Tao

Tao is a content-first minimalist Jekyll theme for blogs.

Check the demo.

Highlight Features

Support the CSS resets Normalize
Support Font Awesome
Support MathJax
Support Disqus
Support Google Analytics 4
Light and dark mode, via prefers-color-scheme
Archive pages implemented in pure Liquid

Installation
Usage
- Basic Configuration
- Specifying the Page Language
- Customizing the Head
- Navigation
- Social Links
- Archive Pages
- MathJax
- Disqus
- Google Analytics 4
- More Customization
Contributing
Development
License

Installation

Add this line to your Jekyll site's Gemfile:

gem "jekyll-theme-tao"

And add this line to your Jekyll site's _config.yml:

theme: jekyll-theme-tao

And then execute:

$ bundle

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install jekyll-theme-tao

If your website is hosted on GitHub Pages, you can install this theme via jekyll-remote-theme.

Add the following to your Gemfile:

gem "jekyll-remote-theme"

And add this line to your Jekyll site's _config.yml:

plugins:
  - jekyll-remote-theme

Add the following to your site's _config.yml:

remote_theme: vfvong/jekyll-theme-tao

Usage

Basic Configuration

You can refer to the _config.yml of the demo to set some basic configuration of your site.

Specifying the Page Language

You can specify the language on each page by setting the lang property. If the property is not set, the site.lang would be referred. If the site.lang is not set, the default value en would be applied.

Customizing the Head

If you want to put more data into the <head>, you don't need to copy the whole _includes/head.html file from this repo and overwrite it in your repo. You just need to create a _includes/custom-head.html file in your repo, and put some data into there. These data will be automatically imported into the <head>.

Navigation

The navigation in Tao is very easy to configure, just specify the titles and URLs in the _data/navigation.yml file, for example,

- title: Home
  url: /
- title: About
  url: /about.html
- title: Archive
  url: /archive.html

Social Links

The social links in Tao is also very easy to connfigure. You don't need to import any large SVG file to render the icons because Tao supports the Font Awesome. Specify the titles, URLs, and icons in the _data/social.yml file, for example,

- title: Email
  url: mailto:vfvong@gmail.com
  icon: fas fa-envelope
- title: Twitter
  url: https://twitter.com/vfvong
  icon: fab fa-twitter
- title: GitHub
  url: https://github.com/vfvong
  icon: fab fa-github

Archive Pages

Tao provides a template archive to archive posts by years, categories, or tags.

If you want to show an archive page of years, just create a file and put these front matter in it:

---
layout: archive
type: years
title: Archive by Years
---

Similarly, if you want to show an archive page of categories, just create a file and put these front matter in it:

---
layout: archive
type: categories
title: Archive by Categories
---

Besides, if you want the categories and tags displayed in the post to link to the archive pages, you need to configure the paths to the category and tag archive pages in the _config.yml file, for example:

categories_path: /categories/
tags_path: /tags/

MathJax

Tao relies on the MathJax to render math. The MathJax is disabled by default. You need to set math: true on the page where you want to enable the MathJax.

Disqus

To enable Disqus, just set the Disqus shortname in the _config.yml, for example,

disqus: <your disqus shortname>

Google Analytics 4

Tao support the Google Analytics 4. To enable it, just set the Measurement ID in the _config.yml, for example,

google_analytics: G-XXXXXXXXXX

More Customization

You can easily modify some styles of this theme, such as colors and fonts. You don't have to copy a lot of CSS into your repository, just copy _sass/tao/_variables.scss and change the variable value.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/vfvong/jekyll-theme-tao. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the Contributor Covenant code of conduct.

Development

To set up your environment to develop this theme, run bundle install.

Your theme is setup just like a normal Jekyll site! To test your theme, run bundle exec jekyll serve and open your browser at http://localhost:4000. This starts a Jekyll server using your theme. Add pages, documents, data, etc. like normal to test your theme's contents. As you make modifications to your theme and to your content, your site will regenerate and you should see the changes in the browser after a refresh, just like normal.

When your theme is released, only the files in _layouts, _includes, _sass and assets tracked with Git will be bundled. To add a custom directory to your theme-gem, please edit the regexp in jekyll-theme-tao.gemspec accordingly.

License

The theme is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

jekyll-theme-tao

Runtime

Tao