Everything you need to set up and run a publication on Proza. If something here is unclear or doesn’t work the way it says, write to info@proza.site.
Installing
- Download
Proza.zipfrom your purchase email. Don’t unzip it. - In Ghost admin, go to Settings › Design & branding › Change theme.
- Choose Upload theme, select the zip, and activate it when Ghost asks.
Proza works with Ghost 5 and Ghost 6, on Ghost(Pro) and on your own server. To update later, upload the new zip the same way. Ghost replaces the old version and keeps your theme settings.
Setting up your site
Description. The site description, under Settings › General, becomes the introduction at the top of the home page. Write it as a sentence or two about the publication rather than a tagline.
Icon or logo. Proza shows the publication icon next to the site title. On wide screens it hangs in the left margin, and on phones it sits inline before the title. If you upload a publication logo instead, the logo replaces both the icon and the title. Use a logo with a transparent background that reads on both light and dark pages, or fix the colour scheme in the theme settings.
Accent colour. Links, buttons, the featured mark and the end-of-post mark use your accent colour exactly as you set it. In dark mode the theme lightens it just enough to stay readable, keeping its hue. Because links are text, pick a colour dark enough to read on white: mid-tones and deeper colours work well, while bright yellow or pale blue will be hard to read.
Navigation. Primary navigation sits on its own line beneath the site title. With many items it folds behind a Menu button: six or more on phones, nine or more on wider screens. Secondary navigation appears in the footer. Search and the sign-up or account link are always in the header, so you don’t need to add them yourself.
Members and comments. When members are enabled, the home page and the end of each post invite readers to subscribe by email. Members-only posts show a short preview, if you set one, followed by a sign-up box. If comments are open to all members, the end of a post shows Ghost’s comments instead of a second sign-up box, since the comments already invite readers to join.
Theme settings
Find these under Settings › Design & branding › Theme. Changes apply to every post at once.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Typeface | Literata | Literata, bundled with the theme, or Times New Roman from the reader’s own device. |
| Colour scheme | System | Follow each reader’s system setting, or fix the site to light or dark. |
| Paragraph alignment | Justified | Justified and hyphenated like a book, or ragged right. Phones are always ragged. |
| Paragraph style | Indented | A first-line indent like a book, or a blank line between paragraphs. |
| Show excerpts in lists | On | Shows each post’s excerpt under its title in post lists. |
| Show subscribe on home | On | Shows the email sign-up box on the home page. Needs members enabled. |
Writing for Proza
- Excerpts. A post’s excerpt appears in italics under its title on the post itself, and under the title in post lists. Write it as a short line that tells readers what the post is about.
- Featured posts. Featured posts are marked with an asterisk in the accent colour, next to the title in lists.
- Feature images. Shown above the post at the width of the text. Add alt text in the editor so screen readers can describe it.
- Cards. Every card in Ghost’s editor is styled: images and galleries in normal, wide and full width, embeds, bookmarks, audio and video, callouts, toggles, buttons, headers, sign-up cards, products and files.
- Typography. Straight quotes are curled, numbers are set to suit the text around them, and acronyms like AI or NASA are set in small capitals automatically.
- Archives. Post lists on the home page, tag pages and author pages are grouped by year.
What Proza leaves out
Proza is a text theme. It doesn’t show the publication cover image or tag cover images, though Ghost still uses the cover as the image when your home page is shared on social media. Ghost’s own pop-ups for sign-up, search, comments and the announcement bar keep Ghost’s styling; the theme sets their colour scheme and accent, which is all Ghost allows.
Languages
All of the theme’s own text can be translated. Proza ships with English and Dutch, and follows the site language set under Settings › General. To ask for another language, write to info@proza.site.
Support
Write to info@proza.site with your site’s address, your Ghost version and, if something looks wrong, a screenshot. You can also reply to your purchase email.
License
One purchase licenses Proza for one publication, including updates for as long as the theme is sold. You may modify it for that publication, but not resell, share or publish it, or build another theme on it. The full terms are in the LICENSE file in the download.