Rouben - Creative Portfolio / Photography WordPress Theme 1.6.3

Rouben is an avant-garde, immersive WordPress theme designed for high-end photographers, digital artists, and creative directors. Developed by Themeton, it moves away from traditional "grid" layouts in favor of an experiential interface. It uses smooth AJAX transitions and sophisticated physics-based scrolling to make your portfolio feel like a high-end digital art book.

It is particularly well-suited for fashion, editorial, and architectural photographers who want their website to be as much of a statement as the work itself.

## Key Features

Immersive Slider Variations: Includes specialized "Distortion," "Parallax," and "Film-Strip" sliders that add a cinematic quality to your featured projects.

AJAX Seamless Loading: Pages transition without refreshing the browser, creating a smooth, "app-like" experience that keeps the background music or visual flow uninterrupted.

Creative Cursor Effects: An interactive custom cursor that changes its appearance based on the content it hovers over (e.g., showing "Drag" on sliders or "View" on images).

Dark & Light Modes: Features a refined toggle system, allowing you to present your work against a deep gallery black or a crisp, minimalist white.

Elementor Integration: Despite its highly custom look, it is fully editable via Elementor, featuring bespoke Rouben widgets like "Floating Images" and "Marquee Typography."

### Technical Requirements

To support the high-resolution imagery and sophisticated JavaScript animations:

PHP Version: 7.4 or higher (8.1+ recommended).

Memory Limit: 256MB (minimum); 512MB is recommended for smooth performance when using the "Liquid Distortion" effects.

Required Plugins: Rouben Core (bundled), Elementor, and Slider Revolution.

Image Handling: Supports Retina/Hi-DPI displays; use of a "Lazy Loading" plugin is recommended to maintain speed with large image files.

### Included Layout Modules

Category

Style / Options

Portfolio

Staggered Masonry, Fullscreen Carousel, "Ribbon" Scroll, and Split-Screen

Project Details

Immersive "Case Study" layouts with technical metadata and large-scale media

About/Studio

Minimalist text-heavy pages with "Reveal-on-Scroll" animations

Blog

Editorial-style layouts designed for "Behind the Scenes" or gear reviews

### Setup & Creative Strategy

Curate, Don't Dump: Rouben is a "high-fashion" theme. It works best with a few high-impact projects rather than hundreds of small ones. Use the Fullscreen Slider for only your top 3–5 pieces of work.

The "Physics" of Motion: Experiment with the Smooth Scroll settings. Rouben allows you to adjust the "inertia" of the scroll, giving the site a heavy, luxury feel or a light, snappy one.

Typography as Art: Use the Kinetic Typography widget to let project titles move or "flow" behind your images. This creates a 3D sense of depth that is very popular in modern agency design.

Portfolio Hover Effects: Set your portfolio list to show a preview image on hover. This encourages user interaction and makes the discovery of your work feel like an active experience.

Photographer's Tip: To keep the "Rouben" look, ensure all your project thumbnails have a consistent color grade or aspect ratio. The theme's minimalist structure means that any visual inconsistency in your photos will be highly visible.

Would you like me to show you how to configure the "Liquid Distortion" slider for your homepage, or do you need help setting up the "AJAX Page Transitions" to ensure a seamless user experience?