Saigon

Saigon is a Jekyll blog theme that arranges posts in a masonry grid, a tile-based layout where cards of varying heights fill the page without gaps. It is based on a masonry theme developed by Pasindu De Silva, authored by Arunoda, and released under the MIT License.

What is Saigon?

Saigon is a Jekyll theme for building blogs with a masonry-style post grid. It takes standard Jekyll Markdown posts and outputs a static HTML site where each post becomes a card whose height adjusts to content length. The theme is based on a masonry Jekyll theme developed by Pasindu De Silva, and the current version is authored by Arunoda, with a live demo hosted at hoffli.github.io/saigon-jekyll-theme/. The original demo of the base theme lives at pasindud.github.io.

Key Features

• Masonry grid layout — posts are arranged in a vertically stacked grid that adapts to each card's content height, giving a magazine-style browsing experience.
• Jekyll native — uses the standard Jekyll directory structure (e.g., _posts, _layouts, assets) and Liquid templating, so it can be hosted on GitHub Pages or any static host.
• clrs.cc color palette — the theme's colors are drawn from http://clrs.cc, a popular set of flat UI colors, making the visual style consistent and easy to swap.
• MIT License — the theme is freely available to use, modify, and redistribute, including in commercial projects.
• Descended from a functional theme — it is built on a masonry theme by Pasindu De Silva, providing a proven starting point; the original demo is at pasindud.github.io.
• Live reference site — a working demo is available at hoffli.github.io/saigon-jekyll-theme/, so you can see the layout in action before installing.

Who is it for?

• Bloggers who want a non-linear, visual post grid for their personal sites, especially those posting images and varying-length content.
• Jekyll users looking for a lightweight theme with a distinctive layout, with the option to recolor via the clrs.cc palette.
• Theme developers who can study the codebase to learn how masonry effects are implemented in Jekyll, or fork it for custom projects.

What can you do with Saigon?

• Personal bloggers: publish a Jekyll blog with a masonry homepage that showcases each post as a card, with styling based on the clrs.cc palette.
• Portfolio builders: adapt the theme to display project or artwork cards by adding posts with images and short descriptions.
• Jekyll learners: explore the theme's source to see how a masonry layout is achieved with CSS columns and Jekyll's loop tags.

How does Saigon work?

As a standard Jekyll theme, Saigon processes Markdown files placed in the _posts directory, applying the layout templates and generating static HTML. To use it, clone the repository, add your posts, and run jekyll build or push to a GitHub Pages repository.

Pricing

Saigon is free and open source under the MIT License. There are no paid tiers or premium features.

FAQ

Is Saigon free to use?

Yes, Saigon is released under the MIT License, so it is free to use, modify, and distribute, even for commercial purposes.

Who created Saigon?

The theme is authored by Arunoda, and it is based on a masonry theme by Pasindu De Silva. The original demo of the base theme is available at pasindud.github.io.

Does Saigon work with GitHub Pages?

Because it is a standard Jekyll theme, it can be deployed on GitHub Pages by placing the theme files in a repository and enabling Pages, or by using the demo as a reference.

What colors does Saigon use?

Saigon uses the color palette from http://clrs.cc, a flat UI color scheme with named colors like navy, blue, aqua, and fuchsia.