hugo-theme-prav — Hugo Tool Template

SHA-256: ac2f20a435a7f3f4233fdb2436992512df3bf3dfad21d08fcaaf8511e47e88b8

2026-10-06T09:18:51.491Z

# Hugo Theme Prav

A refined two column theme for Hugo that is easy on the eyes, with light and dark modes and a layout that works on phones.

![Screenshot](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/screenshot.png)

![Screenshot in dark mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/screenshot-dark.png)

### On a phone

![The theme on a phone, in light mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/mobile.png)

![The theme on a phone, in dark mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/mobile-dark.png)

## History

This theme began it's life in early 2013, as the theme for my blog "[Thoughts on Engineering and Management](https://cto.me.uk)". Back then it was generated using [nanoc](https://nanoc.ws/). In 2018, I moved to [hugo](https://gohugo.io/) because of it's ability to hot-reload the website while I was working.

## Principles

I have always believed in using as little computing resources as possible. This theme uses the excellent [purecss](https://purecss.io/) css library, which is tiny while still being quite functional. Icons are inline SVGs, so there is no icon font to download.

The design is flat and quiet. Warm off-white and near-black surfaces, soft shadows and a single red accent keep the focus on your writing. Body text is limited to a comfortable line length, links are underlined, and keyboard focus is always visible. Colours have been chosen to be easy on the eyes, with enough contrast to help with accessibility.

This theme is by no means complete. I have added to it over the last six years and will continue to do so. I hope you and the rest of the community will help in contributing to making this theme even better.

## Features

This is a two column theme with a navbar at the top and a sidebar to the right. The navbar contains links to major pages and links to social networks. It stays at the top of the screen as you scroll (on larger screens) and marks the page you are on. The sidebar contains an about section, a section with the last 10 posts and finally a section which lists tags used across your site. On small screens the sidebar moves below the article.

### Article list

Archive pages show posts as cards, with an optional feature image, the date and a short description. See [Feature images in archives](#feature-images-in-archives).

![Article list in light mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/list.png)

![Article list in dark mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/list-dark.png)

### Beautiful tables and images through purecss

Tables are styled with purecss, with striped rows and borders that follow light and dark mode. Wide tables scroll sideways on small screens instead of breaking the layout.

![Tables in light and dark mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/table.png)

### Light and dark mode

The theme follows the visitor's operating system setting, and a sun/moon button in the navbar lets them switch. Their choice is remembered in the browser.

```toml
[params]
  # "auto" follows the OS setting; "light" or "dark" makes that the default
  defaultTheme = "auto"
  # Set to false to hide the toggle button
  themeToggle = true
```

All colours are CSS variables at the top of `assets/css/style.css`, written as `light-dark(<light>, <dark>)`. To change them, copy that file into your site's `assets/css/` folder (see [Custom styles](#custom-styles)).

### Syntax highlighting

Code is highlighted by Hugo's built-in highlighter (Chroma), with colours that follow light and dark mode (perldoc for light, github-dark for dark). This needs Chroma to output CSS classes, so add this to your site config,

```toml
[markup.highlight]
  noClasses = false
```

To use different styles, regenerate `assets/css/syntax.css` in your site with `hugo gen chromastyles --style=<name>`. The header of the theme's copy explains how the dark half is scoped.

Each code block shows its language and has a copy button. The button needs JavaScript and the Clipboard API; without them the block still looks and works normally.

Example highlighted code, in light and dark mode,

![Example highlighted code](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/code.png)

### Update the about image

To update the image shown in the sidebar, create a file called `author.png` in your site's `static/img/` folder. Alternatively, set `params.authorImgPath` in your config. It is shown as a centred circle, so a square image works best.

