Blank

Blank is a minimal starter Hugo theme that developers use as the foundation for building their own custom themes — it ships with the bare structure Hugo expects and none of the design decisions.

What is Blank?

Blank is a starter theme for Hugo, the open-source static site generator, created and maintained by Vimux. It provides the minimal file structure a Hugo theme needs, so developers can start coding their own layouts, styles, and templates without ripping out someone else's design. The theme's only job is to be a blank canvas; you supply the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Key Features

• Minimal starting point — Ships only the essential Hugo theme files, leaving all layout and styling decisions to you.
• Simple installation — Clone the repository directly into your Hugo site's themes directory with git clone https://github.com/vimux/blank, then set theme = "blank" in your config.toml.
• MIT license — Free to use, modify, and redistribute for any project, personal or commercial.
• Live demo — See the theme in action at blank-demo.netlify.app before you adopt it.
• Community-backed — The repository has over 240 stars on GitHub, and the author accepts contributions via the issue tracker and pull requests.

Who is it for?

Blank is for developers who want complete ownership of their Hugo theme's look and feel. If you find pre-built themes more trouble than they're worth, Blank gives you a clean slate to implement your own design. It is also a good learning tool for Hugo users who want to understand the inner workings of a theme by studying a minimal example.

What can you do with Blank?

• Theme developers: use Blank as the starting template when building a custom Hugo theme for a client or personal project.
• Bloggers with specific design needs: create a fully custom blog theme without fighting an existing theme's opinionated styles.
• Hugo learners: study a minimal theme to understand how Hugo templates, partials, and config interact.

How does Blank work?

1. Clone the repository into your Hugo site's themes directory.
2. Open config.toml and set theme = "blank".
3. Run Hugo to generate your site, then start modifying the theme's files.

FAQ

Is Blank free?

Yes, Blank is released under the MIT license, so you can use it for any project, including commercial ones, free of charge.

How do I install Blank?

Clone the repository into your Hugo site's themes directory using git clone https://github.com/vimux/blank, then set theme = "blank" in your config.toml. After that, run Hugo normally.

Does Blank include any pre-built styles or components?

No. Blank is intentionally bare-bones. It provides only the essential theme structure, so you must write your own HTML, CSS, and any components. That's the point of a starter theme.

Can I contribute to Blank?

Yes, the author invites bug reports and feature ideas through the GitHub issue tracker and accepts pull requests directly.