Introducing Sumo Theme for Micro.blog
As the developer of Tiny Theme for Micro.blog, I’ve had a unique seat as the platform has grown. As Micro.blog has added features, changed, and matured, so have the many great themes available. The popularity and community acceptance of Tiny Theme has consistently overwhelmed me. It has always been a great theme for people who want high level control over the look, feel, and layout of the site.
Today, I’m excited to introduce a new theme called Sumo. It uses a lot of the codebase of Tiny Theme, supports many of the same features, but is significantly more opinionated than Tiny Theme.
Opinionated?
Using Hugo and Micro.blog, you have the ability to manipulate and mold any theme into what you want. If you have a clear vision of where you want your site to go and the technical chops to get it there, use Tiny Theme.
I designed Tiny Theme with OTHERS in mind. I wanted to make it as flexible and functional as possible. I wanted others to be able to bend it to their liking. And I’ve been amazed at the results.
I designed Sumo Theme with ME in mind. This is a full package theme designed how I’d choose if you paid me and walked away from the computer. But, ya know, it’s free.
It’s Not Customizable?
Well, let’s not go that far. Sumo Theme is built with 3 easy customization possibilities.
- Skinning
- Font Choices
- Microhooks
Skinning allows you to choose your own color scheme. I’m not talking about choosing a main color and an accent color and going home. I mean you can color all kinds of stuff using CSS.
Font Choices include all stacks created by Modern Font Stacks. This mirrors the feature on Tiny Theme.
Microhooks were developed for Tiny Theme and adapted for Sumo Theme. Every Microhook works on BOTH themes.
But Can I Do More?
Of course you can, as with all themes available on Micro.blog. You can even fork it on Github if you’d like. However, this theme is not built with that in mind. The ideal user of Sumo Theme will activate it, color it, perhaps use a microhook or 2, and roll with it.
Are There More Features?
Well, of course there are. We could talk about things like speed, codebase, microhooks, font choices, and skinning for hours, but let’s leave those behind for now. Here’s a good old fashioned list of some of the other features available at launch.
- See images (and other elements) full-width on smaller devices
- Support for Tinylytics
- Support for FontAwesome (no scripts or plugins needed)
- Full suite of Typography options such as multiple blockquote styles, multiple paragraph styles, and page folds
- Full comment system support
- Supports popular plugins by default
- Frequently Updated
- Responsive Developer
- And a lot more!
What If I Need Help?
If you need help, have a problem, or would like to report a bug (this is a 1.0 release after all), you can contact me via Micro.blog or email.
Sumo Theme is launching as version 1.0. More features and tweaks are on the roadmap, including a 1.1 release before the middle of August 2024.
How Much Does it Cost?
It’s free, of course. But you can always feel free to chip in to support development.
I made this incredibly well designed graphic to help choose a new EDC/GADA watch. I’ve narrowed it down to 12. What do you think? (Criteria: 40-42mm, sapphire preferred, automatic preferred. Will wear casual and dress-casual. ★ = would change strap.)
Episode 2: Kobos, Kindles, and Highlights
Today, I talk about my experience with Kindles (Oasis, Paperwhite) and the Kobo Libra 2. I touch on what I’m currently reading and I take a quick look at a highlighting workflow I recently built (episode 3 will dive more into that).
Links
- Kobo eReaders
- Bonhoeffer: Kindle | Kobo
- Hypothesis
- Readwise
- Obsidian
Are there any network/router level options for search privacy? For example, is there a way to force google to its &udm=14 self? Or even redirect queries from one search engine to another (like Google → DuckDuckGo)? Possibly something better I’m not even considering?
Update: I haven't been able to find a solution to this. It's possible to do using Google Chrome (and a few other browsers) on individual devices. If you use Safari (like I do), you'll need to use the StopTheMadness Pro app and follow these directions. Even if you don't want that specific feature, I highly recommend StopTheMadness Pro. I've been using it since the day it launched.
I’m aiming for this week to release Sumo Theme for Micro.blog. It’ll support a lot of what Tiny Theme supports (same Microhooks, for example). But the real feature is easy & detailed “skinning”. You can see my site using the default color scheme. @lucas has been playing around with it too: 1, 2, 3.
I’m developing a new Micro.blog theme called Sumo (I also make Tiny Theme). If you’re the experimental type and would like to help beta test it on your site, let me know. You can see Sumo in action on my personal site. Testing will require you to install it via a github repo and manually update.
I’ve used Drafts for years for mostly short form stuff, but today I wrote a full 2,500 word lecture using it. And it was…nice!
I’ve decided to go another direction. Instead of bumping Tiny Theme to v3, I’m going to release an entirely new theme called Sumo next week.
There are still a few bugs and design tweaks to work out, but you can see it in its rough state on my blog.
I finally have a highlights/quotes setup I like. They are auto-added to Readwise via Kobo & Hypothesis (Safari). Old highlights from Kindle & Goodreads were easily imported. For manual, I hit the + button in Readwise (only time I use the app). Everything is auto-organized & auto-pushed to Obsidian.
On next week’s todo list: A NetNewsWire theme based on Tiny. Also, ICYMI, here is a Drafts Theme and a Marked 2 Theme.
I need an app that helps store and organize quotes and highlights. I can’t stand Readwise’s approach (although the Kobo integration is solid). Quotify seems OK, but not available for Mac/browser. Any suggestions?
If you use the Drafts app, here’s a new Tiny inspired theme you might like.
If you use Marked 2 for previewing/printing Markdown, I created a basic theme that closely resembles Tiny Theme. It supports headers, paragraphs, lists, code blocks, inline code, bold, italics, links, blockquotes, images, and horizontal rules. Download it and add it in Marked 2 (Settings → Style).
If you don’t already follow @Kalena (my wife) on Micro.blog, you should change that.
Anyone need a podcast guest to talk about…anything? I’ve done some internal stuff (business related), and I just started a solo podcast. Would love to add some experience to the job.