WordPress 3.8 arrives with redesigned dashboard, new theme and widget screens, vector-based icons, and more

WordPress.org Friday announced the debut of WordPress 3.8, which introduces a modern new design that the company calls its “most beautiful update yet.” You can download the new release now from WordPress.org/Download (it’s 6.1MB).

Dubbed “Parker” in honor of American jazz saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker, WordPress 3.8 brings a new look to the entire admin dashboard.

The new features are as follows:

• 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: With superior contrast and large, comfortable type, the new design is easy to read and a pleasure to navigate.
• 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: WordPress now includes eight new admin color schemes, which can be previewed and changed from your Profile page.
• Refined theme management: The new themes screen lets you survey your themes at a glance. Click to add more information, and use your keyboard’s navigation arrows to flip through themes.
• Smoother widget experience: The widgets screen has been streamlined. On large monitors, multiple widget areas stack side-by-side to use the available space while on tablets, just tap a widget to add it.
• Twenty Fourteen: Turn your blog into a magazine with this new theme. 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.

WordPress 3.7 was released in October. The company is pushing a faster release as of late, and so we expect to see WordPress 3.9 in February.