Minimal Photon is a clean, elegant, and responsive academic homepage template designed for researchers, professors, and students. It is built on top of the Minimal Light theme, featuring a minimalist Apple-inspired design, enhanced data management, automated publication updates from BibTeX, and a stylish typewriter intro animation. Check out my homepage for a live demo.

中文说明 (Chinese README)

• 🍎 Apple-style Aesthetic: Clean lines, subtle shadows, and a focus on typography, inspired by Apple's design language.
• 📖 Clean & Academic: Optimized for presenting research, publications, and portfolios.
• 📱 Fully Responsive: Perfectly adapts to desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.
• ⚙️ Easy Configuration: Centralized settings in _config.yml.
• ��️ Data-Driven: Manage content (News, Experience, Publications) via simple YAML files.
• 🤖 Automation: Automatically generate publication lists from BibTeX using Python.
• ✨ Interactive: Stylish typewriter intro animation and publication filtering.
• 📈 Analytics & SEO: Built-in support for Google Analytics and SEO optimization.

Understanding the folder structure will help you customize the theme effectively.

.
├── _config.yml              # ⚙️ Main configuration file (Personal info, SEO, Links)
├── index.md                 # 🏠 Homepage content (About Me, Research Interests)
├── _data/                   # 🗃️ Data files for dynamic content
│   ├── experience.yml       #    - Work & Education experience
│   ├── news.yml             #    - Latest news updates
│   ├── publications.yml     #    - Publication list (can be auto-generated)
│   └── references.bib       #    - BibTeX source for publications
├── _includes/               # 🧩 Reusable HTML components (News, Pubs, Experience)
├── _layouts/                # 📐 Page templates
├── assets/                  # 🎨 Static assets
│   ├── css/                 #    - Stylesheets
│   ├── img/                 #    - Images (Profile, Favicon, Pub thumbnails)
│   ├── js/                  #    - JavaScript files (Animation, Filters)
│   └── bibs/                #    - Individual BibTeX files (Auto-generated)
└── scripts/                 # 🛠️ Utility scripts
    └── update_pubs.py       #    - Script to convert BibTeX to YAML

You can use this template by hosting it on GitHub Pages (recommended) or running it locally.

1. Fork this Repository

   • Click the Fork button at the top right of this page.
   • Rename the repository to your-username.github.io (for a main user site) or keep it as is (for a project site).

2. Enable GitHub Pages

   • Go to your repository's Settings > Pages.
   • Under Source, select main branch (or master) and / (root) folder.
   • Click Save.
   • Your site will be live at https://your-username.github.io.

3. Customize

   • Clone your forked repository to your local machine.
   • Follow the Configuration section below to personalize your site.
   • Push your changes to GitHub, and the site will update automatically.

1. Clone the Repository

   git clone https://github.com/KuangzhiGe/minimal-photon.git
   cd minimal-photon

2. Install Dependencies Ensure you have Ruby and Bundler installed.

   bundle install

   If you plan to use the auto-update script for publications, install Python dependencies:

   pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run Server Start the local server to preview your site:

   bundle exec jekyll serve

   Visit http://localhost:4000 in your browser.

Most global settings are located in _config.yml. Open it and update the following:

• Basic Info: title, position, affiliation, email.
• URL Settings: url (your domain), baseurl (repository name if not using a custom domain).
• SEO: keywords, description.
• Social Links: Update URLs for GitHub, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, etc.
• Images: Set paths for avatar and favicon.
• Analytics: Uncomment google_analytics and add your Measurement ID (e.g., G-XXXXXXXXXX) to enable tracking.

Edit index.md to update the About Me, Research Interests, and Miscellaneous sections. Markdown is fully supported.

Add your latest updates here.

- date: Dec. 2024
  content: 📃 Paper accepted at CVPR 2025!

List your education and work history.

main:
  - title: "University Name"
    details: "(2022 - Present) Ph.D. Student"
    image: ./assets/img/logo.png

You have two options to manage publications:

1. Paste your BibTeX entries into _data/references.bib.
2. Open scripts/update_pubs.py and set MY_NAME to your name (this bolds your name in the author list).
3. Run the script:

   python3 scripts/update_pubs.py

   This will automatically update _data/publications.yml and generate individual .bib files in assets/bibs/.

Directly edit _data/publications.yml following the existing format.

• Intro Animation: Modify the typing text in assets/js/intro-animation.js.
• Visitor Map: To add a visitor map (e.g., ClustrMaps), edit index.md and replace the placeholder comment at the bottom with your script code.
• Styles: Custom CSS can be added to assets/css/style.scss.

This project is licensed under the MIT License.

Based on the Minimal Light theme by Yaoyao Liu.