| ▲ | Ask HN: Favorite text heavy blogs that are a joy to read? | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| 113 points by joshmarinacci 6 days ago | 29 comments | |||||||||||||||||||||||
After ten years I’m working on a redesign of my personal tech blog. I want to look at some other blogs with good modern design. Of course searching for ‘well designed blogs’ or ‘webdesign 2026’ brings up endless marketing listicles. Even after wading through the crap, the advice is focused on advertising and product centric sites, not prose heavy sites with good typography. So my question to you is: What are some of your favorite text heavy blogs that are a joy to read? I don’t mean the content (though that helps too), but rather sites where the actual experience of reading is pleasant. Think: good fonts, sticky headers (or not), well formatted code snippets, and responsive images. Slide in navbars vs inline table of contents. Thanks, - j | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | RickS 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Lesswrong for both sidebars: the heading based TOC on the left, and the margin notes on the right: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/bJ2haLkcGeLtTWaD5/welcome-to... For interactive / code snippets Maxime Heckel: https://blog.maximeheckel.com/posts/the-study-of-shaders-wit... Honorable mentions Maggie Applebaum https://maggieappleton.com/ai-enlightenment Marek Chotoborski https://zanlib.dev/blog/number-inputs-in-react/ Line width, sane fonts, avoiding clever shit unless very polished, gets you a long way. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | Suppafly 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
commenting so i come back here at some point and read some of the blogs people are suggesting. I pretty much haven't found any text-heavy blogs that I enjoy anymore. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | faizmokh 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I like reading Julia Evans blog. Aside from the good writings, I think the typography and the paragraph width fits nicely. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | sammygutierrez 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | deckplecksetter 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I like the design of https://dbushell.com/blog/ Though mainly I just like the general 50s aesthetics of it, rather than specific UI elements. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | b00palicious 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Here is a decent collection of some text heavy personal sites. Not affiliated in any way: https://mnmm.xyz/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | zbikowski 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
https://edwardtufte.github.io/tufte-css/ - book design adapted for web https://practicaltypography.com/ - tons of practical advice on typefaces and text-based UX https://harmful.cat-v.org/ - more of a "website-style" layout than the above two | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | realityfactchex 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Language Log: https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/ The simple layout/theme does not get in the way of the reading. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | pockybum522 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
One of my favorites. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | kyawzazaw 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | nicbou 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Anything here: https://bearblog.dev/discover/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | jonjacky 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
https://dfns.dyalog.com/n_sudoku.htm Explanation of Sudoku in APL. Lots of information, absolutely no clutter. Entire page is nothing but text in a single precise sans-serif typewriter font, the same size and strength for everything: headings, explanation, code, and tables. Typewriter font includes mathematical symbols. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | laladrik 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
This one looks good to me. https://matklad.github.io/. Coincidentally the author has recently posted about CSS for blogs https://matklad.github.io/2026/06/04/css-unavoidable-bad-par.... I have my own blog, but I'm unhappy with its design as well; therefore I'm not sharing it. Nevertheless, I find particularly challenging two things: 1. Make tables readable from a smartphone. There are a few tricks which allow you to make a responsive table. However, those tricks implies that you use <ul> or <div> instead of <table> which defeats the point of having a table. 2. I had an article where I needed to put a tiny mind map. Eventually I put it as a picture, because the solutions to draw a mind map with JavaScript made the page as twice as heavy. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | tga 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
https://zed.dev/blog (somewhat quirkier, sidebars) https://tailscale.com/blog (overall clean) https://arun.is/blog (sidebar, colors) https://www.vitsoe.com/us/voice (general feel) https://github.com/TryGhost/Headline (interesting article header, open source) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | bookmark99 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
surprised this isn't top | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | efortis 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I’ve gotten a few emails complimenting the format of this post below. It’s got fragment-links that scroll and highlight the corresponding part in the code snippet. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | fabianholzer 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I think the website of James Sinclair has some great typographical choices, see the colophon for details: https://jrsinclair.com/about/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | jonjacky 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
https://sites.gatech.edu/alexburgin/on-self-respect-by-joan-... Dramatic sepia photograph contrasts with understated gray text on light gray background with lots of empty space. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | ktrnka 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I like the formatting and readability of https://nesbitt.io/2026/05/28/protestware-for-coding-agents.... though I wish it loaded faster. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | jonjacky 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
https://www.datagubbe.se/short/ Header, body, trailer panels with three complementary background shades that soften the large black sans-serif typography. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | NoahZuniga 2 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
I really like https://dynomight.net/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | gustavus 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | ||||||||||||||||||||||
Just finished a series on acoup.blog Must also mention | |||||||||||||||||||||||