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Version 3.8 of WordPress, named “Parker” in honor of Charlie Parker, bebop innovator, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. We hope you’ll think this is the most beautiful update yet.

Introducing a modern new design

WordPress has gotten a facelift. 3.8 brings a fresh new look to the entire admin dashboard. Gone are overbearing gradients and dozens of shades of grey — bring on a bigger, bolder, more colorful design!

Modern aesthetic

The new WordPress dashboard has a fresh, uncluttered design that embraces clarity and simplicity.

Clean typography

The Open Sans typeface provides simple, friendly text that is optimized for both desktop and mobile viewing. It’s even open source, just like WordPress.

Refined contrast

We think beautiful design should never sacrifice legibility. With superior contrast and large, comfortable type, the new design is easy to read and a pleasure to navigate.

WordPress on every device

We all access the internet in different ways. Smartphone, tablet, notebook, desktop — no matter what you use, WordPress will adapt and you’ll feel right at home.

High definition at high speed

WordPress is sharper than ever with new vector-based icons that scale to your screen. By ditching pixels, pages load significantly faster, too.

Admin color schemes to match your personality

WordPress just got a colorful new update. We’ve included eight new admin color schemes so you can pick the one that suits you best.

Color schemes can be previewed and changed from your Profile page.

Refined theme management

The new themes screen lets you survey your themes at a glance. Or want more information? Click to discover more. Then sit back and use your keyboard’s navigation arrows to flip through every theme you’ve got.

Smoother widget experience

Drag-drag-drag. Scroll-scroll-scroll. Widget management can be complicated. With the new design, we’ve worked to streamline the widgets screen.

Have a large monitor? Multiple widget areas stack side-by-side to use the available space. Using a tablet? Just tap a widget to add it.

Twenty Fourteen, a sleek new magazine theme

Turn your blog into a magazine

Create a beautiful magazine-style site with WordPress and Twenty Fourteen. Choose a grid or a slider to display featured content on your homepage. Customize your site with three widget areas or change your layout with two page templates.

With a striking design that does not compromise our trademark simplicity, Twenty Fourteen is our most intrepid default theme yet.

Beginning of a new era

This release was led by Matt Mullenweg. This is our second release using the new plugin-first development process, with a much shorter timeframe than in the past. We think it’s been going great. You can check out the features currently in production on the make/core blog.

There are 188 contributors with props in this release:

