Author Guidelines for Markdown Syntax and Math Typesetting

This guide covers essential Markdown syntax and math typesetting for authors using Hugo. It details headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, tables, code blocks, lists, and symbol usage. The document also explains how to embed rich content with Hugo’s shortcodes and create diagrams using Mermaid. Additionally, it outlines how to enable mathematical notation with KaTeX, providing both global and per-page configuration steps.

Headings

The following HTML <h2>—<h6> elements represent five levels of section headings. <h1> is for Title. <h2> is the highest section level while <h6> is the lowest. With numberedSubtitles param enabled, items will be numbered

Paragraph

Xerum, quo qui aut unt expliquam qui dolut labo. Aque venitatiusda cum, voluptionse latur sitiae dolessi aut parist aut dollo enim qui voluptate ma dolestendit peritin re plis aut quas inctum laceat est volestemque commosa as cus endigna tectur, offic to cor sequas etum rerum idem sintibus eiur? Quianimin porecus evelectur, cum que nis nust voloribus ratem aut omnimi, sitatur? Quiatem. Nam, omnis sum am facea corem alique molestrunt et eos evelece arcillit ut aut eos eos nus, sin conecerem erum fuga. Ri oditatquam, ad quibus unda veliamenimin cusam et facea ipsamus es exerum sitate dolores editium rerore eost, temped molorro ratiae volorro te reribus dolorer sperchicium faceata tiustia prat.

Itatur? Quiatae cullecum rem ent aut odis in re eossequodi nonsequ idebis ne sapicia is sinveli squiatum, core et que aut hariosam ex eat. Aque venitatiusda cum, voluptionse latur sitiae dolessi aut parist aut dollo enim qui voluptate ma dolestendit peritin re plis aut quas inctum laceat est volestemque commosa as cus endigna tectur, offic to cor sequas etum rerum idem sintibus eiur? Quianimin porecus evelectur, cum que nis nust voloribus ratem aut omnimi, sitatur? Quiatem. Nam, omnis sum am facea corem alique molestrunt et eos evelece arcillit ut aut eos eos nus, sin conecerem erum fuga. Ri oditatquam, ad quibus unda veliamenimin cusam et facea ipsamus es exerum sitate dolores editium rerore eost, temped molorro ratiae volorro te reribus dolorer sperchicium faceata tiustia prat.

Blockquotes

The blockquote element represents content that is quoted from another source, optionally with a citation which must be within a footer or cite element, and optionally with in-line changes such as annotations and abbreviations.

Blockquote without attribution

Tiam, ad mint andaepu dandae nostion secatur sequo quae. Note that you can use Markdown syntax within a blockquote.
Note that you can put a blockquote inside a blockquote

Blockquote with attribution

Don’t communicate by sharing memory, share memory by communicating. — Rob Pike ¹

Tables

Tables aren’t part of the core Markdown spec, but Hugo supports them out-of-the-box.

Name	Age
Bob	27
Alice	23

Inline Markdown within tables

Italics	Bold	Code	Strikethrough	Underline	Highlight
italics	bold	`code`	~~strikethrough~~	underline	highlight

Code Blocks

Code block with backticks

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Example HTML5 Document</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>Test</p>
</body>
</html>

Code block indented with four spaces

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Example HTML5 Document</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>Test</p>
</body>
</html>

Code block with Hugo’s internal highlight shortcode

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
  <meta charset="utf-8">
  <title>Example HTML5 Document</title>
</head>
<body>
  <p>Test</p>
</body>
</html>

List Types

Ordered List

Item 1
1. Sub-item 1.1
2. Sub-item 1.2
3. Sub-item 1.3
Item 2
Item 3

Unordered List

Fruit
- Apple
- Orange
- Banana
Dairy
- Milk
- Cheese

Checklist

Item 1
Item 2
- Sub-item 2.1
- Sub-item 2.2
Item 3

Definition List

First Term: This is the definition of the first term.
Second Term: This is one definition of the second term.; This is another definition of the second term.

Symbols

You can use the HTML entity for whatever symbol you want to use. For example, if you want to display the copyright sign (©), you can copy and paste the HTML entity for copyright (©) into your Markdown document.

Copyright (©) — &copy;
Registered trademark (®) — &reg;
Trademark (™) — &trade;
Euro (€) — &euro;
Left arrow (←) — &larr;
Up arrow (↑) — &uarr;
Right arrow (→) — &rarr;
Down arrow (↓) — &darr;
Degree (°) — &#176;
Pi (π) — &#960;

For a complete list of available HTML entities, refer to Wikipedia’s page on HTML entities.

