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Screenshot of Free Personal Blog Website Template for WordPress — the Marginalia home page Open live preview
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Marginalia

Free Personal Blog Website Template for WordPress

A typography-first block theme for personal blogs and journals.

Free
GPL license
Download free Try it live in WordPress
  • Free for personal & commercial use
  • No account or email required
  • Downloaded from the official source
Type
Open source
License
GPL
Updated
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About Marginalia

Marginalia is built for writing and reading. Posts are set in Newsreader at a comfortable measure with a drop cap, pull quotes, reading time, an author bio and a Keep reading section at the end of every article.

The home page pairs a personal introduction with your latest post featured large and a grid of recent writing. It includes About and Now page patterns, a one-click demo with seven sample posts, and three color styles — Paper, Night (dark) and Sepia. Self-hosted fonts, no extra JavaScript and AA color contrast keep it fast and accessible.

Features

  • Block editor
  • Dark style
  • Style variations
  • One-click demo
  • Accessibility-ready
  • SEO-ready

Live demos

Runs a real WordPress site with this theme installed, right in your browser. Nothing to install — it resets when you close it.

Live WordPress demo WordPress Playground · opens in a new tab

How to install

1. Install the theme

  1. Download marginalia.zip. Don’t unzip it.
  2. In WordPress, go to Appearance → Themes → Add New Theme → Upload Theme.
  3. Choose marginalia.zip, click Install Now, then Activate.

2. Import the demo (optional)

  1. Go to Appearance → Marginalia setup and import the demo. This adds seven sample posts, an About page, a Now page and a menu.
  2. Already have posts? Skip this step. Your posts will use the new design straight away.

3. Make it yours

  • Add your name and bio in Users → Profile. They appear under every post.
  • Set Settings → Permalinks to Post name.
  • Change colors and fonts in Appearance → Editor → Styles.

The ZIP includes INSTALL.txt with these steps.

Prefer not to do it yourself? We’ll set it up for you.

Built with

Full Site Editingtheme.jsonBlock bindings

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