
Show HN: A no-nonsense Jekyll theme for sensible blogging - amitmerchant
https://github.com/amitmerchant1990/reverie
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arendtio
Immediate first impression: I don't like the font.

So I took a closer look at it and I think the gray is too bright and the font
itself... Well, it isn't too bad, but I wouldn't consider it elegant nor
readable.

Apart from the font, I like the clean look and minimal layout.

I hope this feedback helps to improve the theme for future versions ;-)

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chipotle_coyote
Futura is a nice typeface, I would argue, but it's not a very good _body_
typeface. And the commenter who noted that (a) this is specifying the "light"
weight rather than the regular weight is correct; that's just not a good
choice for body text. The low contrast of #555 text on #FFF background
compounds the problem. (That's technically a WCAG Level AAA-compliant contrast
ratio, but at 7.45:1, just barely; I like lighter-than-pure-black text on
darker-than-pure-white background, but I tend to aim for at least a 12:1
contrast ratio on a site I expect people to be, you know, reading lots of text
on.)

That commenter is also right that Futura PT is a commercial, closed-source
font, which makes this entire thing rather moot until this is fixed.

Also: if you're going to include custom typefaces, for the love of all that's
holy, _please_ include the italic and bold versions of the typeface if they
exist and you expect users to use them. Letting browsers make fake bold is bad
enough; letting them just slant text to make fake italics is eye-bleeding.

~~~
exergy
What _are_ some good body fonts though? I would prefer stuff that is available
on Windows. It's an eternal problem I struggle with, until I throw in the
towel and say 'fuck it, let the user decide' and just put 'sans-serif' as the
attribute. That, or use Arial.

~~~
chipotle_coyote
That's always subjective, which isn't a great answer. I never really liked
sans serif fonts for body text, but there are a few that have convinced me
otherwise -- off the top of my head, Fira Sans, Lato, Open Sans, and Source
Sans Pro are all good, and all available on Google Fonts to boot. (If you
don't want to have any downloaded fonts, you're kind of stuck with either
really lowest common denominator stuff or doing a font stack and being okay
with fonts changing a little depending on OS. Calibri and Candara are widely
available on Windows, but hit-or-miss on Mac and virtually non-existent on
Linux, for instance.)

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JoelMcCracken
Maybe this will get some downvotes, but I don't get why this is on HN. There
are plenty of Jekyll themes out there, does this one stand out in some way?

It is quite elegant though!

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bdcravens
> does this one stand out in some way

Maybe that's what the bullet points under "Features overview" are for :-)

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JoelMcCracken
Yes, and I read it, but none of it struck me as being remarkable :-)

Please don't misunderstand, I do not intend to knock the project in any way,
it seems excellent, just similar to others that already exist.

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gloflo
\- Google Analytics integration

Built-in spying on users and exposing them to a more or less hostile third-
party is worse than nonsense.

\- A home widget to show recent GitHub commit

That _is_ total nonsense for sensible blogging. ;p

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robenkleene
I also have my own a simple Jekyll theme here focused on using open-source
typography:
[https://github.com/robenkleene/cyclist](https://github.com/robenkleene/cyclist)

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pembrook
As much as I hate kowtowing to google, if you want people to actually find
what you write on your blog, you have to worry about implementing proper
meta/open graph tags, structured data, dynamic site map, and even AMP support.

I have yet to find a good static site generator theme that actually implements
all of the above...and it’s a major PITA to have to implement every time.

~~~
smessina
Hey! This is my kind of thing.

Curious what you've tried and why it hasn't worked for you? Especially
regarding AMP support: is that a necessary feature for SEO-driven blogging
these days?

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futureastronaut
OP, please add curated to the project description. I only sensibly blog with
curated themes.

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sytelus
There are way too many issues with design:

\- Grey reduces contrast for black forecolors, not good for long comfortable
reading

\- Font are too squeezed for comfortable reading

\- lines sprouting out from heading are unnecessarily distracting

\- Default always-ON scroll bars are truly ugly

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Raed667
First thought: The footer moves up the page when the content isn't long
enough. It should be sticky.

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cookingoils
Why? It’s so easy to make a Jekyll site / theme from scratch.

~~~
bdcravens
Looks like the author put some work in ("...a fork of jekyll-now with some
additional features and personal touches which I've implemented to suit my
needs for my blog") and they thought others may find it useful. Sometimes
that's how open source works; every project doesn't have to be a category-
defining framework.

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jboynyc
Nicely done!

In case people are visiting the discussion looking for more no-nonsense Jekyll
theme recommendations, I recently came across this beautiful collection that
seems to fit the bill: [https://mademistakes.com/work/jekyll-
themes/](https://mademistakes.com/work/jekyll-themes/)

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srndh
Something is making it slow.

