Call me Sam

Call me Sam is a minimalist Hugo theme created by Victoria Drake that builds a typography-focused website from a simple list of navigation links defined in config.toml. It is distributed under the Apache License 2.0 and requires the extended version of Hugo.

What is Call me Sam?

Call me Sam is a simple and minimalist theme for the Hugo static site generator, focused on content and typography. It takes your Hugo content pages and a config.toml configuration file as input, and produces a static website with a stylized index page composed entirely of navigation menu links, plus templates for list pages, single pages, posts, and image galleries. It is written by Victoria Drake and supports Hugo versions back to 0.49.2.

Key Features

• Content-focused page templates — Includes layout templates for list pages, single pages, and posts, all designed to keep the emphasis on typography rather than decorative elements.
• Responsive CSS grid gallery — Automatically renders an image gallery from files inside a Hugo Page Bundle; configure the gallery title, url, maxWidth for resizing, clickablePhotos for full-size links, and keepAspectRatio in the page front matter.
• Custom navigation menu — The index page and the bottom navigation of single pages are generated from [[params.mainMenu]] entries in config.toml, which can point to internal pages or external links.
• Custom background video — Set a looping video background on the home page with [[params.videoBackground.sources]], including an optional overlay color that defaults to rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.4).
• Syntax highlighting — Built-in support for highlighting code blocks in posts.
• Share-ready metadata — Pages include Open Graph and Twitter Cards metadata that can be customized via config.toml and front matter.
• Sass via Hugo Pipes — CSS is compiled, autoprefixed, and minified from Sass files in assets/sass/ using Hugo Pipes, requiring extended Hugo plus the npm packages postcss, postcss-cli, and autoprefixer.
• Flexible installation — Can be added as a Hugo module, a git clone, or a git submodule.

Who is Call me Sam for?

• Bloggers — Publish text-focused posts with syntax highlighting and share metadata, and keep the site's navigation as a simple menu.
• Photographers — Create one or more responsive image galleries from Page Bundles and link them from the index page.
• Developers — Build a personal site with minimal overhead, customize the Sass files, and test it against a wide range of Hugo versions.
• Minimalists — Anyone who wants a homepage that acts as a list of links, like a 'link in bio' page, for a personal or creative project.

What can you do with Call me Sam?

• Create a personal blog — Add a posts section, write Markdown files, and the theme will render list and single pages with syntax highlighting.
• Build a portfolio gallery — Drop images into a Page Bundle, set type: "gallery" in the front matter, and the theme generates a responsive CSS grid with options for click-to-full-size images.
• Design a link-based landing page — Use the [[params.mainMenu]] entries to build a homepage that lists internal pages or external links.
• Set a video background — Configure a looping video with a poster image and overlay to give the home page a custom look.

How does Call me Sam work?

You can install the theme as a Hugo module, by cloning the repository into themes/sam, or by adding it as a git submodule. After copying the sample config.toml to your site root and setting theme = "sam", you create pages with hugo new page.md, design the main menu with [[params.mainMenu]] entries, and preview the site with hugo serve -t sam. For galleries, you place images in a Page Bundle and set type: "gallery" in _index.md.

Pros and cons

• Pros — Minimal and fast, no JavaScript framework required; index page is fully configurable via TOML; gallery and video background features are automatable through config and front matter; Apache 2.0 license permits free use and modification.
• Cons — Requires the extended version of Hugo; building the Sass styles needs the npm packages postcss, postcss-cli, and autoprefixer to be installed, which adds a setup step.

FAQ

Does Call me Sam require a specific version of Hugo?

Yes—you need the extended version of Hugo, and the theme has been tested with versions back to 0.49.2. The extended build includes Hugo Pipes, which the theme uses to compile Sass into CSS.

How do I install the required Node.js packages?

Install postcss, postcss-cli, and autoprefixer globally with npm i -g postcss postcss-cli autoprefixer. If you are using Hugo as a snap app, install these packages locally inside the exampleSite directory instead.

Can I create more than one image gallery?

Yes. Create multiple Page Bundles, each containing images and an _index.md file with type: "gallery" set in the front matter. The theme's gallery layout will automatically build a separate gallery page for each bundle.

Is Call me Sam free?

Yes. The theme is open source and licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0, which permits free use, modification, and distribution.