Terminimal is a minimal, retro-styled theme for the Zola static site generator, built to produce fast, JavaScript-free personal blogs and portfolios. It is a fork (not a port) of the "Terminal" Hugo theme by Radosław Kozieł, maintained by Paweł Romanowski (pawroman), and tested with Zola v0.19.2. The theme takes Markdown content and Zola config.toml as input and outputs fully static HTML with no client-side JavaScript. It is released under the MIT License.
What is Terminimal?
Terminimal is a minimal, retro-styled theme for the Zola static site generator, built to produce fast, JavaScript-free personal blogs and portfolios. It is a fork (not a port) of the "Terminal" Hugo theme by Radosław Kozieł, maintained by Paweł Romanowski (pawroman), and tested with Zola v0.19.2. The theme takes Markdown content and Zola config.toml as input and outputs fully static HTML with no client-side JavaScript. It is released under the MIT License.
Key Features
- Zero JavaScript — the theme contains no JavaScript whatsoever; all styling is processed by Zola's built-in Sass compiler at build time.
- Configurable colors — accent and background colors can be chosen from blue, green, orange, pink, and red, with
-lightand-autovariants; the default is blue. - Custom shortcodes —
imageandfigureshortcodes display responsive images with optional alt text, alignment, captions (Markdown-capable), and inline styles. - Full pagination — configurable pagination for both the post list and individual post navigation, with a customizable prompt like "Read more".
- Optional tags — enabling a tags taxonomy in config.toml creates a
/tagspage and displays tags in the archive section. - Hack font by default — uses the Hack typeface with a mixed subset for small transfer sizes;
use_full_hack_font = trueenables full Unicode support. - No external dependencies — all static assets are served from the theme itself; no Google CDN, no social media links, and no external URLs.
- Responsive and hackable — fully responsive layout with named template blocks, allowing easy override of headers, meta tags, and other sections.
Who is it for?
- Personal bloggers — who want a fast, retro-looking blog with no JavaScript and a small page weight.
- Zola developers — who want a theme they can fork and customize, with clear template blocks and documented configuration options.
- Technical writers — who need Markdown publishing with syntax highlighting (using Zola's built-in highlighter, since Prism.js is not supported).
- Portfolio owners — who need a simple site with an optional menu, custom logo, and image shortcodes to showcase projects.
What can you do with Terminimal?
- Bloggers: publish posts with tags, pagination, and OpenGraph images for social sharing; set
show_only_descriptionto display only a description on the homepage. - Writers: use the
figureshortcode to add captioned images with alignment and styling, and configure the footer copyright withauthoror custom HTML. - Portfolio owners: set a custom logo text and link, add a menu with items that can open in new tabs, and use the
imageshortcode to place screenshots. - Minimalists: serve a site with a reduced transfer payload thanks to the Hack font subset, and rely on Zola's Sass compilation for all styling.
How does Terminimal work?
Install the theme by cloning it into themes/terminimal or adding it as a git submodule. Then set theme = "terminimal" and compile_sass = true in your Zola config.toml. After that, configure options under the [extra] section, such as accent_color, background_color, logo_text, menu_items, page_titles, and favicon. The theme builds with Zola's static site generator, producing plain HTML output.
Pros and cons
- Pros: no JavaScript, fast static pages, free MIT license, easy color customization, no external CDN dependencies, fully responsive.
- Cons: no internationalization/translation support; the default Hack font subset may not cover all Unicode characters (full set can be enabled); Prism.js syntax highlighting is not supported, so users rely on Zola's built-in highlighting.
Pricing
Terminimal is free and open source. It is released under the MIT License, and the license for the bundled Hack font is included in the repository as LICENSE-Hack.md.
FAQ
Is Terminimal free?
Yes, Terminimal is completely free and open source under the MIT License. You can use it for personal or commercial projects without paying anything.
Does Terminimal use JavaScript?
No. The theme was designed with absolutely no JavaScript. It relies entirely on Zola's Sass pre-processor for styling and produces static HTML.
How do I install Terminimal?
Clone the repository into themes/terminimal inside your Zola site, or add it as a git submodule. Then set theme = "terminimal" and compile_sass = true in your config.toml.
Does Terminimal support tags?
Yes, you can enable tags by adding a tags taxonomy in your Zola config. This creates a /tags page and shows tags in the archive, but you must add a menu link to the tags page manually.
Which Zola version does Terminimal require?
The theme is tested with Zola v0.19.2. Earlier versions might not work because of breaking changes across Zola releases, so using a recent version is recommended.
