Abstract
This is a description of how my blog is designed, written, and published. Sometimes this could be called a colophon.
Privacy
This site does not track, store, transmit, or collect any of your data or personal information.
LLM Usage
None of the content or code on this site was generated by an LLM. While I am not against LLM usage in appropriate scenarios, it would be self-defeating to bother having personal blog, if you aren’t going to write the content yourself.
TLDR
I use markdown files, with a static site generator, to create plain html files. Those html files can be served by any static web host, without any server side logic or rendering. The static pages are re-rendered whenever a commit is made to the git repository.
The site is intended to resemble the default format of latex documents, which has a nostalgic element for me. I gained an appreciation for latex during my applied mathematics degree; during which all tests, assignments, and reports were encouraged to be typeset with latex. I quickly abandoned Word and other WYSIWYG editors as much as possible. A preference I still hold today.
Built with
- Hugo: This is a popular static site generator. Perhaps the most popular one that isn’t based on javascript. Very flexible and logical to use.
- Table render hook: A hugo rendering hook for markdown tables, modified to support headerless tables and multi-body tables. These features were present in the site’s previous jekyll/kramdown setup, and some pages were using them.
- LaTeX.css: The theme used as a base for the content. I adapted the whole-page to apply to my inset content, while keeping a custom navigation sidebar.
- GitHub Pages: Github pages is a static page hosting service; it serves the Jekyll output from the markdown pages stored in the repository.
- Repository: The repository containing all the content, and history, for this blog.
Fonts
- Latin Modern: Used for body text and headers. A modern-font-format implementation of “Computer Modern”, the default tex font created by Donald Knuth.
- Fira Code: Used for code blocks and monospace. I started using this font for the ligatures, and while there are other fonts now with similar programming ligatures, I had already come to appreciated some of the quirks of Fira Code. So, I use it in all my text editors now.
Layout and colors
The current layout for this blog was inspired by another blog, Sympolymathesy. Thank you, Chris, for the inspiration. I borrowed the aesthetic, and derived the appropriate css for myself, adding my own personal fonts and colors.
The colors are a custom palette that I call Mist, generated using the OKLCH color space. Details can be found on a dedicated page.
Icon
I created the ship icon in svg format by hand, using svg-tutorial as a guide, and Inkpad Libre for sketching ideas. I use this icon for the site logo, as well as as an avatar for accounts around the web. It was inspired by the banner associated with the 1560 Scot’s Confession.
License
This entire blog, which is for the most part text, but also includes some generation code, is provided under a Creative Commons license. See the repository license file for more details.