In this article we present 40 free high-quality Joomla 1.5 themes. The themes included in this post have all been manually selected, installed and tested over the last weeks with Joomla 1.5.x. All of the themes can be downloaded, customized and used for free in both personal and commercial projects. Where available we have provided links to demo-sites to provide a direct preview of the themes.
High-quality Joomla themes are always worth investigating. Whether you are looking for some inspiration for your personal blog design or for a professional company website you’re developing for a client, you can learn a lot. You may choose apply them directly or you can use them as foundation for a customized designs where you can save significant amount of time by not starting from scratch.
To help you quickly find the Joomla themes you need the article has been divided into 8 sections:
Section 1: What is a Joomla Template and how to use it
Section 2: Business website themes
Section 3: Simple, Minimalistic Themes
Section 4: Vibrant Themes
Section 5: Romantic Themes
Section 6: Nature Themes
Section 7: Gaming Themes
Section 8: Very basic template customization
Section 9: Sources and Further Resources
Support tripwire magazine if you buy a Premium Theme
Section 1: What is a Joomla Template and how to use it
The functionality in Joomla that allows web master to upload a zip file containing a new template, module, component or plugin is brilliant. Once uploaded to Joomla the new theme or functionality is just there ready to be configured or used. Templates in Joomla is uploaded using the Administration menu “Extensions”->”Install/Uninstall”. Once uploaded they are awailable for usage in the Administration menu “Extensions”->”Template Manager”. On the Template Manager page the new template can be set as Default and will be used on the next request on the website.


Take a look at the Install guide at docs.joomla.org for more information
Also take a look at the How to switch Templates Guide at docs.joomla.org
Section 2: Business website themes
Team2

[Demo] [Download] (reqistration needed)
PraiseCorp


DJ-0013

xiubu

Vortex

Colourful World

Bizcity 2

Real Estate

Building 1-5

Digital Systems

Rise of technology

Section 3: Simple, Minimalistic Themes
sg – Joomla 1.5

[Demo] [Download] (reqistration needed)
kodadesign

Default

portal-silver

seiagul
JA Wezen

[Demo] (select the template in bottom menu) [Download]
Newave

Akotorro

Dewey Web


Section 4: Vibrant Themes
Jamba

Nova

Black Bear Pro

Green Rays

Feel the Music

MyPortfolio

batik_hijau


siteground-j15-32

dmunich


Orange

Lichtenart Timeless

Aurora

Section 5: Romantic Themes
Deco Group

siteground-j15-53

JA Mercury

[Demo] (select the template in bottom menu) [Download]
Section 6: Nature Themes
Back to Nature

Spirit of Nature

Agriculture

Mini Website-Builder

Section 7: Gaming Themes

Support tripwire magazine if you buy a Premium Theme
Section 8: Very basic template customization
Once templates have been uploaded, installed and set to default (see section 1 for details) they change the layout and structure of the website to be exactly as the theme designer prepared it. This may be just what you need but in most situations basic changes are needed fx.:
- Replacing or adding the favicon image (link to section below)
- Replacing the logo image (link to section below)
- Updating the Stylesheet (CSS) (link to section below)
Basic structure of a Joomla template
In order to be able to customize or to create your own templates, you must understand the basic structure of Joomla templates.
The basic template directory struture for a Joomla Template is:
<Template root>
–| css
–| html
–| images
–| js
Normally template root contains the following files but some may not be included in simple templates:
- favicon.ico
- index.php
- params.ini
- template_thumbnail.jpg
- templateDetails.xml
More may also be included in templates for advanced features but this is not covered here. It is unlikely that you need to change any of these files except for the favicon.ico file.
Replacing or adding the favicon image
favicon.ico defines the small icon shown in the url and bookmarkareas in most lates browser versions.
![]()
Creating your own favicon is simple with some online tools. Many tools are available but a few quite useful examples have been shown below:
Once crated the new favicon.ico must be placed in the template root folder in the joomla website.
Replacing the logo image of a Joomla template
The logo in a Joomla template is normally found in the images subfolder and is called logo.jpg. If the template supports more than one color theme this is normally supported by creating subfolders in the images folder for each color theme. If the logo changes for each color theme the logo.jpg will be found in the subfolders.
Updating the Stylesheet (CSS)
Stylesheets are located in the css folder. The main stylesheet file is always: template.css
As a rule of thumb template.css will contain the markup for font types and font size. So if you need to change fonts start looking here.More complex tempaltesmay have a few more css file and some may have many. If a template features multiple color themes there normally will be a seperate css file for each color theme in the css folder or in a subfolder of css.
Tip!:
If you have difficulties finding the css definitions you want to change you should consider trying out the firebug plugin for firefox. This plugin will give you all the information you need by right clicking an element on the page and selecting Inspect element. This tool is extremely useful!

Get it here: getfirebug.com
Section 9: Sources and Further Resources
Templates
- Best of Joomla
- siteground.com
- joomlapraise.com
- design-joomla.eu
- freejoomlatemplatez.com
- joomla24.com
- osskins.com
Other
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January 25th, 2009 at 2:37 am
Very nice post thanks for it. I knew about much of them but there are few that I didn’t and they definitely caught my eye
Thanks again
January 25th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Great templates. Some old, a lot new. If the opportunity comes I will definitely used them as a base for new templates.
January 25th, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Great list. Thanks.
January 26th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Wow – Amazing collection, well done. Do you like my [url=http://www.marcofolio.net/joomla/whitesquid_a_beautiful_dark_joomla_1.0.x_template.html]Whitesquid[/url] theme too? Currently only for Joomla! 1.0.x
.
Thanks for sharing this amazing list!
January 27th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Hi Marco
Thanks for the great feedback. I know [b]Whitesquid [/b]and I would for sure have added it to the list if it had just supported Joomla 1.5.x.
March 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm
Thanks nice collection!
March 19th, 2009 at 12:16 am
Great post. I will come back to your blog
April 22nd, 2009 at 3:57 am
wow some great designs here, thanks for the share
April 28th, 2009 at 5:16 am
i hope to find a theme to my shopping website.
May 2nd, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Were did you get your blog design?
May 3rd, 2009 at 5:29 am
Regarding tripwire magazine blog design – take a look at this post
May 4th, 2009 at 6:45 am
this material is very good, many elements for a developed a good job.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:10 am
excellent…I was looking all over for something like this but it seems like everywhere is just loaded with Wordpress theme’s now a days. Don’t get me wrong, wp is good but it has it’s place in the world. Thanks a lot.
May 19th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
I think the theme “siteground-j15-53″ is the choice of my shoes blog! Thanks for sharing!
June 1st, 2009 at 7:44 am
Wow. There are some really great themes in here! Thanks for the collection — bookmarked!
July 1st, 2009 at 2:41 pm
I can’t believe I just found this. Whoever put these up… THANK YOU.
September 26th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Great website!Excellent themes, tips, guides.thank you
November 9th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
This site makes really good custom templates for Joomla! and has several good, free templates at http://nodwell.net
December 10th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Nice ,collection, i will pickone for min
.
February 9th, 2010 at 3:10 am
thanks man.. been looking for this page
)
(in my favorits now