PRESEQUENCES

Pixyll Does YouTube

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:30:00 +0000

Embed YouTube Videos

Simply include youtube.html with an appropriate video ID ¹ and you’ll get an embedded player. The include currently embeds the default IFrame player, specifying the dimensions and enabling fullscreen playback. Additional parameters are available for further customizations.

{% include youtube.html video_ID="yLrx1tNW4-c"%}

And you’ll get this:

The include file expects a value for video_ID. Failing to specify a video ID will display an error message in place of the video player. Using a non-existant video ID will load a blank player that will show an error message upon user interaction. ↩

Pixyll Does Instagram Reels

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 04:30:00 +0000

Embed Instagram Reels

Simply include instragram-reel.html with an appropriate reel ID and you’ll get an embedded player.

{% include instagram-reel.html reel_ID="DVq19N3F28z"%}

Result:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrew Miller (@laspalmas7)

You can include the caption by adding caption=true with the include directive.

{% include instagram-reel.html reel_ID="DVq19N3F28z" caption=true %}

Result:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Andrew Miller (@laspalmas7)

Guide to Forking Pixyll

Sat, 26 Jan 2019 19:22:00 +0000

The following is an overview to copying and sharing Pixyll.¹

Most people have an understanding of what the copyright and licensing obligations are for source code, but not everyone has practical experience. There is a lot of information about how to use free and open source source code generally, but not necessarily how it works specifically.

Basics

Pixyll is free and open source software under the MIT license, a permissive license. You can use Pixyll without charge and it is provided to you, “as is”, without warranty of any kind.

These are some of the rights for Pixyll since it is under the MIT license:²

You can copy Pixyll by forking it on GitHub or by any other means of copying.
You can use Pixyll to publish your site without restriction or limitation.
You can change Pixyll as you wish, and you can publish your site with a modified version of Pixyll.
You can also distribute copies of Pixyll to other people.
You can also distribute modified copies of Pixyll.

Other rights you have of Pixyll under the MIT license:

You can sell copies of Pixyll, including copies you have modified.
You can combine Pixyll with other works that are under the MIT license, or other permissive licenses, a copyleft license or a proprietary license. Pixyll already does this itself by using Jekyll, Ruby and other dependencies.
You can distribute copies of Pixyll to others under either the MIT license or you can relicense Pixyll under another license. This includes a different permissive license, a copyleft license or a proprietary license.

Your only responsibility is to preserve both the copyright notices of Pixyll and the MIT license in your copy or modified work.

How to

If you’ve modified Pixyll significantly and want to share your version, especially public copies of the code, then there are a few items you should do.

You should probably rename your fork of Pixyll with a different name.
A new name isn’t required by the MIT license, but it is good etiquette.³
You should add your name to the copyright of your version, and you should preserve the existing copyrights of Pixyll.
Maintaining the copyright notices isn’t required of the MIT license, but it is suggested by the license and is a good practice for documenting the copyrights of your derived work.

The items above do not apply when you just copied and modified Pixyll in small ways to just publish your site and you have no plans to fork Pixyll under a different name.

If you want to publish a fork of Pixyll under a different name but keeping it under the MIT license, then you should add your name to the copyright notices:

Copyright (c) 2021 Your Name
Copyright (c) 2014-2021 John Otander for Pixyll

However, if you want to publish a fork of Pixyll under a different name and a different license, then you should should still add your name to the copyright notices but have a section titled “Pixyll” at the bottom of your LICENSE file that preserves the copyright and license notices for Pixyll:

Pixyll

Copyright (c) 2014-2021 John Otander

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, [...]

If you are just modifying Pixyll in small ways to customize your site, you are not obligated to maintain the copyright notices of Pixyll on your site. However, if you want to credit the Pixyll theme that would be appreciated, see section on “Pixyll Plug” in the README file that came with Pixyll.

Thanks for using Pixyll, and happy hacking!

Disclaimer: This material is for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as legal advice or opinion. For actual legal advice, you should consult with professional legal services. ↩
This list of privileges are derived from the four freedoms of “The Free Software Definition” published by the GNU project https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.en.html. ↩
Using a different name from “Pixyll” for your derivate work helps avoid misdirected questions from people who are using your version. It’s similar to using version numbers to discrimate the revisions of software when troubleshooting issues. ↩

Announcing Version 2.0

Sat, 11 Jul 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In an effort to make Pixyll easier to customize and more aesthetically pleasing, we’ve released version 2.0.

