Ink-Free is a minimal, privacy-focused Hugo blog and personal website theme forked from hugo-ink, designed to run with no external CDN dependencies. It turns Markdown content into a fast static site with features like a floating table of contents, word counts, and Mermaid diagram support.
What is Ink-Free?
Ink-Free is a Hugo theme for blogs and personal websites, forked from hugo-ink by knadh and originally from the Ezhil theme. It takes standard Hugo content files written in Markdown and renders them into a static HTML site. The theme requires Hugo version 0.87.0 or newer and is licensed under the MIT license. The theme was created and is maintained by chollinger93 (Christian Hollinger) as a local, self-contained alternative to hugo-ink.
Key Features
- Privacy by default — Removes all Google font CDN references and analytics code; supports self-hosted Umami analytics instead.
- Flexible Table of Contents — Adds a TOC to every post that can be static at the top, floating on the side, both, or truncated, controlled by a theme variable.
- Reading time and word count — The post overview shows word count, tags, and approximate read time.
- Inline image shortcode — Use the
inlineimgshortcode to render images like SVGs inline, and support for the![](image title="title")syntax for image titles. - Mermaid diagram support — Render mermaid diagrams in Markdown; loads the library via CDN by default but the CDN URL is configurable via
mermaidCDN. - Edit on GitHub button — Adds a link to let readers edit a post's source file on GitHub.
- Random footer messages — Shows a randomized, occasionally humorous message at the end of each post.
- Standard blog features — Syntax highlighting, RSS feeds, custom CSS/JS, multilingual month names, and a back button on all posts.
Who is it for?
- Privacy-conscious bloggers who want a clean personal site without third-party CDNs or trackers.
- Hugo users who need a minimal but feature-rich theme that they can customize and extend (the source is openly forked and MIT-licensed).
- Technical writers who want to embed diagrams and code snippets, using Mermaid and syntax highlighting in their posts.
What can you do with Ink-Free?
- Indie developers and researchers: publish a personal blog with a static site generator, including per-post tables of contents, reading time, and tag listings.
- Privacy advocates: replace Google-font-dependent themes with a CDN-free experience and add self-hosted Umami analytics to understand readership without tracking users.
- Open-source maintainers: fork this theme and adapt it for a project documentation site, taking advantage of the custom TOC and GitHub edit links.
How does Ink-Free work?
Installation follows the standard Hugo theme workflow: cd themes && git submodule add https://github.com/chollinger93/ink-free. A runnable example site is included in the exampleSite directory, started with hugo serve --themesDir ../... Content types are set via front matter, and page types like page can be excluded from recent-post listings through the mainSections site parameter.
FAQ
Does Ink-Free require a CDN?
No. By default Ink-Free removes all Google Font CDN references and analytics code. The theme does load Mermaid.js via a CDN unless you change the mermaidCDN parameter, and the optional Feather icon CDN can be replaced with a static copy.
How do I install Ink-Free?
Add the theme as a git submodule: git submodule add https://github.com/chollinger93/ink-free themes/ink-free, then set theme = "ink-free" in your site configuration. Hugo 0.87.0 or newer is required.
Does Ink-Free include analytics?
No built-in analytics. The theme supports self-hosted Umami analytics; you can add your Umami script via the theme's custom JS or configuration.
Can I use my own month names in another language?
Yes. Ink-Free reads month names from a month.yaml file in your Hugo site's data directory, letting you localize the date display even though Hugo's .Date function doesn't support multilingual months natively.
Is Ink-Free free?
Yes, the theme is open source and released under the MIT license.
