Jekyll Blog Starter for GitHub Pages

This project is my attempt to build an easy-to-use Jekyll blog template. It began as a fork of the excellent Hux Blog theme and has been heavily refactored to fit the beginners as myself.

It's designed to be forked and deployed on GitHub Pages with minimal setup, making it a great starting point for a personal blog or project site. This is still a work in progress.

Live Demo

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Key Features

This template comes with a number of features built-in:

• Enhanced Markdown Support: Go beyond basic Markdown with support for:
  • Math Equations (via MathJax)
  • Diagrams and Flowcharts (via Mermaid.js)
  • Task Lists (- [x])
• Image Galleries: A simple-to-use include for creating responsive image galleries in your posts.
• Progressive Web App (PWA) Features:
  • Offline access for visited pages.
  • A custom "offline" page.
  • "Add to Home Screen" capability on mobile devices.
• Automatic Table of Contents: For long posts, an auto-generating catalog appears on the side to help with navigation. Just set catalog: true in your post's front matter.
• SEO Ready:
  • Uses the jekyll-seo-tag plugin for optimized meta tags.
  • Simple setup for a default social preview (Open Graph) image for your entire site and for individual posts.
• Clean & Responsive Design: A minimalist design that looks great on both desktop and mobile devices.

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Getting Started

Getting your own copy of this blog up and running is simple.

1. Fork the Repository

Click the "Fork" button at the top right of this page to create a copy of this project in your own GitHub account.

2. Enable GitHub Pages

Go to your new repository's settings page (Settings > Pages). Under "Build and deployment," select the following:

• Source: Deploy from a branch
• Branch: main and / (root) GitHub will then build and deploy your site. It will be available at https://your-username.github.io/your-repository-name/.

3. Configure _config.yml

This is the main control panel for your site. Open the _config.yml file and edit the main settings to match your own details:

• title:
• SEOTitle:
• description:
• url:
• github_username:

4. Start Writing!

You can now create your own posts.

• Add new Markdown files (.md) to the _posts directory.
• Make sure to follow the naming convention: YYYY-MM-DD-your-post-title.md.
• Copy the front matter (the block between the --- lines) from an existing post to get started.

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Customization

• Navigation Links: The links in the main navigation bar are controlled by the navigation: list in _config.yml.
• Social Preview Image:
  • To set the default image for your entire site, create a 1200x630 pixel image and link to it in the logo: variable in _config.yml.
  • To set the image for your repository link, go to the repository settings page and upload an image under "Social preview."

Acknowledgements

This theme would not be possible without the foundational work done by Huxpro on the original Hux Blog theme. This project is a refactor and evolution of that excellent starting point.

License

This project is open source and available under the MIT License.