Colored Tag Cloud
Note – the plugin is now available for download on the WordPress plugins repository. Download and install it from there.
UPDATE: 7-22-2009. Thanks to Areil and Serkan Algur below for spotting the problem with how the tags are retrieved. I’ve finally gotten around to fixing it, and making a couple of other small improvements.
I wanted a cool colored tag cloud. Couldn’t find one. So I wrote one 
Actually, what I did was pulled the original WP tag cloud code from the core WP file, modified it, and turned it into a plugin. I mean, how do you improve on perfection, and why reinvent the wheel? 
Installation: couldn’t be easier. Download the plugin here, if you want to manually install it. Unzip the package to your local machine, then upload the colored-tag-cloud directory to your wp-content/plugins directory. Alternatively, you can search for and install the plugin directly from your Dashboard, providing you’re running WP 2.7 or above. Navigate to your plugins page and activate the plugin.
Usage: if you want to use the colored tag cloud in your sidebar, navigate to Appearance > Widgets, find the ILWP Colored Tag Cloud widget and drop it in whatever sidebar you want. Click the Edit link on the widget, complete the options setup, click ‘Done’. Then click the big update button like WordPress tells you to do.
Alternate usage: you can also use the ILWP Colored Tag Cloud in your themes. Simply add this to your index.php (or other template file) in the position you want the tag cloud to appear:
<?php
if ( function_exists( 'ilwp_tag_cloud' ) ) {
ilwp_tag_cloud();
}
?>
Options: ILWP Colored Tag Cloud comes with a number of options. You can choose to use colors or not, choose to use color names or color numbers, specify the minimum (default 8px) and maximum (default 20px) sizes for the tags, and change the title (applies only on the widget).
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Nice plugin, but please, correct the post:
You need to call the function (in the manual method) by ilwp_tag_cloud and not by ilwp_colored_tag_cloud.
Bye
Done, and thanks for the correction
np, thanks to you for the plugin
Nice update
i think what yu have done is quite great. i love the plugin
Great plug-in. I wonder if you can help me with a tag bug?
On certain tags I get the Not found error like if you go to my site and click on organizing tag in colored tag cloud then click on credits. CREDITS seems to work fine but ORGANIZING does not show the posts? Any ideas?
OMG! Figured it out – it is a bug. Got it fixed. This will take time because I will manually have to repair the problem for EACH broken tag in my WP blog
Glad you got it worked out. If you need help with anything WordPress, do let me know.
For some reason this is selecting only the final x number of tags instead of the most popular. For example, with 45 tags shown, it only displays T-Z. Is there anyway to have this show most popular? Or to add a “2 or more” rule to wipe out tags with only one post?
Actually, I found a fix for this myself. I changed the ‘orderby’ from ‘name’ to ‘count’ and ‘ASC’ to ‘DESC’ in both of the following codes.
$defaults = array(
‘unit’ => ‘pt’, ‘number’ => 45,
‘format’ => ‘flat’, ‘orderby’ => ‘name’, ‘order’ => ‘ASC’,
‘exclude’ => ”, ‘include’ => ”
);
$defaults = array(
‘unit’ => ‘pt’, ‘number’ => 45,
‘format’ => ‘flat’, ‘orderby’ => ‘name’
‘order’ => ‘ASC’
);
Hi,
I got it to work , but it shows only one font size with different colors (all underlined, how can i remove the under line)
Please help
thank you
I like the concept and the way the colors work but I wish that the font size of the words/letters could go smaller. I think the smallest possible is 18 but I’d like to see it go lower, at least down to 16.
Hi Jane,
There are two values on the settings page – one for the smallest font size, and one for the largest. The range for the small end of font sizes is between 6 and 10px, between 18px and 30px for the largest.
hi everybody. i fixed for T-Z ordering.
find
$tags = get_tags( array_merge( $args, array('orderby' => 'name', 'order' => 'DESC' ) ) ); // Always query top tagsand only change orderyby like this;
$tags = get_tags( array_merge( $args, array('orderby' => 'count', 'order' => 'DESC' ) ) ); // Always query top tagsall done! Thanks for the plugin!
Hey,
Looks like its great, but it does not work great in my sidebar with wp 2.8.1 (font is super small, on two lines)…I tried to find an “edit option”, but there is none in the widget menu, and the code in the plugin editor seems alright.
Any advice?
@etienne – did you visit the options page to set the options? Font sizes are controlled there rather than on the widget itself.
Thanks! It does work (w/out me doing anything, just waited awhile). And it looks really great. 2 little things, that might be of interest for more people:
- how can I remove the under line (maybe to make it appear when I roll over)?
- how can i select an array of colors (I’d like to keep them in the same range).
Thanks for the work and for the plugin, it’s a great tag cloud
RAND is always my favourite
Thanks 
Is there a link to an example of what this looks like?
Look on this post: http://ilikewordpress.com/259/protecting-your-wordpress-blog-from-hackers-crackers-and-jerks/ toward the bottom; there’s a link for ‘hosting that gives you shell access’.
Just used this plugins. But, I have a question about the colors. How to fix the white color into “red”?
Please, advice me. Thanks for your help.
Can’t change from one color to another – but you can get rid of white. Just delete it from the color list.
This is a great plug-in, very eye-catching. I’ve had some complaints though about the tags not being in alphabetical order – and therefore hard to find. I display ALL my tags, which I know isn’t recommended. Yet, my readers have always found it useful. Is this a possible option for future versions of the plug-in? Many thanks. OMK
Hi,
Thank you for a great tag cloud.
I was wondering if i can make border to it and resize the width of it.
thnak you,
Isaac
Not a problem, Isaac. In your stylesheet, target the class “ilwp_widget_tag_cloud”. You can use any standard CSS on the widget, including border and width.
Hi Steve,
Sorry, but I do not find “ilwp_widget_tag_cloud” in my stylsheet CSS.
I guess ther is an way to add it, but this is behind my abilities.
Wow! Really cool plugin for WP. And the options panel also make it easier for custom display. Thanks for the plugins
I got the tag cloud to work with different colors, but the font size is very small and one size only. I went to Settings, Colored Tag Cloud, which shows “ILWP Colored Tag Cloud v.1.2 ~ General Options” at the top, and changed the min font to 7 and max to 18, but still no change. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance. -Stuart