If you are looking for an easy way to give your WordPress blog a design boost, a transparent header can really help. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to use a theme that allows transparent headers right out of the box.

This site uses the Astra theme, and it has many options for the transparent header in the free version. For this site, the transparent header is only enabled on the pages. The posts and archive pages do not have a transparent header because those pages have a white background, and it might not look as nice as the pages with a dark background.

If you have the Astra theme, enabling the transparent header is simple. Click the Astra icon in the top right settings area of your page, Advanced Settings, then click Transparent Header Enabled.

It is best to use this type of header when there is sufficient contrast between the background and the menus. Usually, this takes the form of a page with a dark block at the top of the page, combined with a light menu. Often times, you see a dark, full width image as the block, and a light menu. Since blog posts and archive pages generally have light backgrounds, it works well to leave those types of layouts to use a regular header.

Customizing the transparent header can be confusing in Astra if you don’t pay attention the header you are customizing. To change the menu colors, go to the Customizer, Header Builder. If you get the warning link to customize the transparent header, click it. The link will take you to the text colors for the transparent header.

We hope you were able to follow these simple steps to give your blog a transparent header. Now that this type of header is free in several themes, it really is a cheap and relatively painless way to improve the look of your site.