

For a more in-depth look into HTML5 you can check out the following websites:
HTML5 Doctor, Dive into HTML5, the WC3 working draft and the WHATWG working draft.

Karl Dawson also has a similar yet slightly different HTML5 version of Starkers available on his website called Brave New World, make sure you check it out.

Although Starkers HTML5 is a great starting point for any WordPress theme development I highly recommend you take the time to check out and dig through Paul Irish and Divya Manian’s HTML5 Boilerplate.

Download from GitHub →