I think having 100% flexible customization for your Tumblr theme is one of the strongest points about the whole site. It gives the user complete freedom as they can virtually design anything they want. I especially enjoy making themes, for myself and for others. It’s always nice having an exclusive theme nobody else has, who doesn’t like being unique right? :)

I believe anyone has the capability to make themes. It just requires full attention, competence, and a little knowledge. I’ll just bulletpoint some things that helped me become successful in making themes. I know most of this is common sense, and I’m pointing out the obvious, but it doesn’t hurt to list in detail anyway. I feel like writing.

• Familiarize yourself with HTML (the basic code used to display content on a page) and CSS (a style code used to edit the properties of the content). Those are the two most common forms of code used to build webpages. You can either learn the basics online (w3schools is a good source) or if you have Web classes that aren’t mediocre in your high school/college, consider taking those courses. I’ve taken a simple web class and it helped me improve my skills majorly. I personally know a lot about HTML through Myspace because I used to edit/make layouts daily. With CSS, I had to look at different Tumblr themes and Google tutorials on how to script CSS, it took about a good month or so to get the hang of it.
• Once you have a really good handle on HTML formatting, read up on Tumbr’s custom theme page to learn about how a theme is written.
• Observe the code of various Tumblr themes that already exist, and figure out what object is what. Get ahold of a web design program where you can see your webpage as you work on it. I use Adobe Dreamweaver CS4. Since downloading is fairly easy nowadays you could probably Google search and find it yourself. ;) The first theme I’ve ever tinkered with was Simple Strawberry. I remember learning a lot about CSS by looking at the layout and studying it, along with Googling bits of code I didn’t know about.
• Start from scratch! Once you fully understand how a theme works, and you feel you’re confident enough, put all of your knowledge into it and attempt to make your own theme.

I’ll be honest, this is all easier said than done. But with practice (and good memorization skills when it comes to coding) you’ll be able to make any sort of theme you want. 

For me, it took a good couple months to even understand how Tumblr themes work. I had basic HTML knowledge and very little CSS. The very first theme I made, took roughly two weeks to actually make look good and had a lot of errors. About 9 months or so of learning and creating more themes, I’ve gone from spending weeks building a theme to a couple hours.

I hope this post inspires some of you that have been wanting to make themes forever but don’t believe you can. It takes time, and since it’s practically summer, it’s the perfect time to sit down and learn. If you have any questions about theme making, just ask me and I’ll help! I’m fairly confident in my abilities enough to answer simple questions. Thanks to whoever was bored enough to read this lengthy post. Bye!