Inference
A timestamped news wire for desks that file often and sell their research.
Inference treats every post as a dispatch with a clock time. The home page leads with your newest story beside a column of timestamped headlines, a dark ticker runs under the header, and every time on the site is printed in UTC. Headlines are set in Archivo, running text in Libre Franklin, and dates, labels and prices in IBM Plex Mono, all on paper white with one cobalt accent.
Who it's for
It was built for people who file short, frequent pieces and want readers to see when each one landed: AI and technology news desks, research groups posting updates, and policy analysts. The shop draws each product as a printed cover, so it suits sellers of reports, datasets and paid briefings that have no photograph worth showing. Photo-led blogs, slow personal essays and sites that need local time zones or a dark palette should look elsewhere.
What makes it different
A home page assembled from your clock times
The home page takes your six newest posts. The latest becomes the lead: a category chip from its first tag, its date and UTC time, a large headline, the excerpt and a byline. The rest fill a Top of the wire column on desktop, up to four dispatch cards and the wire rows, each stamped with its publish time.
Dateline strip and ticker
On desktop a thin strip above the masthead prints the weekday, date and current UTC time, worked out when the page is rendered, beside RSS and My briefings links. Under the header an ink-coloured ticker shows a LIVE marker, the lead story's time and the next two headlines as links.
A poster first, a loop only if you add one
The lead story's figure shows your Hero image, or the post's own image when none is set. Give Hero media a video link in its Scroll journey field and a muted, looping clip plays over it with an Ambient loop label and a cobalt play square; without a link neither appears. Reduced-motion visitors keep the still poster.
Products drawn as cover plates
Shop cards never show product photographs. Each is a 4:5 typographic cover that cycles through ink, ruled paper and cobalt, with a catalogue code, a corner tag guessed from the category and title (LIVE for datasets, WEEKLY, a seat count or the year), the product title and its category, plus a wishlist toggle on the plate.
Product pages laid out like a spec sheet
Your product image is mounted as a shadowed cover on a pale board, with up to three thumbnails when you upload several pictures; a product without one gets an ink cover carrying its title. Beside it sit a chip from the tagline, the title, a large monospaced price, the description and up to four features numbered 01 to 04.
Subscribe points that stay hidden until they work
Two conditions switch these on: an existing newsletter or membership, and Show subscribe widget on blog. Then a cobalt Subscribe button joins the desktop header, an email field appears in the footer, and articles close on a bordered Morning Inference box. All three route readers to your subscribe page. With either condition missing, none of them appear.
Page by page
- Home
- Ticker, a lead story with poster or optional muted loop, a Top of the wire column, up to four dispatch cards and timestamped wire rows.
- Blog
- Dispatch count and page number, an All coverage heading, up to five category pills, cards in rows of three, and page numbers.
- Post
- Category chip, UTC eyebrow with reading time, byline in initials, wide cover, prose 720 pixels wide, linked tags, comments and a newsletter box.
- Page
- A PAGE and UPDATED eyebrow, a heavy Archivo headline and, when supplied, a description above the same 720-pixel prose column.
- Shop
- Research desk product count, category pills and cover plates laid out three wide on desktop, two on phones.
- Product
- Breadcrumb, image on a pale board, numbered features, Add to cart when Stripe or PayPal is linked, and Buy now through Stripe.
Customizing it
Inference adopts your background, text, primary and accent colours, a legible shade of your secondary colour for its muted mono text, plus your heading and body fonts, as soon as Apply my brand to the whole site theme is on under Global Design. Primary replaces the cobalt on buttons, links, chips and the ticker marker, and your text colour also fills the ticker and footer bands. Neutral is left out entirely, and the monospaced face, hairline rules, wire-grey borders, hover shades, footer greys, code blocks and the ink, paper and cobalt shop covers stay as designed.
Honest limits
- Apart from the dark ticker and footer bands the design is light, and it does not react to a visitor's preferred colour scheme.
- The LIVE and Live coverage labels are permanent decoration: the page lists your latest posts as they stood when it loaded and never refreshes itself.
- The wire wording is fixed and not covered by the Theme Copy panel. The footer always prints The Morning Inference, daily, 06:00 UTC, even with no newsletter, and the article box promises a signal index the theme never draws.
- Shop catalogue codes always begin with GLOBAI, whatever your site is called, and the shop header carries a fixed English sentence about reports, datasets and briefings.
- The delivery line under the product buttons always ends with the fixed theme words VAT INVOICE and 14-DAY REFUND, in English. They are not a setting and nothing checks them against your store's terms, so only use Inference if both hold for you.
- On articles the SHARE tag is a label rather than a working share button, and there are no previous and next links. The UPDATED stamp on pages shows the current date, not the date the page was edited.
Specifications
- Category
- Animation
- Price
- Included
- Plan availability
- Included in every VeloCMS plan
- Commerce-ready
- Yes
- Motion
- Yes
Frequently asked questions
Does Inference animate?
Barely. On the home page the lead story, its figure and the side column slide up 14 pixels as the page loads, without a fade, page headers elsewhere do the same, and shop cards rise 4 pixels under the pointer. The ticker does not scroll. A reduced-motion system setting stops every animation and transition and hides the hero video.
Can times follow my own time zone?
No. The ticker, wire rows, dispatch cards, post eyebrow and dateline strip all format the clock in UTC, and nothing in the settings changes that. Dates follow your site language and put the day first, for example 08 JUL 2026 in English.
What does a new site with only a few posts look like?
Smaller, not padded. The ticker, side column, dispatch cards and wire rows are all built from the posts after your lead story, so a site with two posts shows one headline in each and no invented filler. With no posts at all, the lead headline falls back to your site name.
Will it work for an Arabic site?
Partly. Section headings, buttons and footer headings have Arabic translations, and timestamps and prices stay left to right inside Arabic text. The BY bylines on cards, the dateline strip, the shop introduction and parts of the product page, including Buy now, stay in English.
Do dropdown menus work?
No. Inference keeps only the label and link of each menu item, so items you nest under a parent appear as ordinary links straight after it, in the desktop header row and in the numbered phone drawer alike. A flat menu suits this theme best.