PaperMod
A fast, clean, responsive theme for the Hugo static site generator.adityatelange/hugo-PaperMod
- Stars
- 14k
- Forks
- 3.4k
- Licence
- MIT
- Language
- HTML
- Last update
- 12 days ago
- Type
- Other
What it is
PaperMod is a theme, a set of templates and styles, for Hugo, a tool that turns text and Markdown files into a website. It gives a blog or portfolio a clean, responsive layout with light and dark modes, search, and built-in SEO metadata. It is aimed at people who want a polished site without writing much front-end code.
- Publish a blog with cover images, tables of contents, and related-post suggestions
- Build a profile or portfolio site using the Profile or Home-Info layout modes
- Add client-side search across posts using Fuse.js
- Run a multi-author site with per-post sharing and social links
Great for
- Bloggers who already use or want to use Hugo
- Personal portfolio sites with a simple, minimal look
- Multilingual sites that need a built-in language selector
- People who want a theme with little or no JavaScript build tooling
Not ideal for
- People who do not want to use Hugo, since this theme only runs inside it
- Sites needing a heavily custom design, as the README centers on its existing layouts and customization options
- Anyone requiring a visual site builder with no command-line use
How to get it
- 1
Clone and build from source
You'll need: Hugo v0.158.0 or later
Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/adityatelange/hugo-PaperMod themes/PaperMod --depth=1 - 2
Run it
- Install Hugo v0.158.0 or later
- Create a new Hugo site with hugo new site <name>
- Clone the theme into the themes folder as shown above
- Set theme = "PaperMod" in your site configuration
- Run hugo server and open the local address it prints
- 3
Get the most out of it
- Follow the wiki's Features page to enable Regular, Home-Info, or Profile layout modes
- Configure social icons and share buttons using the Icons wiki
- Use the Variables wiki to set template options without editing theme files
- Override templates via the Template Overrides guide instead of forking
- Study the exampleSite branch as a working configuration reference
Downloads
Strengths
- Feature-rich, covering search, SEO metadata, dark mode, and multilingual support
- Documented through a wiki with installation, variables, and template override guides
- Built on Hugo's asset pipeline with no webpack or Node.js build step required
Trade-offs
- Depends on Hugo, and the README lists a minimum Hugo version of v0.158.0 or later
- Customizing beyond the provided options means learning Hugo templates and the wiki
- Release v8.0 is listed without binaries, so installation relies on Hugo and the repository
How it compares
| Project | Stars | Type | Level | Updated | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hugo-PaperMod (this) | 14k | Other | intermediate | 12 days ago | Bloggers who already use or want to use Hugo |
| terminal | 105k | App | beginner | 6 days ago | Windows users who work in the command line every day and want tabs and rich text |
| gatsby | 55.9k | Framework | intermediate | 17 days ago | Developers building content-heavy sites such as blogs or documentation |
| fiber | 40.2k | Library | intermediate | 5 days ago | Go developers building REST APIs or web backends |
| simplefolio | 14.2k | Library | beginner | 10 months ago | Developers who want a simple one-page personal website without designing from scratch |
| giscus | 12.2k | App | intermediate | 5 months ago | Developers who run a blog or docs site and want comments without a database |
Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.