Personal Website - James Pearce

A modern personal website showcasing astrophotography, writing, and blog posts with full LaTeX support.

Features

• Astrophotography Gallery: High-resolution 6K image display with individual photo pages
• Blog Section: Technical articles with LaTeX equation support and syntax highlighting
• Writing Section: Academic papers and research with mathematical notation
• About Page: Personal introduction and background
• LaTeX Support: Full mathematical notation rendering using KaTeX
• Responsive Design: Mobile-friendly layout with dark mode support
• Static Site: Optimized for GitHub Pages deployment

Tech Stack

• Framework: Next.js 15 with TypeScript
• Styling: Tailwind CSS
• LaTeX Rendering: KaTeX with react-katex
• Markdown Processing: react-markdown with remark-math and rehype-katex
• Code Highlighting: react-syntax-highlighter
• Deployment: GitHub Pages with automated CI/CD

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Node.js 18 or later
• npm or yarn

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone <repository-url>
cd PersonalWebsite

2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Start the development server:

npm run dev

4. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser.

Content Management

Adding Blog Posts

Create new Markdown files in content/blog/ with the following frontmatter:

---
title: "Your Post Title"
date: "YYYY-MM-DD"
excerpt: "Brief description of the post"
tags: ["tag1", "tag2"]
---

# Your Content Here

LaTeX equations are supported: $E = mc^2$

And code blocks:
\`\`\`python
print("Hello, world!")
\`\`\`

Adding Writing Pieces

Create new Markdown files in content/writing/ with frontmatter:

---
title: "Paper Title"
date: "YYYY-MM-DD"
type: "Research Paper"
excerpt: "Abstract or summary"
tags: ["research", "astronomy"]
---

Your academic content with full LaTeX support.

Adding Astrophotography

1. Add high-resolution images to public/photos/
2. Update the photo data in app/astrophotography/page.tsx
3. Add individual photo details in app/astrophotography/[slug]/page.tsx

LaTeX Support

The site supports full LaTeX rendering for mathematical equations:

• Inline math: $E = mc^2$
• Block equations: $$\int_0^\infty e^{-x^2} dx = \frac{\sqrt{\pi}}{2}$$
• Complex expressions with matrices, integrals, summations, etc.

Deployment

The site automatically deploys to GitHub Pages when changes are pushed to the main branch. The GitHub Actions workflow:

1. Builds the Next.js site
2. Exports static files
3. Deploys to GitHub Pages

Manual Deployment

To build and export manually:

npm run build

The static files will be generated in the out/ directory.

Project Structure

├── app/                    # Next.js app directory
│   ├── astrophotography/   # Gallery pages
│   ├── blog/              # Blog pages
│   ├── writing/           # Writing pages
│   └── about/             # About page
├── components/            # React components
├── content/              # Markdown content
│   ├── blog/             # Blog posts
│   └── writing/          # Academic writing
├── lib/                  # Utility functions
├── public/               # Static assets
│   └── photos/           # Astrophotography images
└── .github/workflows/    # GitHub Actions

Contributing

This is a personal website, but suggestions and improvements are welcome through issues and pull requests.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.