31  Building Websites from Plain Text

Guiding Question: Can an entire website be written in plain text?

For many years, building a website meant working directly with HTML, maintaining countless individual pages, or relying upon complex content management systems.

As websites grew larger, these approaches became increasingly difficult to maintain.

Authors faced a familiar problem.

They wished to spend their time writing.

Instead, they found themselves managing software.

The rise of static site generators offered a different vision.

What if a website could simply be written?

That question transformed web publishing.

31.1 From Documents to Websites

Earlier in this part we explored single-source publishing.

A single document could become many different publications.

Websites extend this idea.

Instead of producing one document, the publishing system generates an entire collection of interconnected pages.

Navigation.

Menus.

Indexes.

Search.

Cross references.

Themes.

All emerge automatically from carefully structured source files.

The website becomes another expression of the same plain text philosophy.

31.2 Static Sites

A static website consists of ordinary HTML files generated before they are published.

Unlike traditional content management systems, visitors do not trigger pages to be assembled dynamically.

The pages already exist.

This simple design offers several advantages.

Static websites are:

• fast
• secure
• portable
• inexpensive to host
• easy to archive
• straightforward to version-control

Because the source remains plain text, authors enjoy all the benefits explored throughout this primer.

31.3 Hugo

One of the most influential static site generators is Hugo.

Known for its remarkable speed, Hugo demonstrated that large websites could be generated from Markdown files in a matter of seconds.

Its template system, flexible organization, and active community made it a favorite among bloggers, documentation writers, and independent publishers.

For many authors, Hugo represented an important step away from database-driven publishing toward simpler, text-based workflows.

31.4 Other Publishing Systems

The plain text publishing ecosystem has always encouraged experimentation.

Different communities have embraced different tools.

Among them are:

• Pelican, built around Python
• Jekyll, closely associated with GitHub Pages
• Eleventy, emphasizing simplicity and flexibility
• Hugo, renowned for speed
• Quarto, integrating websites into a broader publishing workflow

Each reflects the same underlying philosophy.

The source remains plain text.

The website is generated automatically.

31.5 Quarto Websites

Quarto extends the idea of website generation beyond blogging alone.

A website may become:

• personal notes
• project documentation
• course material
• technical manuals
• research portals
• digital books
• blogs

Because websites share the same project structure as books and articles, authors need not learn entirely new workflows.

Publishing remains consistent.

Only the destination changes.

31.6 Navigation Through Structure

One of the recurring themes of this primer is that structure creates clarity.

Website navigation illustrates this principle beautifully.

Instead of constructing menus manually, publishing systems derive them from the organization of the source.

Directories become sections.

Headings become navigation.

Metadata becomes context.

The structure already present within the documents naturally guides readers through the site.

31.7 The Joy of Version Control

Plain text websites fit naturally into version control systems.

Every edit becomes visible.

Every revision can be reviewed.

Entire websites evolve through small, understandable changes rather than opaque modifications hidden inside databases.

For independent publishers, this simplicity is enormously liberating.

The website itself becomes part of the writing process.

31.8 Why Plain Text Changed the Web

The success of static publishing is not merely technical.

It reflects a broader shift in philosophy.

Authors increasingly value:

• ownership of their content
• portability
• openness
• reproducibility
• long-term preservation

Plain text supports each of these goals remarkably well.

The website becomes something the author controls rather than something controlled by a platform.

31.9 Lessons for the Textsmith

Writing for the web no longer requires abandoning the principles of plain text.

The same source that becomes a chapter in a book may also become a webpage.

The same workflow may publish a blog, documentation site, or digital library.

Once again, we encounter a familiar lesson.

The author writes.

The publishing system handles presentation.

Ideas remain at the centre of the process.

31.10 Key Ideas

• Static site generators transform plain text into complete websites.
• Static websites emphasize speed, security, portability, and simplicity.
• Hugo demonstrated the power of fast, text-based web publishing.
• Pelican, Jekyll, Eleventy, Hugo, and Quarto represent different communities within the same publishing philosophy.
• Quarto unifies website publishing with books, articles, presentations, and other publication formats.
• Website structure naturally emerges from well-organized source documents.
• Plain text websites remain easy to maintain, archive, and version-control.

In the next chapter, we move from websites to one of humanity’s oldest publishing traditions.

Can an entire book be written without ever opening a traditional word processor?

There we discover how plain text has quietly transformed long-form publishing while preserving the craftsmanship that books have always demanded.