### Feature images in archives

Setting the `image` parameter in the front matter sets a feature image which is displayed at the top of the post's card in the articles list. Images are cropped to a wide banner, so keep the subject near the centre. The image can either be a [page resource](https://gohugo.io/content-management/page-resources/) (e.g. `content/posts/my-post/cover.jpg` in a page bundle) or a file in your site's `static/img/feature/` folder.

```yaml
image: cover.jpg
```

### Menu

By default the navbar shows Articles, Categories and About. To change these, define a `main` menu in your config. Each entry can have an optional icon (see [Icons](#icons)),

```toml
[[menus.main]]
  name = "Articles"
  pageRef = "/posts"
  weight = 10
  [menus.main.params]
    icon = "box-archive"
```

### Icons

Icons are SVG files in `assets/icons/`, inlined into the page so they take the colour of the text around them. The theme includes the icons it uses, from [Font Awesome Free](https://fontawesome.com) (CC BY 4.0). To add your own, put an SVG in your site's `assets/icons/` folder and refer to it by file name, e.g. `icon = "rocket"` for `assets/icons/rocket.svg`. In templates, use `{{ partial "icon.html" "rocket" }}`.

### Custom header, footer and menu

To add custom code to the `<head>`, the end of the page, or the right side of the navbar, create `custom_header.html`, `custom_footer.html` or `custom_menu.html` in your site's `layouts/_partials/` folder.

### Custom styles

To override the stylesheet, copy `assets/css/style.css` from the theme to `assets/css/style.css` in your site and edit it. It is minified and fingerprinted automatically.

### Comments by disqus

To enable comments, set `services.disqus.shortname` in your config. Comments appear on all single pages, and can be turned off for a page with `disableComments: true` in its front matter.

### Google Analytics

Set `services.googleAnalytics.ID` in your config. The tracking code is only included in production builds (`hugo`, not `hugo server`).

### Social

To show a link to a social network in the navbar (top-right), set its URL under `params.social`. To hide it, comment it out. Supported keys: `mastodon`, `bluesky`, `github`, `twitter`, `linkedin`, `medium`, `facebook` and `email`.

![Social header in light and dark mode](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pravin/hugo-theme-prav/master/images/social.png)

## Configuration

This theme requires Hugo v0.146.0 or later. A complete example lives in [`exampleSite/hugo.toml`](exampleSite/hugo.toml). To try it,

```sh
cd exampleSite
hugo server
```

A minimal `hugo.toml`,

```toml
baseURL = "https://example.com/"
locale = "en-GB"
title = "Hugo Theme - Prav"
theme = "hugo-theme-prav"

[services.disqus]
  # shortname = ""
[services.googleAnalytics]
  # ID = "G-XXXXXXXXXX"

[params]
  title = "Hugo Theme - Prav"
  tagline = "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit."
  author = "Pravin Paratey"
  authorImgPath = "/img/author.png"
  authorBlurb = "Something about me"
  mainSections = ["posts"]

  [params.social]
    email = "mailto:[email protected]"
    mastodon = "https://mstdn.social/@example"
    github = "https://github.com/example"

[markup]
  # Lets syntax colours follow light and dark mode
  [markup.highlight]
    noClasses = false
  # Allows raw HTML in content and in markdownified descriptions
  [markup.goldmark.renderer]
    unsafe = true
```

## Upgrading from older versions of this theme

* **Hugo v0.146.0 or later is required.**
* Move the `[social]` section to `[params.social]`. Hugo no longer supports a top-level `social` key.
* Replace `googleAnalytics = "..."` with `[services.googleAnalytics] ID = "..."`, and `disqusShortname = "..."` with `[services.disqus] shortname = "..."`.
* Replace `pygmentsCodeFences` / `pygmentsStyle` with `[markup.highlight] noClasses = false`. Syntax colours now come from the theme's stylesheet, so they can follow light and dark mode.
* Font Awesome is no longer loaded. If your custom partials or content use `<i class="fa ...">` icons, use the `icon.html` partial instead or load Font Awesome yourself in `custom_header.html`.
* Replace `paginate = N` with `[pagination] pagerSize = N`.
* If you overrode `static/css/style.css`, move your copy to `assets/css/style.css`.
* Custom partials in `layouts/partials/` still work, but `layouts/_partials/` is the new location.

## In closing

I hope you enjoy this theme as much as I have enjoyed building and using it over the last few years.

-Prav