Joomla template for non Joomla website

Question

A Joomla website has been rebuilt to a non Joomla website. The client would prefer to keep the look and feel of the website and I am considering of reusing the Joomla template. Is it possible to use a Joomla template in a non Joomla website? If so, why do templates for Joomla at Themeforest fall under the category CMS? What is the difference between a Joomla template and an HTML template?

Answer 1

The short answer: no.

The long answer: Joomla templates make use of Joomla framework facilities to calculate and format their layouts. It might be possible to refactor a Joomla template if you seek out all the references to Joomla code and create some way of providing that functionality. It would probably be easier to create the HTML layout from scratch, modelling it on the style of the Joomla original.