Penang is a Ghost theme for independent blogs and publications built around subscriptions and member-only content.
Ghost manages member accounts, access rules, and paid subscriptions. Penang connects those features to the public site through signup forms, account links, access labels, and restricted-content prompts.
Explore the demo or read the documentation.
Membership From Signup to Access
Invite readers to subscribe from the homepage hero, site footer, or individual posts. The header gives logged-out readers Log in and Subscribe actions, then shows an Account link after they sign in.
When someone opens restricted content, Penang provides the appropriate next step to subscribe, log in, or upgrade. Post cards label Public, Members, and Paid stories so readers can see the access level before opening an article.
Homepage Sections
Use the homepage hero for an introduction, publication image, and subscription form. Add sections for selected tags from Ghost settings, and choose whether to show the authors section.
The main post feed uses two columns. A documented customization changes it to three columns when you want a denser homepage.
Browse by Topic
Keep publication topics visible with a tags menu on every page. The menu scrolls horizontally when its links exceed the available width.
The tags directory shows each topic’s image, name, description, and post count.
Author Directory
Use the authors page to present every contributor in one place. You can also display an authors section on the homepage.
Light, Dark, and Responsive Layouts
Penang follows the reader’s operating-system preference for light or dark mode and provides a navigation control for switching manually.
The homepage, article pages, navigation, and membership controls adapt to phone, tablet, and desktop layouts.
Is Penang Right for You?
Choose Penang if you want a subscription-focused blog or small publication with visible member actions, gated-content prompts, topic browsing, and an author directory.
Penang works best for article-led publishing. If your priority is a complex newsroom homepage, extensive video publishing, or multiple custom story layouts, consider one of Aspire’s editorial magazine themes instead.
What Penang Includes
- Ghost 6 support
- Ghost native search and comments
- Homepage, footer, and post subscription forms
- Log in, Subscribe, and Account actions
- Prompts for member-only, paid, and specific-tier content
- Public, Members, and Paid labels on post cards
- Selected-tag homepage sections
- Optional homepage authors section
- Tags and authors directories
- Related posts and social sharing
- Responsive videos and tables
- Syntax highlighting
- Translation-ready theme text with 12 included language files: English, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish
Deploy with GitHub
Use the Deploy Ghost Theme GitHub Action to upload theme changes to Ghost from your repository.
