LT Author is a theme for journalists and columnists on free Elementor: a home page that hangs this month's published pieces as newsprint cuttings drawn to scale by word count, the weekly column, beats, a multi-part investigation, a newsletter section, commission lengths and rates on the same ruler, a writing archive, talks, standards and corrections, and a commission, tip and letter form. A Hello Elementor child theme with bundled fonts, one-page mode and a mobile menu.
Editions
| Edition | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | The child theme with its design, fonts, header and footer, the About and Contact pages, blog and 404 templates, one-page mode and the mobile menu. Credit link stays. |
| Pro Standard | $29 a year | Every page, sample posts and one-click demo import, credit removal. Downloads, updates and ticket support for 1 year, 1 website. |
| Pro Unlimited | $49 once | Everything in Pro Standard plus the AI kit. Unlimited websites, lifetime updates and ticket support. |
Pages in Free (Appearance → Starter setup): About, Contact, Notebook. Pages in Pro (Appearance → Demo import): Home, About, Bio and photos, Standards and corrections, Writing, The Thursday column, Investigations, The rent files, Night buses, Who owns the river, The Thursday letter, Work with me, Talks and panels, Contact, Notebook.
Quick setup
- Install the free Elementor plugin and the Hello Elementor theme, then upload and activate LT Author (Install and update).
- Optional: activate WPForms Lite for the commission, tip or letter form.
- Pro: Appearance → Demo import → Import (Demo import). Free: Appearance → Starter setup.
- Replace the demo content and pictures (below), set your logo and the header button.
Pages in the demo
| Page | Under | Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Home | – | Pro |
| About | – | Free |
| Bio and photos | About | Pro |
| Standards and corrections | About | Pro |
| Writing | – | Pro |
| The Thursday column | Writing | Pro |
| Investigations | Writing | Pro |
| The rent files | Investigations | Pro |
| Night buses | Investigations | Pro |
| Who owns the river | Investigations | Pro |
| The Thursday letter | Writing | Pro |
| Work with me | – | Pro |
| Talks and panels | Work with me | Pro |
| Contact | – | Free |
| Notebook (blog) | – | Free |
Home page sections
The home page sections, in order, with the name they have in Elementor’s Navigator and their CSS ID (the anchor used by one-page mode and by links such as /#latest).
| Section (Navigator name) | CSS ID |
|---|---|
| Latest | #latest |
| The Thursday column | #thursday |
| What I cover | #beats |
| The rent files | #series |
| The Thursday letter | #letter |
| For editors | #editors |
| About | #about |
| Notebook | #notebook |
| Tips | #tips |
- Your month on paper: The home page hangs your latest published pieces as newsprint cuttings beside a word ruler, each strip as long as the piece, with the headline, paper, date and word count under it.
- Column and archive: A weekly column section, a writing archive by year and selected work rows, each with a small length strip so long reads stand out.
- Investigations in parts: A series section with numbered parts, a page per investigation with how it was reported, and a three-level Writing menu.
- Rates editors can read: Commission lengths from a 400-word news story to a 4,000-word long read drawn on the same ruler, with rates, turnaround and the five steps of a commission.
- Standards, bios and talks: A standards page with a corrections log and how you protect sources, bios to copy at two lengths, and a talks page.
- Free Elementor and a ready form: Every page is built with free Elementor widgets on Hello Elementor, with a 'Commission, tip or letter' form made with the free WPForms Lite plugin. Fonts are bundled: no Google Fonts requests.
Menu
The demo import creates this main menu (Appearance → Menus):
- Home
- About → Bio and photos, Standards and corrections
- Writing → The Thursday column, Investigations (The rent files, Night buses, Who owns the river), The Thursday letter
- Work with me → Talks and panels
- Notebook
- Contact
Header button: Join the Thursday letter (link /contact/#write), changed in Appearance → Customize → LT Author options.
One-page mode (Pro)
With Pro Standard or Pro Unlimited, tick One-page mode on the home page in Appearance → Customize → LT Author options and the menu scrolls to these sections: Latest, The Thursday column, What I cover, The rent files, The Thursday letter, For editors, About, Notebook, Tips. To change the labels or leave sections out, see One-page mode.
Used the old LT Author onepage WordPress theme? It is not sold any more: version 2.0 is one theme for both. Install its Pro edition and turn on one-page mode.
Colours and fonts
Change them in Elementor Site Settings → Global Colors and Global Fonts; the whole site follows.
| Name in Global Colors | Value |
|---|---|
| Blue pencil (buttons, links, ruler) | #22489E |
| Carbon grey (soft text, cutting meta) | #4A5466 |
| Ribbon black (text) | #161A24 |
| Copy red (latest-cutting corner and tip dot only) | #D9412E |
| Sugar paper (page) | #E7ECF1 |
| Pasting board (tinted sections) | #D6DEE7 |
| Newsprint (cuttings, form panel) | #FBFAF6 |
| Hairlines | #B9C4D1 |
| Night desk (dark bands) | #16213A |
| Text on dark | #EEF2F7 |
| Soft text on dark | #AEBBD0 |
| Button hover | #163578 |
| Name in Global Fonts | Font |
|---|---|
| Display (headlines, byline) | Trirong |
| Interface (menu, datelines) | Trirong |
| Body text | Trirong |
| Buttons | Trirong |
Form
With WPForms Lite active, the demo import creates the form Commission, tip or letter on the Contact page. Fields: Your name (required), Email (required), What is it about? (required), Publication or organisation (optional), Length, for commissions, Deadline or event date (optional), Your message (required), If this is a tip, can I name you?. Email subject: “Message from the website”. After sending, visitors see: “Thank you. Ines reads every message herself and replies to commissions within one working day (sample).”
