Ikarus
Shifter
Clearview
Two are free, one is (kind of) paid. Two support 'Magazine' layouts, one is blog focused. And I am using all three on different sites. Each is flexible, modifiable and free of footer links I find objectionable.
Let me give a brief overview of each of the three themes. I will also link to where I am using each theme. Except for Shifter, the themes are not fully deployed yet. Of course these sites will never be "done", but the Shifter based site is mature. The other sites are quite new.
Ikarus
I just ran across this theme a few days ago. It is VERY exciting. There is a light version and a dark version. I am running the dark version on the Bailey Services, LLC website. The purpose of the site is to centralize the different businesses and websites that my wife and I have... we also wanted to own the domain since it was available.
Ikarus is a magazine layout theme, with the option of being a more traditional blog, or a hybrid. it does take some work to use the magazine features, as images need to be prepped for each post, but the result would be a very uniform and attractive site.
Colors are changeable in the admin area. There are also some sidebar features which can be turned on or off to suit your content. The header images can be set to rotate, and can be modified from the stock images...
Basically, the theme is very tunable to make it not look like another Ikarus themed site. I will be tuning my site over the next few weeks to add more content and make it more unique. And it is free to use. The footer links can be removed for a donation of $30 to the creator, and I will likely do that in the near future. I think that the theme is well worth $30, considering its premium nature.
Shifter
Shifter is another magazine layout theme for WordPress. I have been using it almost since the inception of LaneBailey.com. I couldn't find anything like it when I was looking for a theme. Magazine themes were all premium, and the $80 I paid for it was well worth it. The theme uses something called a 'skin' which is kind of like a theme for the theme... basically, you can change the look easily without changing the layout. I have 6 or 8 skins that I rotate through, and add a new one every once in a while.
Shifter can be optioned to be a blog layout, as I have on LaneBailey.com, or it can be a portal layout (magazine). It allows feature content, and has 'user positions' which lets the site administrator deploy widgets in many different areas of the blog quite easily.
Colors and details can be changed in the CSS or they can be set up as a skin. There are both light and dark versions of many of the skins. Header images are also based on the skin in use. Also, an interesting feature is that a user can move one of the sidebars from side to side based on their preference.
Shifter is unique in that the developers are offering a hosted solution as well as the actual theme. The hosted version can be had for free... like WordPress.com. The theme starts at $80, or the footer links can be removed at the $200... I have an $80 license.
Clearview
The last theme is a blogging theme. I ran across it last week and have enjoyed playing with it. I am currently testing it on LaneBailey.info. The cool thing about this particular theme is that viewers can move the widgets on the side to suit their own preference. They need to stay on the same side, but they can be moved up or down.
Clearview is a free theme witha graphical post interface. Basically, each post is represented with an image. The drawback to the graphical post representation is that it takes a few minutes to prep the image for each post. But, it is a cool idea. The title also displays, but if I were doing an image based site (portfolio or gallery) I would be all over this theme... even as a specialized listing portal, it has some really cool features. Like showing a picture to represent each of your listings.
I haven't seen an option to buy out the footer credits, but they certainly aren't objectionable. The license does require that the credits stay in the style sheets and the footer.
At some point in the near future I hope to completely change the look by changing the background texture. But, as it sits it is a unique theme with some interesting options. it is also very similar in the admin function to most other WordPress themes, so there isn't a learning curve as there is with the other two.
There are a few points to keep in mind. These are for self-hosted WordPress blogs, with the exception of the hosted version of Shifter. I do not know if they can be run on WordPress.com.
Enjoy.
