Joon is a Jekyll theme that ports the minimalist Roon design originally built for Ghost, giving static-site users a clean, typography-focused blog layout. It runs on Jekyll, takes standard Markdown or HTML posts, and renders them into a single-author blog with a simple, reading-first interface. The theme is maintained on GitHub by vormwald and released under the MIT license, with the original Roon design credited to Sam Soffes and the Ghost Foundation.
What is Joon?
Joon is a Jekyll theme adapted from the Roon theme for Ghost, designed to turn Jekyll site content into a minimalist blog. It takes your posts and pages written in Markdown or HTML and outputs a static site with a clean, content-focused layout. The theme is open source under the MIT license and is hosted on GitHub, with a live demo available at vormwald.github.io/joon.
Key Features
- Roon design port — Joon adapts the well-known Roon theme from Ghost to Jekyll, preserving its minimal, text-first aesthetic.
- Two font options — a serif and a sans-serif typeface (the default), switched by adding
serifto theclassof thebodyelement in the layout file. - Custom accent color — links and the top border use an accent color that you can change by editing two values at the very top of
assets/css/screen.css. - Live demo — a working example is hosted on GitHub Pages, so you can preview the theme before installing.
- MIT license — free to use, modify, and redistribute, with no restrictions beyond attribution to the original creators.
- Single-author blog focus — the layout is structured around a personal journal or essay site, with a straightforward post page and navigation.
Who is it for?
- Jekyll bloggers — writers who want a clean, minimalist theme without heavy JavaScript or complex design, so their content stays the focus.
- Ghost users migrating — anyone familiar with the Roon theme on Ghost who wants the same look and feel on a Jekyll-powered static site.
- Customizing developers — those comfortable editing Liquid templates and CSS can quickly adjust the font and accent color to match their brand.
What can you do with Joon?
- Personal bloggers: launch a personal journal or essay site on Jekyll with a clean, reading-focused layout that loads fast.
- Designers: experiment with serif versus sans-serif typography by simply toggling a body class in the HTML.
- Open-source contributors: fork the repository, adjust the accent color or layout structure, and share your changes under the permissive MIT license.
