H2O-ac is a Jekyll blog theme for academic researchers and operations developers, forked from the H2O theme and distributed as a Ruby gem (jekyll-theme-h2o-ac).
What is H2O-ac?
H2O-ac is a Jekyll blog theme designed for academic researchers and operations/maintenance developers. It is based on the H2O theme by kaeyleo and adds a series of academic-oriented features such as an academic home page, archive page, and system logs page. The theme runs on Jekyll 4.2.1 and Ruby 3.1.0, and is distributed as a Ruby gem under the MIT license. It supports internationalization in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese. A live demo is hosted at https://h2o-ac.pages.dev/, and usage documentation is available at https://h2o-ac-doc.lisz.me.
Key Features
- Academic home page — A specialized home page layout that presents publications and research work, distinct from the default H2O blog layout.
- Archive and system logs pages — Built-in page types for organizing past posts and operational logs, available out of the box.
- Dark mode switch — Readers can toggle between light and dark themes directly from the interface.
- Waline comments — Integration with the Waline comment system, a backend-powered comment solution.
- PWA support — The theme is installable as a progressive web app, offering offline access and a mobile-friendly experience.
- Internationalization — UI strings are localized in Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese.
- Article enhancements — Includes word count, reading time estimation, table of contents, image enlargement, optimized code highlighting, callout boxes, top-post pinning, and explicit copyright statements per article.
- Optimized build workflow — Ships with a GitHub Actions workflow (jekyll.yml) for automatic static site building and deployment.
Who is it for?
- Academic researchers — Present publications and research notes on a personal academic homepage with a clean bibliography-like layout.
- Operations and maintenance developers — Maintain a system log page and archive documentation of incidents, deployments, and procedures.
- Technical bloggers — Use the built-in word count, reading time, and table of contents to create long-form, reader-friendly posts, with dark mode and PWA for a better reading experience.
- Multilingual writers — Publish content in four languages with a localized interface, switching between simplified/traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese.
What can you do with H2O-ac?
- Set up an academic personal site: Create a homepage that highlights your research profile, with links to publications and an archive of your posts.
- Maintain an operations log: Use the system logs page to timestamp and organize deployment records, incident reports, and runbooks.
- Add comments to posts: Integrate Waline to let readers comment on articles, supporting both anonymous and authenticated discussions.
- Localize your content: Switch the UI language to match your audience among four languages, and the theme will adapt available UI text.
How does H2O-ac work?
The theme is installed as a Ruby gem named jekyll-theme-h2o-ac. After adding it to your Gemfile and updating your site's config file to set theme: jekyll-theme-h2o-ac, you run bundle exec jekyll serve for local development or bundle exec jekyll build to generate static HTML files. A GitHub Actions workflow is provided to automate building and deployment on push.
Pricing
H2O-ac is free and open source. It is licensed under the MIT license, so you can use, modify, and distribute it freely.
Alternatives
- H2O — The original theme this project forks; it lacks the academic home page, archive page, system logs page, and internationalization features listed above.
FAQ
Is H2O-ac free?
Yes, H2O-ac is free to use. It is released under the MIT license, so you can use it for personal or commercial projects without paying a fee.
Does H2O-ac support comments?
Yes, H2O-ac integrates the Waline comment system. You need to configure a Waline backend endpoint, and readers can post comments on your articles.
What languages does H2O-ac support?
The theme interface is localized in four languages: Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, English, and Japanese. The switch is available through the theme's settings.
What are the requirements to use H2O-ac?
H2O-ac requires Jekyll 4.2.1 or later and Ruby 3.1.0 or later. It is distributed as a Ruby gem, so you need a Ruby environment to build the site.
Does H2O-ac have a dark mode?
Yes, the theme includes a dark mode switch button that lets readers toggle between light and dark themes on the front end.
