Jekyll Yōuyǎ theme

Yōuyǎ is an elegant profile theme for Jekyll, purpose-built to turn a GitHub Pages or Jekyll static site into a personal portfolio page with sections for code, papers, projects, reading, writing, photography, and about.

What is the Jekyll Yōuyǎ theme?

Yōuyǎ is a Jekyll portfolio theme (the word means "elegant" in Chinese) maintained by smrfeld on GitHub. It takes a standard Jekyll site and, through _config.yml settings plus a set of reusable Liquid includes in the _include directory, outputs a profile site with custom navigation menus, random background images, social links, and multiple content sections. A live demo is available at https://smrfeld.github.io/jekyll-theme-youya.

You install it by adding the gem youya from the smrfeld/jekyll-theme-youya repository to your Gemfile, then setting theme: youya in _config.yml. The theme supports GitHub Pages workflows and is tested locally with bundle exec jekyll serve from the test directory.

What makes the Yōuyǎ theme stand out?

• Profile sections — The homepage includes dedicated blocks for code with GitHub links, academic papers with arXiv links and descriptions, projects with GitHub and arXiv links, a reading book list, writing/blog entries, photography, and an About section.
• Random background images — Backgrounds are loaded from a folder under assets/img; set background_img_folder and no_background_images in _config.yml and the theme serves a random image from numbered JPEG files like 0000.jpeg.
• Dual logo and favicon support — Both black and white logo images are configured with logo_black and logo_white, and a 32x32 pixel favicon.png is placed in the assets folder.
• Custom navigation menu — The menu config accepts title, local_url, or remote_url entries, so links can point inside the site or to external pages.
• Social links — Built-in fields for github_url, linkedin_url, and google_scholar_url display icons in the profile.
• Liquid-based layouts — Example layouts live in the _layouts directory, and the theme relies on Liquid tags documented at Shopify's Liquid reference, making it customizable for developers.

Who is the Yōuyǎ theme for?

• Academic researchers — Present papers with arXiv links, an About bio, and a reading list in one organized profile.
• Software developers — Showcase GitHub repositories and projects with direct source and preprint links.
• Writers and photographers — Combine a writing/blog section with a photography gallery and custom pages through the menu.

How do you install Yōuyǎ?

Add gem "youya", github: "smrfeld/jekyll-theme-youya", branch: "main" to your Gemfile, run bundle install, and set theme: youya in _config.yml. Then configure the required fields: url, background_img_folder, no_background_images, logo_black, logo_white, favicon, menu, about, about_img, and any social URLs you want to show.

FAQ

Does Yōuyǎ work with GitHub Pages?

Yes. The README includes a release step for GitHub Actions (bundle lock --add-platform x86_64-linux), and the theme is open to use with a standard Jekyll build served from the test folder. The live demo is hosted on GitHub Pages at smrfeld.github.io/jekyll-theme-youya.

What configuration is required?

Every site needs a url, a background image folder, a count of background images, both black and white logo files, a 32x32 favicon, a menu list, and About text plus an About image. Social URLs for GitHub, LinkedIn, and Google Scholar are optional but supported.

Can I add my own pages and layouts?

Yes. The README points to example files in the _layouts directory and the Liquid documentation from Shopify. Because the site is broken into reusable sections in _include, you can create custom layouts and page types that reuse the theme's components.