GovPress is a free WordPress theme for government and public-sector websites, designed around WCAG accessibility guidelines with automatic light and dark mode that follows each visitor's device settings — no toggle required.
- WordPress 5.0+
- PHP 7.4+
- From WordPress.org — Appearance > Themes > Add New, search for "GovPress" and install.
- From GitHub — download or clone this repository into
wp-content/themes/govpress, then activate it under Appearance > Themes.
- Designed around WCAG accessibility guidelines
- Automatic light and dark mode, based on the visitor's device settings
- Configurable banner position, menu placement and colors via the Customizer
- Optional icon navigation menu for the homepage
- Self-hosted fonts (Public Sans, Font Awesome) — no external font requests
- Mobile-friendly and adapts to all devices (PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone)
- No vendor lock-in so you can easily move your data at any time
All of the following are set under Appearance > Customize.
- Upload a logo, plus an optional Dark Mode Logo shown instead when a visitor's device is set to dark mode
- Site title, tagline and site icon
- Primary Color, Primary Link Color, Primary Link Hover and Header Tagline Color
- Applied in light mode only — dark mode always uses the theme's own accessible dark palette, so a chosen color scheme never fights the built-in dark mode
- Site Banner Position (top or bottom of page) and Alignment (center or left) — displays "Powered by GovPress" or the "Banner Text" widget area, for example an official government website notice
- Primary Menu Position (above or below the logo/title)
- Choose one column, or two columns with the sidebar on the left or right
- Assign a menu to the "Icon Menu" location (Appearance > Menus) to display an icon navigation grid on the Home Page template. Each menu item's icon comes from its CSS classes (Font Awesome icon classes are supported)
Adds the Home Page Hero and Home Page Featured widget areas, plus the Icon Menu, above the main content.
Displays a page without a sidebar.
- Sidebar
- Home Page Hero
- Home Page Featured
- Banner Text
- Footer Area One, Two, Three
npm install
npx grunt # compile scss/style.scss to style.css
npx grunt watch # recompile on file changes
npx grunt release # compile, concat/minify JS, generate .pot and style-rtl.css
- Public Sans by USWDS - https://public-sans.digital.gov. License: SIL OFL 1.1.
- Font Awesome Free by Fonticons - https://fontawesome.com. License: SIL OFL 1.1 (fonts), CC BY 4.0 (icons), MIT (code).
GPLv2 or later. See LICENSE.txt.
We'd love to have as many eyes on this project as possible. If you find a bug or something that can be improved please open an issue and/or submit a pull request.