hexo-theme-chan

hexo-theme-chan is a minimalist, grayscale-styled theme for the Hexo static site generator, designed for bloggers who want a simple, elegant presentation of photos and articles.

What is hexo-theme-chan?

hexo-theme-chan is a free, open-source theme for the Hexo static site generator, created by the developer denjones. It takes a standard Hexo site — markdown posts plus front matter — and renders it as a responsive HTML site with a distinctive monochrome desktop view. The theme's name is the Chinese character 'Chan' (Zen), reflecting its "less is more" philosophy.

Key Features

• Grayscale desktop style — A monochrome filter is applied to photos and articles in desktop view; it can be disabled in the theme's _config.yml file.
• Responsive design — The layout adapts from desktop to mobile screens, with a mobile screenshot included in the repository.
• PhotoSwipe gallery — The lightbox uses the actively maintained PhotoSwipe library instead of the abandoned FancyBox, while retaining compatibility with the old FancyBox tag so existing posts keep working.
• Inline gallery photos — Posts with a photos list in front matter render as an inline gallery that opens in PhotoSwipe.
• Photo captions and dimensions — A photoInfos front matter property lets you attach a caption, width, and height to each photo in a gallery, in the same order as the photos list.
• Creative Commons 4.0 support — Setting a Creative Commons front matter field shows a license hint after each post.
• Comment and sharing integrations — Built-in support for Duoshuo, Disqus, and Jiathis comments/sharing widgets.
• Three languages — The interface ships in English, Simplified Chinese (zh-CN), and Traditional Chinese (zh-TW), selectable via the site configuration.

Who is it for?

• Minimalist bloggers — Writers who want a clean, distraction-free layout for articles on a Hexo site.
• Photographers and visual artists — Users who publish photo galleries, with captions and dimensions, inside a modern lightbox.
• Chinese-speaking bloggers — Users who need Simplified or Traditional Chinese UI translations.
• Creative Commons advocates — Bloggers who want license attribution hints automatically shown on posts.

What can you do with it?

• Photography bloggers: Add photos and photoInfos front matter to create a captioned, dimension-aware gallery that opens in PhotoSwipe.
• Existing FancyBox users: Keep old fancybox tags untouched; the theme reroutes them to the PhotoSwipe lightbox.
• Bilingual writers: Set the site language to en, zh-CN, or zh-TW for a fully localized interface.
• Portfolio owners: Use the grayscale style to present a cohesive monochrome visual identity.

How does it work?

Clone the repository into the themes directory of a Hexo site, then set the theme field to chan in the site _config.yml. After running hexo clean and hexo deploy, the theme takes over rendering. The theme's own _config.yml documents all customization options, including the grayscale toggle, sidebar link, and language.

FAQ

Does the theme still work with FancyBox?

Yes. The theme keeps the FancyBox tag usable but internally uses PhotoSwipe, so posts written with fancybox tags will display through the PhotoSwipe lightbox without any modification.

Which languages does the theme support?

The theme includes English, Simplified Chinese (zh-CN), and Traditional Chinese (zh-TW). Because of a Hexo language-selection bug, you should set an exact language in the site config rather than leaving it blank.

What browsers are supported?

Only the latest browsers are supported. Older browsers might work, but the theme has not been tested on them.