Compatibility
Quiet runs on Ghost 6.0.0 and later. What to check before installing, what needs the routes file, which browsers are supported, and how the theme behaves for readers with different needs.
Requirements
| What | Needs |
|---|---|
| Ghost | 6.0.0 or later |
| Hosting | Ghost(Pro) or any self-hosted Ghost 6 install |
| Ghost Labs | The Upload routes file option, for the archive, the podcast and the video channel |
| Third-party services | None, except a form service if you want a working contact form |
Check your Ghost version
Open Ghost Admin.
Look at the bottom of the sidebar, or go to Settings → About Ghost.
If it starts with a 6, you are ready.
Still on Ghost 5
Update Ghost first. On Ghost(Pro) that is done for you. On a self-hosted install, follow Ghost's own update guide.
Do not try to force it
Ghost checks a theme's requirements at upload. On Ghost 5, uploading Quiet fails validation rather than installing something half-working, which is the right outcome: several features the theme relies on do not exist in Ghost 5.
What needs the routes file
Three addresses come from the routes file that ships with the theme, and each also needs its own published page:
| Address | Without the routes file |
|---|---|
/articles/ | The archive has no first page: your posts are on the homepage, and the archive layout starts at /page/2/ |
/podcast/ | Does not exist |
/videos/ | Does not exist |
Everything else works with no configuration at all: the homepage, posts, pages, tag and author pages, the gallery, the newsletter page, the contact page and the portfolio.
See Installation, steps 4 and 5.
Browsers
Quiet targets current versions of Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox, on desktop and mobile, and is tested from 320 pixels wide upwards. It uses modern CSS layout throughout, so a genuinely old browser (Internet Explorer, or a Safari several years out of date) will render the content readably but not as designed.
Reading without JavaScript
Reading a post needs no JavaScript at all. With scripting switched off you lose the floating video player, the full-screen photo viewer, the Copy link button, the dark-mode button and the drifting logo and photo strips. Menus become a plain list, forms still submit, and every link still works. The full list is in Reading experience.
Accessibility
Quiet is built to WCAG 2.2 Level AA as a target, and the theme's own release checks enforce part of it automatically:
- Contrast is checked before every release by a script that scores every text colour against the surfaces behind it, in light mode and dark mode, for any accent colour you choose. Text that would fail fails the build.
- Keyboard operation covers everything interactive: menus and dropdowns, the drawer, the photo viewer, the video player's controls, the strips' pause buttons, and the sideways topic row.
- Focus is always visible, and returns to where it came from when a menu, drawer or dialog closes.
- Structure: one main heading per page, headings in order, and landmarks that let a screen-reader user jump to the header, the main content, each homepage band and the footer.
- Reduced motion is respected. The strips stop animating entirely rather than pausing, and the video player docks without sliding.
Quiet is a left-to-right theme in this release: fourteen left-to-right languages ship with it (see Publication language), and right-to-left support is planned for a future version once it has been tested thoroughly.
If you find a problem
Accessibility is a moving target, and a real site with real content finds things a test site does not. If something is unreachable or unreadable for you, tell us and it gets fixed in the next release.
Performance
The theme ships one stylesheet and one small script bundle, loads its two typefaces from your own site, and asks for images at the size each screen needs. Nothing third-party is contacted on a page of writing. A film's provider (YouTube or Vimeo) is contacted only when a reader presses play, and the photo viewer's code is fetched only when someone opens a photograph.