Jekyll is a popular static site generator with blog orientated features, allowing people to create blogs without the need to use backend tools. When I discovered Jekyll version 3.2 would be introducing themes I took the initiative to learn about creating Ruby Gems and create my own Jekyll theme gem.
Ever since I tinkered with WordPress sites I’ve had an interest in theme design and development. Being able to provide a system to a blank slate is a really intriguing concept to me. I approached Jekyll theme development with the same drive.While the Jekyll theme community had grown, the techniques and standards hadn’t matured from just forking or copying someone else’s codebase. By designing and developing my theme as a Ruby Gem I could explore possible development standards, provide feedback to the Jekyll community and pave the way for other theme developers.
The point of this theme wasn’t to break the mould or reinvent the wheel. Garth was designed to be what it needed to be, a blog. Jekyll is great for generating blogs so Garth should be great at being a blog.
While Garth was built to be used as a Ruby Gem I didn’t want to exclude other people from using it if they didn’t have access to the right resources. Garth can be used as a remote theme and as a fork on GitHub Pages.
Garth has been available on RubyGems.org since June 2016 and has been downloaded over 20,000 times. It has continued to be one of the most popular independent open source Jekyll themes. I’m very proud of creating something that the people can use to share their thoughts, ideas and anything else on their own blog.