The Distill Blog Template:
Create Interactive Technical Blogs

Distill Blog Template

This template allows you to create beautiful, interactive technical blogs with support for math equations, interactive visualizations, and more.

Welcome to the Distill Blog Template! This framework is based on the distill.pub design and has been adapted to make it easy for you to create beautiful, interactive technical blogs. Whether you're writing about machine learning, data science, physics, or any technical topic, this template provides the structure and components you need.

Reading time: 10-15 minutes.

This template includes support for mathematics, interactive visualizations, citations, footnotes, and more. In this guide, we'll walk you through the structure of the template and how to customize it for your own blog.

The template is built with the following features in mind:

1. Beautiful typography and layout: The template follows Distill's clean, readable design principles with responsive layouts that work well on desktop and mobile.

2. Support for interactive components: You can include interactive visualizations, like the memory widget shown below:

Example interactive widget

Parameter A:

Option 1:

Parameter B:

Option 2:

(This is a simplified example widget. You'll replace it with your own interactive elements.)

Getting Started with the Template

Let's walk through how to use this template to create your own blog:

1. Installation and Setup

First, clone this repository and install the dependencies:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/distill-blog-template.git
cd distill-blog-template
npm install

To run the development server:

npm run dev

This will start a local server at http://localhost:8080 where you can preview your blog as you edit it.

2. Editing the Front Matter

The front matter contains metadata about your blog post, such as the title, description, and author information. Edit the <d-front-matter> section at the top of src/index.html:

<d-front-matter>
    <script id='distill-front-matter' type="text/json">{
    "title": "Your Blog Title",
    "description": "A brief description of your blog",
    "published": "Month Day, Year",
    "affiliation": {"name": "Your Organization"},
    "authors": [
      {
        "author":"Your Name",
        "authorURL":"https://your-website.com"
      }
    ],
    "katex": {
      "delimiters": [
        {"left": "$$", "right": "$$", "display": false}
      ]
    }
  }
    </script>
</d-front-matter>

3. Writing Your Content

Your main content goes within the <d-article> tags. You can use standard HTML tags with some special Distill components:

Mathematical Equations

You can include inline math using <d-math>x^2 + y^2 = z^2</d-math> which renders as x^2 + y^2 = z^2.

For block equations, use <d-math block>E = mc^2</d-math>:

E = mc^2

Asides

You can include side notes using the <aside> tag:

This is a side note that will appear in the margin.

Figures and Images

Include figures with captions:

Caption for your figure

Citations

Citations can be included using <d-cite> tags and a separate bibliography file:

As shown in the paper, this approach has several advantages.

4. Using HTML Fragments

This template supports HTML fragments, which are useful for including complex visualizations or interactive components:

Adding a New Fragment

1. Create a new HTML file in the src/fragments/ directory, e.g., src/fragments/my-visualization.html
2. Include it in your main document using

Fragments can contain HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. They're loaded asynchronously, which helps keep your main document lightweight.

5. Building and Deploying

When you're ready to build your blog for production:

npm run build

This will create optimized files in the dist/ directory. You can deploy these files to any static site hosting service like GitHub Pages, Netlify, or Vercel.

Example Components

Here are some example components you can use in your blog:

Interactive Visualization Examples

You can include interactive Plotly visualizations in your blog by creating HTML fragments:

Line Chart Example

Bar Chart Example

To generate these charts, run the included Python script:

pip install numpy plotly
python generate_example_plot.py

This creates HTML fragments in the src/fragments/ directory that you can include in your blog using the id attribute matching the fragment name.

Data Table Example

Model	Accuracy	Speed
Model A	95%	Fast
Model B	98%	Medium
Model C	99%	Slow

Code Block Example

function example() {
  console.log("This is an example code block");
  return true;
}

Advanced Customization

Styling

You can customize the appearance of your blog by editing src/style.css. The template uses CSS variables for colors, fonts, and spacing, making it easy to adjust the overall look and feel.

Adding JavaScript

For interactive components, add your JavaScript code to src/index.js or create new modules and import them. The template uses webpack to bundle JavaScript files.

Bibliography

Edit src/bibliography.bib to include your citations in BibTeX format.

Best Practices

• Keep your content focused and concise
• Use visualizations to explain complex concepts
• Break down long articles into clear sections with descriptive headings
• Use mathematics sparingly and always explain the notation
• Optimize images and interactive components for fast loading

Conclusion

This template gives you everything you need to create beautiful, interactive technical blogs. By combining clear writing with interactive visualizations and mathematical notation, you can effectively communicate complex ideas to your audience.

For more examples and inspiration, visit distill.pub.