ET Jekyll is a minimal Jekyll theme inspired by Tufte CSS that produces clean, content-first static websites from Markdown.
What is ET Jekyll?
ET Jekyll is a Jekyll theme that applies the visual style of Edward Tufte's Tufte CSS to a simple blog-or-page layout. It takes Markdown files as input and outputs a static HTML site using Jekyll's standard build pipeline. The project is hosted on GitHub under the topics css, jekyll, jekyll-theme, and tufte-css, and has 164 stars at the time of writing. A live demo with detailed instructions is available at et-jekyll.netlify.com.
Key Features
- Minimal design — The theme is explicitly described as minimal, favoring whitespace and readability over decoration.
- Tufte CSS inspiration — It borrows the typographic and layout principles of Tufte CSS, a well-known CSS project for clean, print-like web pages.
- Live demo — et-jekyll.netlify.com includes a working example of the theme plus instructions for setup.
- GitHub repository — The publicly available project has 164 stars and is categorized with Jekyll and CSS topics, making it easy to discover and contribute to.
- Jekyll platform — Built on Jekyll, the Ruby-based static site generator, so content is written in Markdown and rendered to static HTML with no backend.
Who is it for?
- Bloggers and writers — Publish long-form posts in a distraction-free layout that keeps attention on the text.
- Academics and researchers — Present lecture notes, papers, or essays with a classic typographic look reminiscent of Tufte's printed books.
- Developers — Use it as a starting point for a personal site or documentation hub, leveraging Jekyll's simple workflow and the theme's minimal base.
What can you do with it?
- Publish a personal blog — Write Markdown posts and generate a static site with a clean, reader-focused appearance.
- Create online essays — Present long-form writing in a style inspired by Tufte CSS, with a focus on typography and readability.
- Build a minimal documentation site — Organize pages with Jekyll's structure to produce a no-frills reference site.