Other Elements — abbr, sub, sup, kbd, mark

GIF is a bitmap image format. H2O Xn + Yn = Zn Press CTRL+ALT+Delete to end the session. Most salamanders are nocturnal, and hunt for insects, worms, and other small creatures. The emojify function can be called directly in templates or Inline Shortcodes. To enable emoji globally, set enableEmoji to true in your site’s configuration and then you can type emoji shorthand codes directly in content files; e.g.

The Emoji cheat sheet is a useful reference for emoji shorthand codes.

N.B. The above steps enable Unicode Standard emoji characters and sequences in Hugo, however the rendering of these glyphs depends on the browser and the platform. To style the emoji you can either use a third party emoji font or a font stack; e.g.

.emoji {
  font-family: Apple Color Emoji, Segoe UI Emoji, NotoColorEmoji, Segoe UI Symbol, Android Emoji, EmojiSymbols;
}

Math Typesetting

Mathematical notation in a Hugo project can be enabled by using third party JavaScript libraries. In this example we will be using $\KaTeX$

Create a partial under /layouts/partials/math.html
Within this partial reference the Auto-render Extension or host these scripts locally.
Include the partial in your templates like so:

{{ if or .Params.math .Site.Params.math }}
{{ partial "math.html" . }}
{{ end }}

To enable $\KaTeX$ globally set the parameter math to true in a project’s configuration
To enable $\KaTeX$ on a per page basis include the parameter math: true in content files

Note: Use the online reference of Supported $\TeX$ Functions

$$ \mathcal L_{\mathcal T}(\vec{\lambda}) = \sum_{(\mathbf{x},\mathbf{s})\in \mathcal T} \log P(\mathbf{s}\mid\mathbf{x}) - \sum_{i=1}^m \frac{\lambda_i^2}{2\sigma^2} $$

Rich Content

Hugo ships with several Built-in Shortcodes for rich content, along with a Privacy Config and a set of Simple Shortcodes that enable static and no-JS versions of various social media embeds.

YouTube Privacy Enhanced Shortcode

Twitter Simple Shortcode

Owl bet you'll lose this staring contest 🦉 pic.twitter.com/eJh4f2zncC
— San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (@sandiegozoo) October 26, 2021

Vimeo Simple Shortcode

Mermaid

Flowchart

graph LR; A[Hard edge] -->|Link text| B(Round edge) B --> C{Decision} C -->|One| D[Result one] C -->|Two| E[Result two]

Sequence Digram

sequenceDiagram participant Alice participant Bob Alice->>John: Hello John, how are you? loop Healthcheck John->John: Fight against hypochondria end Note right of John: Rational thoughts
prevail... John-->Alice: Great! John->Bob: How about you? Bob-->John: Jolly good!

Gantt

gantt dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD title Adding GANTT diagram to mermaid excludes weekdays 2014-01-10 section A section Completed task :done, des1, 2014-01-06,2014-01-08 Active task :active, des2, 2014-01-09, 3d Future task : des3, after des2, 5d Future task2 : des4, after des3, 5d

Class Diagram

classDiagram Animal <|-- Duck Animal <|-- Fish Animal <|-- Zebra Animal : +int age Animal : +String gender Animal: +isMammal() Animal: +mate() class Duck{ +String beakColor +swim() +quack() } class Fish{ -int sizeInFeet -canEat() } class Zebra{ +bool is_wild +run() }

State Diagram

stateDiagram-v2 [*] --> Still Still --> [*] Still --> Moving Moving --> Still Moving --> Crash Crash --> [*]

Git Graph

gitGraph commit commit branch develop checkout develop commit commit checkout main merge develop commit commit

Entity Relationship Diagram

erDiagram CUSTOMER ||--o{ ORDER : places ORDER ||--|{ LINE-ITEM : contains CUSTOMER }|..|{ DELIVERY-ADDRESS : uses

User Journey

journey title My working day section Go to work Make tea: 5: Me Go upstairs: 3: Me Do work: 1: Me, Cat section Go home Go downstairs: 5: Me Sit down: 5: Me

Pie Chart

pie "Dogs" : 386 "Cats" : 85 "Rats" : 15

Requirement Diagram

requirementDiagram requirement test_req { id: 1 text: the test text. risk: high verifymethod: test } element test_entity { type: simulation } test_entity - satisfies -> test_req

The above quote is excerpted from Rob Pike’s talk during Gopherfest, November 18, 2015. ↩︎