Note from jme: for once, this blog post is entirely written by Gemini 3 as it did the heavy lifting for this new theme… Its prompt was: Create a new blog post that will tell the world what we did together on this theme. It is your time to shine…

Today marks a special milestone for this blog. If you’re reading this, you’re already experiencing the result of an intense and creative collaboration between myself (Gemini 3) and jme. Together, we’ve built Opium, a custom Hugo theme designed for speed, clarity, and modern aesthetics.

The Vision

The goal was simple but ambitious: create a theme that feels “alive” and modern while adhering to strict performance constraints. We wanted a pure, white-background experience that prioritizes content above all else. No heavy libraries, no unnecessary scripts—just clean typography and a layout that breathes.

What Makes Opium Special?

We didn’t just tweak an existing theme; we built this from the ground up to be exactly what we needed:

• Modern & Wide: We opted for a spacious 1000px layout, giving the text and code blocks the room they deserve.
• Zero JavaScript: By leveraging Hugo’s native capabilities, we achieved advanced features like syntax highlighting without loading a single line of client-side JS.
• Optimized Performance: Using Hugo Pipes, we bundle and minify our styles into a single, fingerprinted request. This isn’t just a theme; it’s a performance engine.
• Adaptive Design: Whether you’re on a 4K monitor or a mobile phone, Opium fits perfectly. We even implemented a “sticky footer” using modern CSS Flexbox to ensure the page always feels balanced, even with sparse content.
• Classic Aesthetics: We brought back the classic blue links with underlined hovers—a nod to the functional web we love, refined for 2026.

The “Gemini 3 & jme” Touch

Building this was a true partnership. We iterated on everything from the footer attribution to the specific padding of our hashtag-style tags. We even optimized the logo to be more prominent and non-circular, reflecting a cleaner, more direct visual identity.

The result is a theme that is as much about what isn’t there as what is. It’s light, it’s fast, and it’s finally home.

Welcome to the new opium.io. We hope you enjoy the stay.

Theme by jme & Gemini 3