Starting from near-zero
To make a Tiki theme that is not derived from an existing theme, a good way is to start with a "blank" CSS file. This way, it will be unique, not "inheriting" any page treatments from another theme. The problem with starting from zero, though, is that it isn't clear what elements need to be styled. As a practical matter, it would probably be a good idea to take one of the more lightweight new theme stylesheets and just delete or replace the values, retaining the selectors (divs, ids, and spans, etc.).
Older information
Note: The rest of the information on this page is out of date and here for historical purposes only.
This file has selectors for both a "litecss" liquid layout, and a table-based layout for a "fixed width" theme (as demonstrated on
If the new look can be created using the CSS file alone (and perhaps background graphics), then no template modification is needed. More complex layout changes may require theme-specific templates as well.