Marlowe documentation

A warm, editorial Ghost theme for independent magazines and newsletters, with three homepage layouts.

Thank you for choosing Marlowe. This guide covers everything from uploading the theme to setting up paid memberships. If something is not covered here, write to support@codememory.com — we answer within one working day.

• Version1.0.0
• Ghost6.0.0 or later
• Live demomarlowe.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com
• AuthorCode Memory

Highlights

• Three homepage layouts in one theme: Magazine, Newsletter and Journal
• Magazine layout with a lead story and an Editor's picks column of featured posts
• Newsletter layout with a big signup hero and a line of social proof
• Journal layout: a calm, text-first list of essays
• Full-cover post template: the feature image fills the screen behind the title
• Long-form reading: Fraunces headings, Inter text, generous spacing and wide and full-width images
• Reading progress bar and an image lightbox for photos and galleries
• Topics and Writers page templates
• Related stories, share buttons and an author box on every post
• Membership page with tiers and a monthly/yearly switch
• Styled paywall with Paid and Members badges on cards
• Sign in, sign up and account pages
• Newsletter band on the homepage and archive pages
• Light, dark and system modes with an optional reader toggle
• Load more on the homepage, tags and authors
• Self-hosted fonts, fully translatable, 16 theme settings, no jQuery

What is in the download

themeforest-marlowe-ghost-theme/
├── documentation/                          ← you are here
└── marlowe_1.0.0_for_ghost_6.0.0_or_later/
    ├── marlowe.zip                          ← upload this file to Ghost
    └── marlowe/                             ← the same theme, unzipped, with source files

You only need marlowe.zip to use the theme. The unzipped folder is there for developers who want to change the code (see Development).

Installation

1. Sign in to your Ghost admin (yoursite.com/ghost).
2. Go to Settings → Design & branding → Customize → Change theme.
3. Click Upload theme and choose marlowe.zip from the marlowe_1.0.0_for_ghost_6.0.0_or_later folder. Do not upload the whole download.
4. Click Activate.

Updating

When a new version is released, download it from your ThemeForest Downloads page and upload the new marlowe.zip the same way. Ghost asks whether to overwrite the existing theme — choose Overwrite. Your content, navigation and theme settings are kept.

If you edited the theme files yourself, keep a copy of your changes first: an update replaces every file.

Quick setup (10 minutes)

To make your site look like the demo, do these steps in order. Each one is explained in detail further down.

1. Brand: Settings → Design & branding → set the Accent colour, upload a logo and a site icon.
2. Navigation: Settings → Navigation → add your main links (see Navigation).
3. Pages: create the pages in Pages and templates and pick the matching template.
4. Membership: Settings → Membership → turn on signups; add paid tiers and connect Stripe (see Membership).
5. Theme settings: Design & branding → Theme tab (see Theme settings).
6. Homepage layout: choose Magazine, Newsletter or Journal in Settings → Design & branding → Homepage.
7. Editor's picks: mark up to 4 posts as Featured (Magazine layout).

Logo, colours and fonts

Accent colour

Settings → Design & branding → Accent colour. Marlowe uses it for buttons, links, highlights and the reading-progress bar. Marlowe uses your accent colour (burnt orange #C8431A by default) for buttons, topic labels, links, quote rules and the reading progress bar.

Logo

Upload a logo in Design & branding → Brand. Without a logo, Marlowe shows the site title in the theme's display font. A transparent PNG or SVG around 400 × 100 px works best. If your logo is dark, upload a light version in the Theme tab under Logo for dark mode.

Fonts

Marlowe ships its own fonts (Fraunces Italic, Fraunces Normal, Inter Italic, Inter Normal), hosted inside the theme — no requests to Google. To use different fonts, pick a Heading font and Body font in Design & branding → Brand. The theme follows your choice everywhere. Choose Theme default to go back.

Light and dark mode

In the Theme tab, Color scheme sets the default: Light, Dark or System (follows the reader's device). Readers can switch with the moon/sun button in the header or the switch in the menu; their choice is remembered on that device.

Navigation

Settings → Navigation. Primary navigation appears in the header and the full-screen menu. Secondary navigation appears in the footer. Links from the demo:

Tag pages have the address /tag/<tag-slug>/, author pages /author/<author-slug>/.

