Salvia documentation
A warm personal blog in sage and blue: an opening that introduces you and invites readers to subscribe, your stories in an edge-to-edge mosaic, topics in arches.
Installation
- Download
salvia.zipfrom your purchase email or your purchases library. Do not unzip it. - In Ghost Admin, open Settings → Design & branding → Change theme.
- Click Upload theme, select the zip, then Activate.
Salvia requires Ghost 6 (self-hosted, or a Ghost(Pro) plan that allows custom themes).
Updating
Upload the new zip the same way and confirm the overwrite. Your content, navigation and theme settings are kept.
Import the demo content
The download includes salvia-demo.zip: posts, pages, tags, navigation and images.
- Use a new or empty site: importing over existing content creates duplicates. On a fresh Ghost, first delete the default content in Settings → Advanced → Danger zone → Delete all content.
- Open Settings → Advanced → Import/Export and import the zip (not just the JSON, or the images will be missing).
- Theme settings are not part of an import: set them in Design & branding (see the table below).
Homepage sections
| Section | Content comes from |
|---|---|
| Hero | Hero title (empty = site description), the site description, a sign-up form, “Written by” (the author with the most posts) and a photo in an arch: Hero image, or the publication cover. Seal text = the rotating seal (empty hides it). |
| Topic filters | Links to your 4 most used tags next to “Latest stories”. |
| Mosaic | Your latest posts: rows of 3, then 2 large tiles, then 3… The pattern repeats every 8 posts, so keep 8 posts per page for Load more to continue it. |
| Quote of the week | The excerpt of the latest post tagged #quote. |
| Topics in arches | The tags whose slugs you list in Homepage categories (comma-separated, 3 recommended), with their image, post count and description. |
# (type #picks in the Tags field of a post). Readers never see them and they have no public page; the theme uses them to pick content.Badges in the mosaic: ★ Editor’s pick = a post marked Featured; Members = a post for members or paid members only.
Appearance
The sage palette is the theme’s identity: links stay sage, the Ghost accent colour is used by editor buttons and Portal (tip: #56633F). Light, Dark or Auto, an optional Logo for dark mode; without a logo, an arch and the site title. The newsletter block can show a photo (Newsletter image). Default fonts: Fraunces and DM Sans.
All settings
| Setting | Tab | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| Color scheme | Site-wide | Light | Default color scheme. Readers can still switch with the toggle. |
| Logo for dark mode | Site-wide | — | Optional logo used when the dark scheme is active |
| Footer text | Site-wide | Stories told slowly, from the road and from home. | Short tagline displayed in the footer |
| Other social links | Site-wide | — | Extra social profile URLs, comma-separated (Pinterest, WhatsApp, GitHub...) |
| Show newsletter | Site-wide | On | Newsletter block at the bottom of every page |
| Newsletter heading | Site-wide | Get the stories before everyone else | Heading of the newsletter block |
| Newsletter text | Site-wide | One story, three places worth the detour and an unpublished photo. Every Sunday morning. | Text of the newsletter block |
| Newsletter image | Site-wide | — | Photo displayed next to the newsletter form |
| Show hero | Homepage | On | Introduction at the top of the homepage: title, signup form, author and photo |
| Hero kicker | Homepage | Notebook · autumn edition | Small line above the homepage title |
| Hero title | Homepage | Travel, childhood and small things, told slowly. | Homepage title. Defaults to the site description when empty. |
| Hero image | Homepage | — | Photo in the arch. Defaults to the publication cover when empty. |
| Hero caption | Homepage | Mykonos, at dawn · 37°27′ N | Small caption card on the photo |
| Seal text | Homepage | Told slowly · since 2019 · | Text of the rotating seal on the photo (leave empty to hide) |
| Show topic filters | Homepage | On | Topic links next to the Latest stories title |
| Show quote section | Homepage | On | Quote of the week: excerpt of the latest post tagged #quote |
| Show categories | Homepage | On | Topics shown as arches with their image and story count |
| Homepage categories | Homepage | travel, childhood, everyday | Tag slugs shown as arches, comma-separated (3 recommended) |
| Table of contents | Post | On | Show a table of contents on posts with three or more headings |
Posts per page: 8 (set by the theme). Settings are in Settings → Design & branding → Customize, in the Site-wide, Homepage and Post tabs.
Navigation & social links
- Dropdowns: in Settings → Navigation, start a label with a dash (
-About) to put it in a dropdown under the item above. That parent item only opens the dropdown; its URL is not used. - Social accounts: X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Bluesky, Threads, Mastodon, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram come from Settings → General → Social accounts. Add any other profile in the Other social links setting (comma-separated URLs): Pinterest, WhatsApp, Telegram, Discord, GitHub, Dribbble, Behance, Spotify, Twitch, Snapchat, Reddit and Medium get their icon, any other URL gets a link icon.
- The RSS icon is added automatically.
Posts & pages
- Table of contents: added automatically to posts with three or more H2 headings (setting Table of contents).
- Full width page template: choose it in the page settings for landing pages.
- The page option Show title and feature image is respected.
- Every editor card is styled, including wide and full-width images, galleries, toggles, callouts, buttons and bookmarks.
Members & newsletter
The subscription block uses Ghost’s native members. It is hidden for signed-in members, and when sign-ups are off or invite-only (Settings → Membership).
Translation
Every text of the theme goes through Ghost’s translation system. Copy locales/en.json inside the theme to locales/fr.json (or your language code), translate the values, zip the theme again and upload it. Then set the language in Settings → General → Publication language.
FAQ
The mosaic leaves an empty space.
Keep 8 posts per page (the theme’s value): the pattern is designed for groups of 8.
A section of the homepage does not appear.
Check its switch in Design & branding, then its content: every section hides itself when it has nothing to show (no Featured post, no post with the internal tag, an empty tag…).
Can I change the fonts?
Yes: the fonts chosen in Design & branding → Typography replace the theme’s heading and body fonts.