6.7, Twenty Twenty-Five, and reading a default theme again

The 6.7 default theme leans on patterns and style variations harder than any previous one, which makes it the clearest available reference for both.

what is worth reading in it:

  eight full style variations, each a complete
    theme.json rather than a colour swap
  patterns as the primary unit — the templates are
    mostly pattern references
  section styles used throughout
  a typography scale expressed in theme.json with
    fluid ranges declared per size

what is not worth copying: the pattern count. 40-odd
patterns is a showcase, not a maintenance plan.

Reading a default theme once a year is the cheapest way to see what the current idioms are, and this one is more instructive than most because the variations are genuinely different rather than recoloured. Child-theming it remains the wrong move for client work for the same reasons as last year — the parent changes on WordPress’s schedule.