freshPink

freshPink is a minimalist Hugo blog theme that transforms a fresh Hugo site into a clean, customizable blog with a GitHub contribution graph, KaTeX math rendering, and a configurable navigation menu.

What is freshPink?

freshPink is an open-source blog theme for the Hugo static site generator. It takes a Hugo site's content and renders it as a minimal, single-column blog with a pink-accented default color scheme. The theme is maintained by GitHub user elecbrandy and installed via Hugo Modules, requiring Hugo extended version 0.116.0 or newer (the project documentation notes v0.110+ extended). It outputs a static HTML site from Markdown content, with support for tags, a homepage main image, and Google Analytics.

Key Features

• Customizable primary color — Set any hex code in the primaryColor parameter of hugo.toml to change the theme accent (the default is pink #ec42ff).
• KaTeX math rendering — Toggle the math parameter (true/false) to enable or disable LaTeX-style math typesetting on posts.
• GitHub contributions graph — Plug in a githubUsername and set showGithubChart = true to display the user's GitHub contribution chart on the homepage.
• Homepage main image — Control the hero image with mainImageUrl and hide or show it via showMainImage.
• Google Analytics integration — Add your tracking ID in the googleAnalytics parameter to enable site analytics.
• Configurable navigation menu — Define the header menu entirely from hugo.toml with [[menus.main]] entries, each specifying name, pageRef, and weight for ordering.
• Tag taxonomy — Built-in support for tags through the [taxonomies] section, generating a /tags/ page.
• Unsafe markdown rendering — The theme enables markup.goldmark.renderer.unsafe = true, allowing raw HTML inside Markdown content.

Note: The theme does not include a built-in styling framework like Tailwind; it ships with its own minimalist CSS, and no JavaScript framework is required.

Who is it for?

• Bloggers who want a fast, minimal site — Set up a personal blog with a clean reading experience and no clutter, using Hugo's static site build.
• Developers familiar with Hugo Modules — Users who prefer to manage themes via Go modules will appreciate the hugo mod workflow for installation and updates.
• GitHub-savvy writers — Writers who want to display their GitHub contribution graph on their homepage to showcase activity can do so by setting two parameters.
• Academic or technical bloggers — The built-in KaTeX support makes it suitable for posts containing mathematical notation.

What can you do with freshPink?

• Launch a personal blog in minutes — Create a new Hugo site, initialize a module, paste the provided hugo.toml, and run hugo server -D to see your blog locally.
• Customize the look without touching code — Change the accent color, toggle the main image, and show or hide the GitHub chart entirely from the configuration file.
• Add custom navigation pages — Create a folder under content/ (like projects) and register it as a menu item with pageRef pointing to that folder.
• Use math in posts — Write LaTeX formulas and enable math = true so KaTeX renders them.

How does freshPink work?

The setup involves six steps. First, create a new Hugo site with hugo new site myblog. Next, initialize Hugo modules with hugo mod init. Then replace the generated hugo.toml with the provided configuration, which imports the theme as a module. After running hugo mod tidy, you create your first post with hugo new posts/hello.md and start the local server with hugo server -D. Updates are handled by running hugo mod tidy and hugo mod get -u.

FAQ

Is freshPink free?

Yes, freshPink is an open-source theme hosted on GitHub. The repository shows 24 stars and is available under the GitHub repository of user elecbrandy.

What do I need to run freshPink?

You need Hugo extended edition, version 0.116.0 or newer (the documentation mentions v0.110+ extended). The theme is installed via Hugo Modules, so you also need the hugo command-line tool.

How do I update the theme?

Run hugo mod tidy and then hugo mod get -u from the root of your Hugo project. These commands fetch the latest version from the theme's repository.

Can I add a new page to the navigation?

Yes, create a folder in content/ (for example content/projects), add an _index.md file, then add a [[menus.main]] entry to hugo.toml with the matching pageRef and a weight to control its position.