low

A minimal, retro-inspired Jekyll theme for engineers who care about the metal.

low is a lightweight Jekyll theme designed for technical blogging — inspired by Fabien Sanglard's website.
It's meant for developers who write about low-level programming, graphics, operating systems, emulation, and the craft of software.

No JavaScript frameworks. No build pipelines. Just clean HTML, monospace typography, and focus on content.

• ⚙️ Zero-dependency design — pure HTML + CSS, no JavaScript
• 💾 Retro technical aesthetic — monospaced typography and print-like layout
• 🧱 Simple structure — easily fork, modify, or embed in existing Jekyll setups
• 📰 RSS + SEO ready — via jekyll-feed, jekyll-seo-tag, and jekyll-sitemap
• 🗓️ Archive view — grouped by year, auto-generated from posts
• 🖋️ Clean code blocks — styled for low-level and C-style syntax
• 🪶 Compact footer — © year + author, nothing more

Add this line to your Jekyll site's Gemfile:

gem "jekyll-theme-low"

And add this line to your _config.yml:

theme: jekyll-theme-low

Then execute:

bundle install

jekyll new my-blog
cd my-blog

Edit Gemfile and add:

gem "jekyll-theme-low"

Edit _config.yml and add:

theme: jekyll-theme-low

Then run:

bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve

low/
├── _layouts/
│   ├── default.html      # Base layout (includes header/footer)
│   ├── home.html         # Main index page
│   ├── post.html         # Individual post layout
│   └── archive.html      # Yearly archive page
│
├── _includes/
│   ├── head.html         # Metadata + styles
│   ├── header.html       # Top navigation bar
│   ├── footer.html       # Minimal one-liner footer
│   ├── post-list.html    # Reusable post index
│   └── post-meta.html    # Date + tags for posts
│
├── assets/
│   └── css/
│       └── main.scss     # Global theme styles
│
├── _sass/
│   └── theme/
│       └── _syntax.scss  # Rouge syntax highlighting
│
└── low.gemspec           # Jekyll theme definition

The theme ships with an example/ directory that demonstrates:

• Index page listing posts under "Articles"
• /archive/ for yearly grouping
• /rss.xml for feed readers

Run it locally:

cd example
bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve

Then open: http://127.0.0.1:4000

Edit your _config.yml:

title: Your Site Title
author: Your Name
description: A technical blog about low-level programming
url: "https://yourdomain.com"

# Plugins
plugins:
  - jekyll-feed
  - jekyll-seo-tag
  - jekyll-sitemap

Create a file in _posts/ directory:

---
layout: post
title: "My First Post"
date: 2025-11-05
categories: programming
---

Your content here...

Create pages in the root directory:

---
layout: default
title: About
permalink: /about/
---

About me...

This theme follows the same principles as the projects it's meant to host:

• Understand what runs under the hood
• Respect simplicity
• Prefer text over tools

It's ideal for developers writing deep dives into:

• Retro-game rendering
• CPU emulation
• Assembly or C programming
• Framebuffer graphics
• OS development logs

Heavily inspired by the aesthetic and minimalism of Fabien Sanglard.

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

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/[username]/jekyll-theme-low

If you encounter any issues or have questions:

1. Check the example site for reference
2. Open an issue on GitHub
3. Read the Jekyll documentation

Made with ❤️ for the low-level community