Not Pure Poole

Not Pure Poole is an open-source Jekyll theme for blogs, built on Poole and Pure.css, that bundles SEO, analytics, comments, MathJax, and date/category/tag archives into a single theme.

What is Not Pure Poole?

Not Pure Poole is a Jekyll theme for personal blogs and content sites, maintained by vszhub and available as the Ruby gem not-pure-poole. It takes standard Jekyll posts and pages as input and renders a responsive blog with automatic dark mode, pagination, related posts, and archive pages. The theme combines the Poole base layout with the Pure.css framework and is distributed under the MIT License.

Key Features

• Built-in SEO, feed, and sitemap — integrates Jekyll SEO Tag, Jekyll Feed, and Jekyll Sitemap plugins so your posts get meta tags, RSS/Atom feeds, and an XML sitemap without extra configuration.
• Google Analytics and Disqus support — connect a Google Analytics tracking ID and a Disqus shortname via _config.yml to enable visitor analytics and post comments.
• Automatic dark mode — switches between light and dark palettes based on the visitor's system CSS media query, with no JavaScript required.
• Archive pages by date, category, and tag — configure _data/archive.yml and use the archive-taxonomies or archive-dates layouts to list posts grouped by any of those taxonomies.
• Per-page TOC and MathJax — set toc: true in front matter to show a right-side table of contents, or math: true to enable MathJax LaTeX rendering for that page.
• Customizable theming via CSS variables — modify _sass/_variables.scss and apply a scoped data-theme attribute on the <html> element to define new color schemes, such as the example blue theme.
• Navigation and social links via data files — manage header links in _data/navigation.yml and social icons in _data/social.yml, using Font Awesome icon classes.
• Pygments syntax highlighting and responsive typography — code blocks are highlighted with Pygments, and text sizes are set in rem units for scalable, mobile-friendly readability.

Who is it for?

• Individual bloggers — publish a fast, SEO-friendly blog with comments and archives, and host it for free on GitHub Pages using jekyll-remote-theme.
• Technical writers and developers — use MathJax for math-heavy documentation, embed GitHub gists via Jekyll Gist, and rely on Pygments highlighting for code tutorials.
• Jekyll theme developers — explore the theme's development workflow (bundle install, then bundle exec jekyll serve) and customize the CSS variable system to build derivative themes.

What can you do with Not Pure Poole?

• Set up a blog quickly — add the not-pure-poole gem to your Gemfile and list it under plugins in _config.yml; the theme's layouts and includes handle the rest.
• Deploy on GitHub Pages — use jekyll-remote-theme with remote_theme: vszhub/not-pure-poole to import the master branch without building the gem locally.
• Create custom color schemes — define a new theme by setting CSS variables under a data attribute, then apply it by adding that attribute to the <html> element.
• Publish archive pages — create an archive-taxonomies layout page for categories or tags, or an archive-dates layout page for a chronological listing, and link them from _data/archive.yml.

How does Not Pure Poole work?

After installation, the theme's _layouts, _includes, _sass, and assets directories provide the full site structure. You write posts and pages in Markdown with optional front-matter flags like toc: true and math: true. During development, run bundle install and bundle exec jekyll serve to preview the site at http://localhost:4000; the site regenerates automatically on file changes.

FAQ

Is Not Pure Poole free?

Yes, Not Pure Poole is open source under the MIT License, so it is free to use, modify, and distribute, including for commercial projects.

How do I install Not Pure Poole?

Add gem 'not-pure-poole' to your Gemfile and add not-pure-poole to the plugins list in _config.yml. Alternatively, for GitHub Pages, add jekyll-remote-theme and set remote_theme: vszhub/not-pure-poole.

How do I enable a table of contents?

Add toc: true to the front matter of the page. Not Pure Poole uses the jekyll-toc plugin to generate a table of contents that appears on the right side of the page.

How do I enable MathJax?

Set math: true in the front matter of the specific page or post where you want LaTeX math rendering. MathJax will then process the mathematical expressions in that content.

Does Not Pure Poole support comments?

Yes, it supports Disqus. You need to set your Disqus shortname in _config.yml, and comment threads will appear on posts.