Hugo Frais

Hugo Frais is a fresh and French single-column theme for the Hugo static site generator, authored by Olivier Fredon under the pseudonym the2ne.

What is Hugo Frais?

Hugo Frais is a minimal single-column blog theme that turns a Hugo site into a clean, text-first layout. It takes a Hugo site with a config.toml file and content files, and outputs a static website with a single column of articles, an optional set of social menu icons, and Twitter Card meta tags. The theme runs on Hugo (gohugo.io) and is distributed as a free, MIT-licensed open source project.

Key Features

• Single-column layout — A "fresh and french" design that displays articles in one vertical column, ideal for text-focused blogs.
• Simple installation — Clone the repository into your Hugo site's themes directory with git clone https://github.com/the2ne/hugo-frais, then set theme = "hugo-frais" in config.toml.
• Social profile configuration — Define author, pseudo, twitter, github, and linkedin under the [params] block of config.toml to activate the corresponding menu items.
• Twitter Card support — Setting the twitter parameter automatically generates Twitter Card meta tags in the HTML head.
• Customizable index headline — Replace the default "Yay!" homepage headline by adding an indexHeadline parameter to [params].
• MIT license — Released under the MIT license, so the theme can be freely used, modified, and redistributed.
• Pure Hugo template — Built with Hugo's templating system and TOML configuration; no JavaScript framework or build step is required.

Who is it for?

• Personal bloggers — A clean, single-column canvas for writing posts without sidebars, widgets, or carousels.
• French-speaking site owners — The "fresh and french" styling fits French-language personal pages and journals.
• Hugo beginners — A small, hackable theme with a short configuration file that is easy to read and adapt.
• Minimalist web users — Anyone who prefers one column, a plain headline, and links to social profiles over a feature-heavy layout.

What can you do with Hugo Frais?

• Publish a text-focused personal blog — Write posts in Hugo's content folder and the theme renders them in a straightforward single-column list.
• Create a French-language online journal — Set the index headline and social params in config.toml to localize the home page and add author links.
• Learn Hugo theming — Since the theme has few templates and no external dependencies, you can study how Hugo layouts, partials, and config parameters interact.

How does Hugo Frais work?

1. Put the theme folder into themes/ of a Hugo site.
2. Set theme = "hugo-frais" in config.toml.
3. Add optional [params] values like author, pseudo, twitter, github, linkedin, and indexHeadline.
4. Build the site with the Hugo command line to generate static HTML files.

FAQ

Is Hugo Frais free?

Yes. The theme is released under the MIT license, so it is free to use, modify, and distribute, including in commercial projects.

How do I install Hugo Frais?

Clone the repository into the themes directory of your Hugo project with git clone https://github.com/the2ne/hugo-frais, then update config.toml to set theme = "hugo-frais".

How do I add social links to my site?

Add the twitter, github, linkedin, and pseudo parameters to the [params] section of config.toml. Each configured parameter becomes a menu item in the theme's navigation.

Does Hugo Frais support Twitter Cards?

Yes. When the twitter parameter is set, the theme emits Twitter Card meta tags in the HTML output, allowing link previews on X (formerly Twitter).

Can I change the homepage headline?

Yes. Set the indexHeadline parameter in [params] to replace the default "Yay!" text with your own headline for the index page.