Even

Even is a concise blog theme for the Hugo static site generator, ported from the hexo-theme-even design. It provides a clean reading experience for personal blogs and supports multilingual sites through built-in i18n translations.

What is Even?

Even is a minimalist Hugo theme built for blogging. It takes Markdown content from the content/post directory and renders a static website with a focus on typography and readability. The theme is developed by olOwOlo and distributed as open source on GitHub, with a live demo hosted at hugo-theme-even.netlify.app. It requires Hugo Pipes, so the extended version of Hugo is needed when modifying assets.

Key Features

• Multilingual support — Built-in translations for English and Chinese (zh-cn), with the ability to add any other language by creating an i18n/language.yaml file; translations in the site root override theme defaults.
• Language selector toggle — Enable showLanguageSelector = true in config to display a language switcher in the header or slide-out menu on multilingual sites.
• Five built-in theme colors — Choose from Default, Mint Green, Cobalt Blue, Hot Pink, or Dark Violet by editing the $theme-color-config variable in assets/sass/_variables.scss.
• Custom shortcodes — Includes center, right, left, music, and admonition shortcodes, plus alignment classes for the built-in figure shortcode.
• Hugo Pipes based asset pipeline — SCSS and other assets are processed with Hugo Pipes, requiring the extended Hugo binary for asset modifications.
• Custom favicon support — Replace any of the ten favicon files (including android-chrome icons, apple-touch-icon, and favicon.ico) placed in the static folder.
• Example site and archetype — The exampleSite folder contains a ready-to-copy config.toml, and the default archetype documents all front-matter parameters.
• Easy updates — Update by running git pull inside the theme directory; check CHANGELOG.md for breaking changes.

Who is it for?

Even is for bloggers and developers who want a fast, uncluttered Hugo site without heavy JavaScript. It fits personal blogs, technical writing, and portfolio-style sites where content matters more than decoration. Users comfortable editing a config.toml file and using the command line will get the most out of it.

What can you do with Even?

• Personal bloggers: publish Markdown posts from hugo new post/... (note the "post" singular path) and get a clean, responsive reading layout.
• Multilingual site owners: enable the language selector and maintain content in multiple languages, with per-language UI strings merged from the theme's i18n folder.
• Theme tinkerers: customize colors via SCSS variables and add shortcodes for centered text, alerts, or embedded music players without writing raw HTML.

How does Even work?

Installation is straightforward: clone the repository into themes/even, copy the config.toml from the exampleSite to your site root, and write content under content/post. The theme uses Hugo's archetype system to scaffold new posts with front-matter defaults.

Pros and cons

• Pros: open source (MIT), lightweight, multilingual, easy to customize colors, and has a live demo.
• Cons: requires the extended Hugo version for asset changes, and content must use post instead of posts path — a small consistency requirement.

Pricing

Even is free and open source, released under the MIT License. There are no paid tiers; you can use it for personal and commercial projects.

Alternatives

• ananke — a popular Hugo theme also acknowledged in the project's README.
• hexo-theme-even — the original Hexo theme that Even is ported from.
• hugo-nuo — another Hugo theme acknowledged by the author.

FAQ

Is Even free?

Yes, Even is completely free and open source, available under the MIT License. You can use it in personal and commercial projects without payment.

How do I install Even?

Clone the repository with git clone https://github.com/olOwOlo/hugo-theme-even themes/even, then copy the exampleSite's config.toml to your Hugo site's root folder. Create content under content/post (not posts).

Does Even support multiple languages?

Yes, Even ships with English and Chinese translations and lets you add any other language by creating an i18n file in your site's root. Enable the language selector by setting showLanguageSelector = true in config.

Can I customize the theme color?

Yes, five built-in colors are available: Default, Mint Green, Cobalt Blue, Hot Pink, and Dark Violet. Edit the $theme-color-config variable in assets/sass/_variables.scss to switch.

Why do I need the extended Hugo version?

The theme uses Hugo Pipes to process SCSS assets. Regular Hugo builds will still render the site, but if you modify files in the assets folder, you need the extended version to compile the Sass.