Aaron Holbrook, Aaron Jorbin, Adam Silverstein, admiralthrawn, Alex, Allan Collins, Amy Hendrix (sabreuse), Andrew Nacin, Andrew Ozz, Andrey Kabakchiev, Andy Keith, Andy Peatling, Ankit Gade, Anton Timmermans, Arkadiusz Rzadkowolski, Aubrey Portwood, avryl, Ben Dunkle, Billy S, binarymoon, Brady Vercher, Bram Duvigneau, Brandon Kraft, Brian Richards, Bryan Petty, Calin Don, Carl Danley, Caroline Moore, Caspie, Chris Jean, Clinton Montague, Connor Jennings, Dan Bernardic, danieldudzic, Daryl Koopersmith, datafeedr, Dave Martin, Dave Whitley, designsimply, DH-Shredder, Dion Hulse, Dominik Schilling, Doug Wollison, Drew Jaynes, edik, Eric Andrew Lewis, Eric Mann, Erick Hitter, Evan Solomon, Faison, fboender, Frank Klein, Gary Jones, Gary Pendergast, Gennady Kovshenin, George Stephanis, gnarf37, gradyetc, Gregory Karpinsky (@tivnet), hanni, Helen Hou-Sandi, Ian Dunn, Ipstenu (Mika Epstein), Isaac Keyet, J.D. Grimes, Jack Lenox, janhenckens, janrenn, Jeff Bowen, Jeffro, Jen, Jeremy Buller, Jeremy Felt, Jeremy Herve, Jeremy Pry, Jesper Johansen (jayjdk), jhned, jim912, Joan Artes, Joe Dolson, Joen Asmussen, John Blackbourn, John Fish, John James Jacoby, Jon Cave, Joost de Valk, Joshua Abenazer, Junko Nukaga, Justin de Vesine, Justin Sainton, K. Adam White, Kailey (trepmal), Kat Hagan, Kate Whitley, Kelly Dwan, Kim Parsell, Kirk Wight, Konstantin Dankov, Konstantin Kovshenin, Konstantin Obenland, Krzysiek Dróżdż, Lance Willett, Lee Willis, lite3, LucP, Lutz Schröer, Mako, mallorydxw-old, Mario Peshev, Mark Jaquith, Mark McWilliams, Marko Heijnen, Matt Mullenweg, Matt Thomas, Matt Wiebe, Matthew Denton, Matthew Haines-Young, mattonomics, Matías Ventura, megane9988, Mel Choyce, micahwave, Michael Cain, Michael Erlewine, Michel - xiligroup dev, Michelle Langston, Mike Hansen, Mike Little, Milan Dinić, Mohammad Jangda, Morgan Estes, moto hachi, Naoko Takano, Neil Pie, Nick Daugherty, Nick Halsey, Nikolay Bachiyski, ninio, nivijah, Nowell VanHoesen, odyssey, OriginalEXE, Pascal Birchler, Paul de Wouters, Paul Vincent Beigang, pavelevap, Payton Swick, Peter Westwood, Philipp Cordes, Pieter, Pirate Dunbar, Raam Dev, Rachel Baker, Rachel Cherry, Radices, Ram Ratan Maurya, Remkus de Vries, Ricky Lee Whittemore, Robert Dall, Robert O'Rourke, Robert Wetzlmayr, PHP-Programmierer, Rodrigo Primo, Ryan Boren, Samir Shah, Samuel Wood, Scott Basgaard, Scott Reilly, Scott Taylor, scribu, Sean Hayes, Sergey Biryukov, Shaun Andrews, ShinichiN, Simon Wheatley, Siobhan, Siobhan, Stéphane Boisvert, Stephen Edgar, Stephen Harris, Steven Word, Takashi Irie, Takayuki Miyauchi, Takuma Morikawa, Tellyworth, Thomas Guillot, tierra, Till Krüss, TLA Media, TobiasBg, Tomasz Dziuda, tommcfarlin, Torsten Landsiedel, Tracy Rotton, Trisha Salas, Tyler Smith, Tyrel Kelsey, Ulrich, undergroundnetwork, Vladimir Tufekchiev, Weston Ruter, Yoav Farhi, yonasy, Yuri Victor, Zack Tollman, and 水野史土. Also thanks to Ben Morrison and Christine Webb for help with the video.

Thanks for choosing WordPress. See you soon for version 3.9!

Release candidate 2 of WordPress 3.8 is now available for download. This is the last pre-release, and we expect it to be effectively identical to what’s officially released to the public on Thursday.

This means if you are a plugin or theme developer, start your engines! (If they’re not going already.) Lots of admin code has changed so it’s especially important to see if your plugin works well within the new admin design and layout, and update the “Tested up to:” part of your plugin readme.txt.

If there is something in your plugin that you’re unable to fix, or if you think you’ve found a bug, join us in #wordpress-dev in IRC, especially if you’re able to join during the dev chat on Wednesday, or post in the alpha/beta forum. The developers and designers who worked on this release are happy to help anyone update their code before the 3.8 release.

Happy hacking, everybody!

We’re entering the quiet but busy part of a release, whittling down issues to bring you all of the new features you’re excited about with the stability you expect from WordPress. There are just a few days from the “code freeze” for our 3.8 release, which includes a number of exciting enhancements, so the focus is on identifying any major issues and resolving them as soon as possible.

If you’ve ever wondered about how to contribute to WordPress, here’s a time you can: download this release candidate and use it in as many ways as you can imagine. Try to break it, and if you do, let us know how you did it so we can make sure it never happens again. If you work for a web host, this is the release you should test as much as possible and start getting your automatic upgrade systems and 1-click installers ready.

Download WordPress 3.8 RC1 (zip) or use the WordPress Beta Tester plugin (you’ll want “bleeding edge nightlies”).

If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. Or, if you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on the WordPress Trac. There, you can also find a list of known bugs and everything we’ve fixed so far.

We’re so close to the
finish line, jump in and help
good karma is yours.