Notice!

Update 2014.08.15:

Everything described in this post is now handled by Graphene’s theme options, making this post obsolete. But I am retaining it both for historical interest and if others creating a WordPress theme may find it useful.

Now with 1.6, the Graphene theme for WordPress offers a quick and easy way to change the width of your blog. However, changing the size of the header image still requires a little tweaking.

Contents

Graphene 1.5 and below

You really should upgrade. But if you don’t want to or can’t, this will get you off the ground.

First, create a child theme. There are plenty of instructions elsewhere for that, (I’ll add a list later). Once you’ve done that, add the following to your child theme’s `functions.php` file:

function graphene_custom_header_width(){ return 900; }
function graphene_custom_header_height(){ return 150; }
add_filter('graphene_header_image_width', 'graphene_custom_header_width');
add_filter('graphene_header_image_height', 'graphene_custom_header_height');

Next, add this to your child themes `styles.css` file:

#header{
    width:900px;
    height:150px;
 }

That’s it! When you upload your header image, it will now crop it to 900 pixels wide and 150 pixels high. For a different size, just change the values shown here accordingly.

Graphene 1.6

Graphene 1.6 has an option to choose variable widths for the theme. First, go to Graphene Options >> Display Options >> Column Width Options and select your custom size:

graphene_custom_widths-001

 

Don’t forget to click the “Save Options” icon at the bottom.

Now go to Appearance >> Header and you will see that in the “Upload Image” area, your header image will reflect the width you selected above:

graphene_custom_widths-002

 

If you want to use a custom header height, however, you will need to use a child theme. Again, add this to your child theme’s functions file:

function graphene_custom_header_height(){ return 150; }
add_filter('graphene_header_image_height', 'graphene_custom_header_height');

and add this to your child theme’s style sheet:

#header{
    height:150px;
 }

Change the 150px measurement to whatever you would like your header image height to be.

Graphene 1.7

Version 1.7 will include an option for a custom header image size. Hooray!

You can visit the Graphene theme home page here.

Adjusting the Header Title and Site Description Location

Now that you’ve made your header a different size, you probably need to adjust the position of the site title and site description. Doing so is easy. Just add this to your child theme’s style sheet:

.header_title {
    top: 110px;
}
.header_desc {
    top: 110px;
}

Then, experiment with different values for `top` until you find something you like.