Theme settings

Settings → Design & branding → Customize. Theme settings are split between the Site wide, Homepage and Post tabs. Every setting:

Homepage layouts

1. Magazine (default) — your newest post as a large lead story, featured posts in an Editor's picks column (Show editors picks), then a grid of latest stories.
2. Newsletter — a signup hero with your Hero title and Social proof text (for example "Read by 12,400 curious people"), then the latest stories. Best for newsletter-first publications.
3. Journal — a quiet, text-first list with a short intro (Journal intro). Best for personal essays.

All layouts end with a newsletter band (Subscribe title, Subscribe text) and, if Show topics is on, a row of your topics.

Full-cover posts

Choose the Full cover template in a post's settings. The feature image fills the top of the screen, with the title, excerpt and byline over it and the header on top. Use a photo with a calm area where the title sits, and a darker lower half for contrast.

Pages and templates

Marlowe includes page templates for the pages every membership site needs. Create a page in Ghost (Pages → New page), set its URL in the page settings, then choose the Template in the same panel.

Tip: the membership page shows your tiers automatically. Anything you write in the page body appears underneath — the demo uses toggle cards for a FAQ.

Post templates

Choose a template per post in the post settings panel → Template.

Membership, tiers and payments

Marlowe is built for Ghost's members features: free and paid signups, tiers, a paywall and the Portal popup.

1. Turn on signups

Settings → Membership → Access → Who should be able to subscribe? → Anyone can sign up.

2. Connect Stripe

Settings → Membership → Tiers → Connect with Stripe. Use test mode first, then switch to live mode when you are ready to take real payments.

3. Create tiers

Settings → Membership → Tiers. Add a name, monthly and yearly prices, a description and benefits. Marlowe shows every public tier on the membership page with a monthly/yearly switch, and marks the second tier as Most popular.

4. Members-only content

In a post's settings set Post access to Members only, Paid-members only or specific tiers. Readers without access see the start of the post and a paywall box that invites them to join or upgrade. To choose where the preview stops, add a Public preview divider in the editor (type /public).

5. Sign-up forms and buttons

Subscribe forms in the theme create free members and send a confirmation email. Every Subscribe, Sign in and Account button opens Ghost's Portal popup, so members can change plans, update cards and cancel without leaving your site.

Newsletters, comments and search

Newsletters: Settings → Newsletters. Posts can be sent by email when you publish. The theme's subscribe forms subscribe readers to your default newsletters.

Comments: Settings → Membership → Commenting. When on, comments appear under every post that the reader has access to.

Search: works out of the box. The search icon in the header opens Ghost's search; readers can also press Ctrl/⌘ + K.

Reading features

• Reading progress bar on posts, in the post's topic colour (can be turned off in the Post tab).
• Image lightbox: click any image or gallery photo in a post to see it full screen; use the arrow keys to move through a gallery.
• Every editor card is styled: images (regular, wide, full), galleries, quotes, callouts, toggles, bookmarks, buttons, videos, audio, files, products, headers and signups. Create a page with every card to check your brand — the demo's style guide shows them all.

Posts per page

The home, tag and author pages load 10 posts, then a Load more button fetches the next set without reloading the page. To change the number, edit "posts_per_page" in package.json, zip the theme folder and upload it again.

Translation

Every word in the theme can be translated.

1. In the unzipped theme folder, copy locales/en.json to a new file named after your language code, for example locales/fr.json.
2. Translate the values (the text on the right). Keep the keys (the text on the left) and anything in {curly braces} unchanged.
3. Zip the theme folder and upload it.
4. Settings → General → Publication language → enter the same code (fr).

Custom CSS

Small style changes do not need a new theme upload. Settings → Code injection → Site header:

<style>
.post-title { letter-spacing: -.02em; }
.site-header { border-bottom: 0; }
</style>

Development

For larger changes, work on the unzipped marlowe/ folder. You need Node.js 20 or later.

cd marlowe
npm install        # once
npm run dev        # rebuild CSS/JS on every change
npm run build      # one-off build
npm test           # check the theme with gscan
npm run zip        # dist/marlowe.zip, ready to upload

CSS lives in src/css (one file per area, joined by main.css); JavaScript in src/js. Built files go to assets/built. Templates are Handlebars files in the theme root and in partials/.

Questions

Support

Support is included with your purchase and covers: answering questions about the theme's features, and fixing bugs. It does not cover custom changes or problems with third-party code.

Email support@codememory.com with your purchase code and your site address. See the changelog for what changed in each version and third-party materials for credits.