A New Minimalist Blog Theme

Sometimes, when I am close to finishing an old notebook, I get eager to start scribbling in a new one. There is something so encouraging about a blank notebook, so many possibilities. It is a fresh start. So it is for blog themes. I’ve been using the same theme on my blog now for over a decade. I felt it was time for a change. And since we’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of the blog, what better time than the present!

So much that I see out there today is busy. I decided I wanted something different. Something more minimal that focused on the text. Welcome to my new minimal theme.

Post Snippets. The home and archive pages now show the first part of a post rather than the entire post. I went back and forth on this one. On the one hand, I didn’t like the idea of an extra click getting in the way of reading. On the other hand, it makes it easer to skim through options without scrolling long distances. I’ve added in a “read time” to help judge the length of the post from the snippet1.Enhanced Search. To balance the previous change, I’ve souped up the search capabilities by using Jetpack’s Instant Search capability. This brings a much richer search experience with better relevance and filtering than before.Minimalist Style. I’ve cleaned up the post formatting to give it a minimalist feel, text in the center of the page, wide margins that draw attention to the text. I’ve also removed some of the noise that I found distracting.

There are still some changes underway, but this is now far enough along where I feel comfortable releasing it into the world.

Change can be tough, especially if you are used to seeing the same thing day after day. Hopefully this change is a plus for most readers. If nothing else, I like it!

Thanks and appreciation go out to Robert Breen for his review of these changes before I pushed them to production. ︎