Installing Your Theme

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If you are getting a free theme from Rough Pixels, there are a couple of ways to get it.

  1. Free or Premium Themes – Using the WordPress Theme Installer
  2. Free Themes – Download it from the WordPress.org website

Using the WordPress Theme Installer

This will be the same for both free and premium themes.

NOTE: Premium themes since Alurra and Serifi have a different method—more on that further below…

Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New

screenshot showing how to add a new theme

Free Themes

If you are installing a FREE theme from Rough Pixels, enter the theme’s name into the search field. For this example, we will look for Prologe Lite.

Screenshot of searching for a new theme from Admin
We typed in Prologe

When it shows up, hover over the thumbnail and click the Install button, and then Activate.

screenshot showing how to install the searched theme
Now we can install and activate this theme

Upload a Downloaded Theme

If you downloaded a free or premium theme, they share the same upload process. When you go to add a new theme by clicking the Add New button, an Upload Theme button will appear in the same spot.

screenshot of the theme upload button
You can upload a free or premium theme with this method

Clicking on it and “Choose File” by browsing for the theme file (a ZIP file) and then click Install Now. Once uploaded, simply click the Activate link:

screenshot showing how to activate the uploaded theme
Activate the uploaded theme

Install a Premium Theme – Newest Themes

Since Alurra and Serifi, our premium themes are now installed as a plugin. You will still need to install and activate the Free version, but the only difference is that the premium (pro) version is a plugin—not a theme.

Basically, the free version is an actual theme, whereas the pro version is a plugin.

Advantages of a Plugin

There are several advantages to using a plugin, but let’s look at a few:

  • There is no need to deactivate the free theme to install a pro theme
  • In many cases, you won’t have to redo your theme customizer settings
  • Should a bug result with the pro plugin version, you can still keep running the free version because it’s active.

Installing as a Plugin

When you purchase and download the pro version, this will be a zip file.
For example: serifi-premium100.zip

The number on the file represents the version number that the plugin (theme) will be.

  1. Go to the Plugins > Add New.
  2. Click on the Upload Plugin button and then browse for the premium version zip file for your theme upgrade.
  3. Click the Install Now button, followed by the Activation button/link.
Adding a new plugin setting
screenshot showing the add new plugin choose file setting

IMPORTANT: Don’t forget to add your license key to ensure theme updates and support are active!

IMPORTANT: When using the plugin as your pro version of a theme, they are compatible only with the theme related to it. For example, Serifi Premium is for the free version of Serifi (only). We recommend that if you do not plan to continue using the theme, deactivate and delete the premium plugin for it too.