eZ publish comes with a standard design, just like it does with datatypes and templates. A design consists of templates, css files, non content related images and font files. This dictates how your content will be presented. At the most simple level, you can add your own css to change the way the site looks. If there are images you want to use in your css, then they go in the design directory. Finally, if the standard templates don’t provide what you need, then you can add your own templates to override what eZ publish provides. To create your own design, all you need to do is create a design directory and put in the templates, css & images for your design and then update the siteaccess configuration file to include your design. The beauty of this approach is that you only have to add what you need to add and change. So, a unique design can consist of just a css file or you can go so far as to provide your own css, templates and images.

Another benefit of the system is that you can have multiple designs and then define when the system uses which design. For instance, you might want to have two sites served from the one instance of eZ publish – then it’s just a matter of setting the siteaccess to use the right design.

Eg. let’s say you create a standard corporate site and also have an intranet that is access via a subdomain

http://www.site.com will use the “corporate” design that exists in /design/corporate

http://intranet.site.com – will use the intranet design in /design/intranet

Both sites can be managed via the one install of ez publish and can be managed via one administration interface.