A WordPress child theme is a subtheme that inherits the look, feel, and functions of a parent theme while allowing for safe customization. Key aspects of child themes include:

Inheritance: Child themes inherit all functionality and styling from the parent theme.

Customization: They allow modifications without directly editing the parent theme’s code.

Separation: Customizations are kept separate from the parent theme’s files.

Portability: Modifications become portable and replicable.

Update Protection: Parent themes can be updated without losing customizations.

To create a child theme:

  1. Create a new folder in the themes directory, named “[parent-theme]-child”.
  2. Create a style.css file with necessary theme information.
  3. Create a functions.php file to enqueue the parent theme’s stylesheet.

Child themes are ideal for small to medium alterations to an existing theme, such as CSS modifications or minor layout changes.