Totally re-written from scratch. Loads of new style and colour settings. Valid HTML5 markup. Better responsive behaviour and mobile compatibility. Smaller codebase for faster, smoother loading webpages. Includes Bootstrap 4, Font Awesome 4.7 icons, jQuery, FreeStyle banners, responsive video, retina optimised images, dragged-and-dropped RW7 banners, RW-FontKit and other extras.
In terms of theme design, Qube is mostly the same as before; with the exception that the sidebar is now contained within the main content container (for improved content clarity). The footer is within a new container and positioned-up from the bottom of the page; to avoid browser status bars getting in the way.
This is a FREE update for all existing users - available from your Paddle account or automatic updates in RW7 / Waterfall. Coupon codes are available by email if you don’t have Qube in your Paddle account already (please supply proof of purchase).
Qube 4 is currently 50% off until midnight 17th April 2017. No coupon code is required (the reduced price is shown).
Banner / header images are normally the first and most frequently changed thing in a theme. So with this in mind, I have aimed to make it extremely simple and offer a couple of different techniques.
If you are using RapidWeaver 7, then simply drag and drop a suitable image* into the dropzone, within the Page Inspector or Site Setup.
Alternatively if you are using RapidWeaver 6 or wish to use banner images that are stored elsewhere (like a warehouse directory on your web server) then the ‘FreeStyle’ banner technique is perfect to use (documented widely in the user guides).
Several free and paid stacks also exist; which let you add slideshows, static images, video and layers of content directly into the header or banner areas. Again using FreeStyle or ExtraContent techniques.
As a bonus, if you use the FreeStyle approach over dragged-and-dropped images, you can create standard and retina optimised versions of the same image:
image.jpg
image@2x.jpg
If a retina display is detected viewing the webpage, then the standard version of the image can be swapped out for the higher resolution (@2x) version. The dpi for the retina image remains the same - it it merely the physical dimensions of the image (in pixels) that doubles. E.g. standard image measures 1200px wide, 500px tall; thus the retina version would be 2400px wide, 1000px tall.
*What constitutes as a suitable image? Basically an image saved in either JPG, PNG or GIF format at 72 dpi. It can be of any size or shape you prefer (the banner will usually adjust accordingly to fit the height of the image). We tend to recommend a file size not exceeding 200 kb, so that pages continue to load relatively quickly on slower internet connections. It is always best to scale and optimise your images in a normal image editing app before adding them to RapidWeaver. In other words, don’t drag in massive 50 MB image files straight from your DSLR camera! Do some basic editing of them first, to get them web-ready.