See Contact form for where messages go and how to change the fields.
Demo content to replace
Everything marked with one of these in the demo is sample content: names, numbers, prices and addresses that you replace with your own (or delete):
(sample)Example pricesexample.com(555)Ines CalderSpringfield LedgerLakeside ReviewSpringfield
- Only draw a strip (lt-w-N) whose N is the piece's real word count in hundreds; never stretch a cutting to fill space.
- Use copy red only for the latest-cutting corner and the tip dot; never for text or buttons.
- Keep part numbers only on series parts and steps only on the commission process (real sequences).
Only publish facts that are true for your business: real prices, opening hours, reviews and qualifications. Pro Unlimited’s launch checker lists every sample marker left on the site.
Photo guide
The demo uses placeholder pictures. Replace each one in Elementor (click it → Choose image) with a photo of about this size; save photos as JPEG or WebP under about 300 KB.
| Picture | Upload size |
|---|---|
| Hands writing in notebooks at a meeting table, a coffee cup beside them | 1600 × 1067 px |
| A work desk covered in notebooks, crumpled drafts and stationery | 1600 × 1067 px |
| An old apartment block with rows of small balconies, seen from the street below | 1600 × 1067 px |
| An empty glass bus shelter lit up at night on a wet street | 1600 × 1067 px |
| Old industrial buildings on the bank of a fast river | 1600 × 1200 px |
| An open notebook with a blue pen on a wooden table | 1600 × 1067 px |
| A speaker on a dark stage in front of a projected slide, seen from the audience | 1600 × 1067 px |
| An empty council chamber with wooden desks and microphones | 1600 × 1067 px |
| A lone bus stop lit by street lights on an empty street at night | 1600 × 1064 px |
| An open notebook with a pen, a phone and a cup of tea on a table | 1600 × 1068 px |
| Black and white view of rusting silos beside a river | 1600 × 1067 px |
AI kit (Pro Unlimited)
The AI kit’s AGENTS.md tells an assistant how LT Author is built. The CSS classes it relies on (keep them when you edit):
| CSS class | What it is |
|---|---|
lt-cuttings | a row of cuttings hung from one pin line: lt-ruler first (word marks), then lt-cut items; the strips are drawn to scale |
lt-cut | one cutting: a strip (lt-cut__strip text widget holding <span class="lt-strip lt-w-N">) and its label (lt-cut__head, lt-cut__meta); add is-latest for the copy-red corner |
lt-w-N | length class on a strip or bar: N = word count in hundreds (lt-w-9 = about 900 words); keep it equal to the real length |
lt-ruler | the word ruler beside the cuttings; each lt-ruler__mark is 1,000 words |
lt-len | small horizontal strip inside a row (<span class="lt-len lt-w-N">), same scale idea as the cuttings |
lt-piece | one published piece in a list (date, headline and paper, length strip, link) |
lt-part | one part of an investigation series (part number, title, length, date) |
lt-beat | one beat row (subject, what I look for, how often) |
lt-steps | ordered steps of a commission (a real sequence); each lt-step |
lt-correction | one row of the corrections log (date, piece, what changed) |
lt-bio | a ready-to-copy bio with its word count |
lt-pagehead | inner page heading band |
lt-desk | one contact desk block |
lt-price | fact or price row (label + value) |
lt-tipdot | copy-red dot before the tip line (inline span) |
See AI kit for the prompts, the safe edit tool and the launch checker.
Questions about LT Author
Do I need Elementor Pro?
No. LT Author uses only the free Elementor plugin and the free Hello Elementor theme. The header and footer are part of the theme, so you do not need Theme Builder.
How do I add a new piece to the cuttings?
Duplicate a cutting in Elementor, change the headline, paper, date and word count, and set the strip's class to the length in hundreds of words (lt-w-9 for about 900 words). The AI kit's safe edit tool can do it for you.
Can it send my newsletter?
The theme has no mailing system. The newsletter buttons lead to the contact form, where readers choose Join the Thursday letter; you can point them at your newsletter service instead.
Will my site look like the demo?
Yes, with Pro: Appearance > Demo import creates every page, the colours, fonts, menu, header and footer. The demo photos are replaced by placeholders you swap for your own.
What is the difference between Free and Pro?
Free has the design, header and footer, the About and Contact pages and the blog. Pro adds the home page with the cuttings, the Writing, Investigations and Work with me pages, sample posts, one-click demo import, credit removal, updates and support. Pro Unlimited adds the AI kit.
I have the old LT Author. Is this an update?
It is a new version 2.0 with a new design, built for free Elementor. Your current site keeps working; install 2.0 on a new site or a staging copy and import the demo there.
Also for Joomla
LT Author also exists as a Joomla template: see the LT Author Joomla docs.
Ask AI about LT Author
Ask in your own words. The assistant answers from these docs and links the sections it used.
AI answers can be wrong; check the linked section. Never share passwords or licence keys. Open a ticket