Acta Cosmica — News & Magazine Theme for Astro
Acta Cosmica is a premium news and magazine template built with Astro 7 for online publishers, independent journalists, niche digital newsrooms, and content-driven media brands that want to publish with the polish of a real newsroom and convert readers into loyal subscribers and members.
Designed around real editorial workflows, Acta Cosmica combines photo-forward storytelling, a fully configurable category system, and considered typographic design to help you present breaking stories, deep features, staff bios, and reader membership with the same credibility as an established outlet.
This Theme Supports Astro Version 7.0.6
Built specifically for digital publishing, Acta Cosmica goes far beyond a typical blog template. From the homepage and category pages to author profiles, membership, search, and saved stories, every section is structured to guide a first-time visitor from casual reader to loyal subscriber.
What Makes Acta Cosmica Stand Out
Acta Cosmica is engineered for modern digital publishers with:
Fully configurable category system — replace the demo's science/nature sections with your own beats (local news, tech, lifestyle, anything) by editing one data file, no template changes; each category gets its own subcategory filter chips automatically
Config-driven homepage spotlight rows — feature whichever categories matter most, reorder them by editing one array
Photo-as-evidence design — automatic WebP conversion and responsive srcset on every photo, no manual resizing
Real editorial fixtures, not stand-ins — author profiles with bios and social links, a full writers directory, a membership/support page, and full-text search with weighted fuzzy matching and a ⌘K shortcut
Click-to-play video that costs nothing on page load until a reader actually presses play
Reusable TypeScript data layer — nav, footer, socials, authors, categories, and About-page copy are all editable from structured data files, no component edits required
Content Collections for articles — schema-validated (Zod) Markdown, so publishing a new story never requires touching component code
Fully static and SEO-ready — meta tags, Open Graph/Twitter cards, canonical URLs, sitemap, and RSS feed out of the box
Design DNA
Editorial Broadsheet Aesthetic — warm cream backgrounds against near-black ink, with a single configurable accent color (yellow by default)
Considered Typography — Archivo, a bold grotesque sans, for display type and UI; Newsreader, a literary serif, for body copy and article deks
Photo-First Layouts — full-bleed hero imagery, photo-forward story grids, and a dedicated Photo of the Day feature
Reader-Focused UX — a reading progress bar, saved-stories bookmarking, and fast weighted full-text search built in
Responsive Excellence — every layout, including the homepage's multi-column spotlight rows and Editor's Pick/Most Read section, collapses cleanly to mobile
Pages Included (Fully Coded)
✔ Homepage — hero, latest-stories rail, configurable category spotlight rows, photo-of-the-day feature, click-to-play video, Editor's Pick/Most Read
✔ Category pages (any number, fully data-driven) with subcategory filter chips
✔ Article page with related stories, author byline, and social share links
✔ Author profile pages
✔ Writers directory (all authors, with live story counts)
✔ About page with stats, values, team, and pull quote ✔ Membership page
✔ Contact page
✔ Search page with weighted fuzzy matching
✔ Saved stories page
✔ Account page (demo sign-in/out state, ready to wire up real auth)
✔ Legal pages (Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, Cookie Policy)
✔ Custom 404 / Not Found page
Modern Tech Stack
Astro 7 — ultra-fast static site generation
Tailwind CSS v4 — utility classes used sparingly; most layout is component-scoped
TypeScript — type-safe data layer
Astro Content Collections — schema-validated (Zod) article content
Google Fonts — Archivo + Newsreader
Hand-tuned inline SVG icons — no icon library dependency
Vanilla JS — nav drawer, reading progress bar, search overlay, video embed, newsletter form; no client-side JS framework
Perfect For
- Online Newspapers & Magazines
- Independent Journalists & Newsletter Writers
- Niche Vertical Publishers (science, tech, culture, local news, and more)
- Membership-Funded Newsrooms
- Local News Outlets
- Photography & Photojournalism-Led Publications
- Content-Driven Media Brands
- Anyone launching a subscription or reader-funded publication
