Origin - A personal blog theme. Styled in TailwindCSS

[archiethedev]

Hey everyone!

I’m excited to share Origin, a personal blog theme for Ghost! Here’s the demo.

I’m a big fan of simple blogs. No fancy JS. Just a list of great posts. However, most of the time there is a trade-off between simplicity (in design) and a good writing experience.

When creating Origin, I wanted to make sure that you could benefit from all the bells and whistles in Ghost’s editor but still portray a very simple blog.

By default, the theme supports:

• Ghost V4

• System dark/light mode

• Rich embedding for all media on posts to match Ghost’s editor

• Newsletter Subcription box

Origin isn’t for monetising your audience (although, you could add it). It’s just a place for you to log your thoughts and share them with others.

In addition, Origin uses TailwindCSS for all its styling. This makes it a great starter theme for anyone who likes to use Tailwind and wants to make some themes in the future!

Interested in performance? Below is the latest lighthouse score recorded using the theme.

The theme costs $30 via Gumroad. Once you purchase the theme, you will get any updates directly in your inbox.

I’m an indie maker so all the proceeds will fund my next projects which I talk about on my blog.

All the information about the theme including installation, docs and support can be found here as well as the demo.

Thanks!

[scottie]

Well done! The theme looks very clean and simple, and is definitely super fast.

It is not my kind of theme but I absolutely appreciate the work you put into crafting a beautiful reading experience coupled with almost no wait for content to load

Best of luck with the sales!

[archiethedev]

Thanks Scottie, really appreciate!

[sherold]

I was looking for a theme that is simple and clean like my world.hey.com-thingy, but just for Ghost. Thank you, I really love it!

[archiethedev]

Hey

Small minor update for Origin. It now supports Ghost navigation links in the footer as well as separate pages

There is also now more spacing so the footer sticks to the bottom across the whole theme.

Thanks!

[sherold]

Nice! The only thing keeping me from using it at the moment is really just my empty wallet. Currently, I’m broke af. And to use custom themes, I would have to upgrade my Pro subscription. But I will definitely give it a shot.

[archiethedev]

Thank you to all those who have tried out the theme so far, I hope you are enjoying it!

I made a small change to the main site today. The theme page now shows testimonials from other users of the theme

If you would like to leave a shoutout, I’d really appreciate it! To do so, just click on this link.

[archiethedev]

Hey! Thought I’d share some changes I’ve recently added to Origin.

It’s probably worth mentioning that to make the most of the updates you need to be on at least Ghost 4.20 when the team introduced custom settings for themes.

Ghost Custom Settings

Common configurations of the theme are now editable inside Ghost Admin so that you don’t have to play with any code snippets. The customisations include:

• Color scheme (light, dark and system - system is default).
• Toggle to show navigation, promo link, header rotation, social links and reading time on posts
• Change the type of date shown on a post (Created at or Updated at - Created at is default)
• Customise text for newsletter CTA on post page

Looking forward to adding some more settings in the future.

Improved dark mode

I thought the previous dark mode had too much contrast so I’ve gone for something slightly more readable using a blue tint.

Post update

A small change but the post page (as seen above) has changed slightly with a centred header and the addition of reading time.

In the previous design I thought the use of the accent colour for the date attracted too much attention to itself and wasn’t that readable. I’ve also always like reading time on posts and thought it would be a shame to not use it.

Technical aspects

I’m now using Tailwindv3.0 alongside the updated @tailwind/typography plugin. This has tidied up the rendering of post data especially with dark mode and improved the development speed.

Other

Thought I’d just mention that I’m going to be releasing some more themes in the next few months alongside doing more contract work in the Ghost ecosystem. So, if you’re in need of a custom theme, integration or customisation feel free to reach out! I’m now on the Ghost Experts directory which is the easiest place to contact me with work

Thanks for reading!