RSimple is a Hugo blog theme that applies the gruvbox color scheme to produce a clean, minimal layout for personal blogs and documentation sites.
What is RSimple?
RSimple is an open-source theme for the Hugo static site generator, created by Rijo Thomas. It uses the gruvbox colorscheme designed by Pavel Pertsev to give blog content a warm, retro-contrast look. The theme takes a standard Hugo site structure as input and outputs a static blog with a single-column reading layout. It is distributed under the MIT license, so it can be freely reused and modified.
Key Features
- Gruvbox color scheme — The theme is built around the popular gruvbox palette, which provides warm, high-contrast colors for text and background.
- Hugo-based — Works as a standard Hugo theme; you install it by cloning the repository into the themes folder and setting the theme option in config.toml.
- Example site included — The exampleSite directory contains a sample config.toml and demo content, so you can see how the theme is configured before building your own site.
- Live demo on Netlify — A hosted demo at https://rsimple-theme.netlify.app/ shows the theme in action.
- MIT licensed — The theme is free to use, modify, and redistribute, with no restrictions beyond preserving the license file.
- Minimal design — The layout is intentionally simple and clean, focusing on readability for long-form blog posts.
Who is RSimple for?
- Bloggers using Hugo — People who want a straightforward, attractive theme for a personal blog without heavy design overhead.
- Developers who like gruvbox — Users who already use the gruvbox color scheme in their editors and want their website to match their terminal aesthetic.
- Hugo beginners — The included example configuration and content make it easy to get a first Hugo site running quickly.
What can you do with RSimple?
- Personal blog: Set up a personal blog with a clean layout and gruvbox color palette by cloning the theme and copying the example config.
- Documentation site: Use the exampleSite content structure to build a small documentation hub, since the theme supports standard Hugo content types.
- Customization practice: Because it is MIT licensed and minimal, it is a good base for learning how to customize Hugo themes.
How does RSimple work?
Installation follows the typical Hugo theme workflow: create a themes directory, clone the repository from GitHub, and set the theme option to rsimple in config.toml. The exampleSite folder provides a ready-to-use config file and demo content that you can copy to your site root to see the theme in action immediately.
