Mikosch

Mikosch is a warm, editorial Hugo theme for building personal portfolios, studio sites, and story-driven blogs with bold serif headlines, soft gradients, and spacious cards.

What is Mikosch?

Mikosch is a free, open-source theme for the Hugo static site generator, released under the MIT license. It takes content written in Markdown and renders it into a polished, standalone website with a distinctive editorial aesthetic. The theme requires Hugo version 0.80 or later, with the extended release recommended, and is installed into the themes directory of a Hugo project. The repository also includes a complete example site under the exampleSite folder.

Key Features

• Bold serif editorial design — Uses bold serif headlines, soft gradient accents, and a spacious card layout to create a warm, magazine-like reading experience.
• Built for portfolios and blogs — The layout is designed around personal portfolios, studio sites, and story-driven blogs, balancing visual content with long-form text.
• Only Hugo required — The theme needs no extra tools; just Hugo 0.80+ (extended recommended) and your content files.
• Quick integration — Add the theme as a git submodule, set theme = "mikosch" in site configuration, and launch a local server with hugo server -D.
• Example site included — The repository contains a demo site in the exampleSite folder, runnable with hugo server -D --source exampleSite --themesDir ...
• MIT license — Free for personal and commercial use, with the source available on GitHub.

Who should use Mikosch?

• Creative professionals who want a distinctive, editorial-style portfolio website to present projects and visual work.
• Studios and small teams looking for a warm, polished Hugo theme to build a company site without a site builder.
• Story-driven bloggers who publish articles and photo essays and want a serif layout that emphasizes reading comfort.

What can you do with Mikosch?

• Launch a personal portfolio: Present your projects in a spacious card grid with bold headlines that give the site a magazine feel.
• Set up a studio website: Publish a studio overview, contact information, and selected highlights with a consistent editorial style.
• Start a story-driven blog: Write long-form posts in a clean serif layout with soft gradient accents that keep readers engaged.

How does Mikosch work?

Mikosch follows the standard Hugo workflow. After placing the theme in the themes directory and setting it as active in config, Hugo reads your Markdown content and renders static HTML. For development, run hugo server -D; for production, run hugo to generate the site into the public folder.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mikosch free?

Yes. Mikosch is open source and released under the MIT license, so you can use it at no cost in personal and commercial projects.

What version of Hugo does Mikosch require?

Mikosch requires Hugo 0.80 or later. The extended edition is recommended. Run hugo server -D from your site root to start a local preview.

How do I install Mikosch?

Add the theme as a git submodule in the themes directory, then set theme = "mikosch" in your site configuration. After that, launch Hugo with hugo server -D.

Can I preview the example site?

Yes. From the theme root, run hugo server -D --source exampleSite --themesDir .. and open the local URL it prints to view the demo.