Pixyll now features:

Line anchors in code blocks and new syntax highlighting
A customizable variables file
Modular, and lighter weight CSS
No more max-width media queries

Hello, Pixyll

Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:31:19 +0000

Hello.

Pixyll is a simple, beautiful theme for Jekyll that emphasizes content rather than aesthetic fluff. It’s mobile first, fluidly responsive, and delightfully lightweight.

It’s pretty minimal, but leverages large type and drastic contrast to make a statement, on all devices.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Where is it?

Checkout the GitHub repository to download it, request a feature, or report a bug.

It’s free, and open source (MIT).

Pixyll in Action

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 12:31:19 +0000

There is a significant amount of subtle, yet precisely calibrated, styling to ensure that your content is emphasized while still looking aesthetically pleasing.

All links are easy to locate and discern, yet don’t detract from the harmony of a paragraph. The same goes for italics and bold elements. Even the the strikeout works if ~~for some reason you need to update your post~~. For consistency’s sake, The same goes for insertions, of course.

Code, with syntax highlighting

Here’s an example of some ruby code with line anchors.

# The most awesome of classes
class Awesome < ActiveRecord::Base
  include EvenMoreAwesome

  validates_presence_of :something
  validates :email, email_format: true

  def initialize(email, name = nil)
    self.email = email
    self.name = name
    self.favorite_number = 12
    puts 'created awesomeness'
  end

  def email_format
    email =~ /\S+@\S+\.\S+/
  end
end

Here’s some CSS:

.foobar {
  /* Named colors rule */
  color: tomato;
}

Here’s some JavaScript:

var isPresent = require('is-present')

module.exports = function doStuff(things) {
  if (isPresent(things)) {
    doOtherStuff(things)
  }
}

Here’s some HTML:

<div class="m0 p0 bg-blue white">
  <h3 class="h1">Hello, world!</h3>
</div>

Headings!

They’re responsive, and well-proportioned (in padding, line-height, margin, and font-size). They also heavily rely on the awesome utility, BASSCSS.

They draw the perfect amount of attention

This allows your content to have the proper informational and contextual hierarchy. Yay.

There are lists, too

Apples
Oranges
Potatoes
Milk

Mow the lawn
Feed the dog
Dance

Images look great, too

There are also pretty colors

Also the result of BASSCSS, you can highlight certain components of a post with CSS classes.

I don’t recommend using blue, though. It looks like a link.

Footnotes!

Markdown footnotes are supported, and they look great! Simply put e.g. [^1] where you want the footnote to appear,¹ and then add the reference at the end of your markdown.

Stylish blockquotes included

You can use the markdown quote syntax, > for simple quotes.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Suspendisse quis porta mauris.

However, you need to inject html if you’d like a citation footer. I will be working on a way to hopefully sidestep this inconvenience.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Tables

Tables represent tabular data and can be built using markdown syntax. They are rendered responsively in Pixyll for a variety of screen widths.

Here’s a simple example of a table:

Quantity	Description	Price
2	Orange	$0.99
1	Pineapple	$2.99
4	Banana	$0.39
	Total	$6.14

A table must have a body of one or more rows, but can optionally also have a header or footer.

The cells in a column, including the header row cell, can either be aligned:

left,
right or
center.

Most inline text formatting is available in table cells, block-level formatting are not.

Default header	Left header	Center header	Right header
Default	Left	Center	Right
Italic	Bold	*Bold italic*	`monospace`
link text	`code`	~~Strikeout~~	Insertion
line break	“Smart quotes”	highlight	green
Footnote²	_subscript	^superscript	red
Footer row

There’s more being added all the time

Checkout the GitHub repository to request, or add, features.

Happy writing.

Important information that may distract from the main text can go in footnotes. ↩
Footnotes will work in tables since they’re just links. ↩

So, What is Jekyll?

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 12:32:18 +0000

Jekyll is a tool for transforming your plain text into static websites and blogs. It is simple, static, and blog-aware. Jekyll uses the Liquid templating language and has builtin Markdown and Textile support.

It also ties in nicely to GitHub Pages.

Learn more about Jekyll on their website.

Pixyll has Pagination

Sun, 08 Jun 2014 11:21:29 +0000

This is an empty post to illustrate the pagination component with Pixyll.