Title: Moving a wordpress.com theme to wordpress.org changes customization Last modified: August 23, 2022 --- # Moving a wordpress.com theme to wordpress.org changes customization * [fry3k](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fry3k/) * (@fry3k) * [3 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-a-wordpress-com-theme-to-wordpress-org-changes-customization/) * Hello everyone, * I hope I used the right subforum since the theme I’m having problems with is not listed unter wordpress.org themes because it was exported from wordpress. org * My problem: * I moved my blog from wordpress.com to my own host with wordpress.org and imported the theme I used on wordpress.com (called “Independent Publisher 2”). After that I wanted to customize my layout and colors like I used it on wordpress.com but many settings are now missing like color palettes. On wordpress.com I had a “ dark mode”-like theme and could change every color like background/foreground/ text/links and it was then used on every page and posting. With wordpress.org I can only set a single background color and that’s it. This of course leads to dark text on dark background. There is no overall setting for text colors anymore which would lead to edit every single block on every single page which can’t be the right way. * My questions: * 1.) Is there something I have missed during trasnfering the theme from wordpress. com to my own hosted blog? * 2.) Is it possible that the wordpress.com theme will be stripped down if I use it anywhere else? * 3.) Are there plugins or other hidden stuff which I have to export? * 4.) Would it be better to use a wordpress.org theme and let go of wordpress.com themes? * 5.) Is it possible to modify wordpress.org themes like the width of the “center column” to fit the size the blog was made for on wordpress.com? Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total) * [George Appiah](https://wordpress.org/support/users/gappiah/) * (@gappiah) * [3 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-a-wordpress-com-theme-to-wordpress-org-changes-customization/#post-15942231) * > 1.) Is there something I have missed during trasnfering the theme from wordpress. > com to my own hosted blog? > 2.) Is it possible that the wordpress.com theme will be stripped down if I > use it anywhere else? * The WordPress platform at WordPress.com is not **_exactly_** the same as the open source WordPress software downloadable from WordPress.org. * And WordPress.com themes often have features that are baked into the WordPress. com platform itself. So when you move such themes to a self-hosted WordPress site, these features will be missing completely. * > 3.) Are there plugins or other hidden stuff which I have to export? * If your WordPress.com theme had any plugins installed, then, of course, you need to move or install all the required plugins. Whether you can move or install any such plugin when you move away from WordPress.com depends on your WordPress. com plan and the plugin’s license. * But, as I mentioned earlier, some features are backed into the platform itself and are not dependent on any plugin. * > 4.) Would it be better to use a wordpress.org theme and let go of wordpress. > com themes? * That really depends on your own needs. * That said, if what you need most in a theme is customizability, then there are a handful of free themes at WordPress.org that have multiple layout options and are extensively customizable (eg Kadence theme) and these may better serve your needs. * > 5.) Is it possible to modify wordpress.org themes like the width of the “center > column” to fit the size the blog was made for on wordpress.com? * Yes, no, and maybe. * WordPress themes are open source: so you’re 100% free to customize ANY theme as you desire. But depending on the particular theme and the kind of customization you want to do, you may not be able to do the customization visually from the dashboard. * That does not mean you can’t do the customization though: it just means you need to do some custom coding to achieve your desired customization. * For the theme in question (Independent Publisher 2), I just installed it to test and found that you automatically get the **narrow centered 1-column layout** ( exactly as shown in the theme’s thumbnail) **when there’s no widget in the sidebar:** no customization needed. * So just check your sidebar and remove any widget there, and you should have the desired layout. * Thread Starter [fry3k](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fry3k/) * (@fry3k) * [3 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-a-wordpress-com-theme-to-wordpress-org-changes-customization/#post-15945457) * Hello George, * thank you very much for your reply. With this information I have now a better understanding on how the themes work. * Considering your reply, I decided that I won’t use the wordpress.com theme “Independent Publisher 2” anymore and go with a new theme I can directly install via wordpress. org. At the first glance there are three options to me now if I want to stay with my one-column design: * a) The “old” wordpress.org defaults “Twenty-Twenty” oder “Twenty-One”: they are easy to use and have only a few menues I have to deal with. _There is only one question: is it possible to change the width of the one main column? This is important since my old thme hat a certain width that I designed custom images for which look best if they aren’t rescaled._ * b) The “new” wordpress.org default “Twenty-Two”: It seems like you can customize everything but it feels kind of overwhelming to me editing this theme. The customizing menu is completely different. I also did not find a place where I can rescale the center column. * c) The theme “Kadence” you proposed: It looks really well designed but has again an abundant amount of settings which you have to learn first. This may be a goal for the long run but will require a lot of time to get used to it. * Kind regards Fry3k Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total) The topic ‘Moving a wordpress.com theme to wordpress.org changes customization’ is closed to new replies. ## Tags * [color](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/color/) * [customization](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/customization/) * [wordpress.com](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/wordpress-com/) * In: [Fixing WordPress](https://wordpress.org/support/forum/how-to-and-troubleshooting/) * 2 replies * 2 participants * Last reply from: [fry3k](https://wordpress.org/support/users/fry3k/) * Last activity: [3 years, 9 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/moving-a-wordpress-com-theme-to-wordpress-org-changes-customization/#post-15945457) * Status: not resolved ## Topics ### Topics with no replies ### Non-support topics ### Resolved topics ### Unresolved topics ### All topics