Colophon
Built with Astro
because I wanted markdown files, not a CMS. Every blog post is an .mdx file in a
folder. Simple posts are just prose. Interactive posts can embed custom components, raw HTML,
charts — whatever — inline. Same format, same folder, same workflow.
Styled with Tailwind CSS. Deployed on Vercel because it's fast and the free tier is generous.
Typography
Headlines are set in Fraunces, a variable serif with real personality. Body text is Outfit, a clean geometric sans-serif that stays readable at long-form lengths.
The pear
"Pearspective" is a play on "perspective" + Bartlett pear (my last name). The pear shows up in the logo and favicon. That's about it. The pear is just a wink.
Colors
Warm cream backgrounds, deep brown text, and two accent colors: a muted earthy green (pear leaf) and a warm gold (ripe pear skin). Dark mode flips to a warm stone-dark background. The palette is intentionally restrained — the typography does the work.
Code
Syntax highlighting via Shiki (built into Astro). Code blocks use the GitHub Dark theme slightly adjusted. No client-side JavaScript for highlighting — it's all rendered at build time.
Workflow
Write a .mdx file. Drop it in /content/blog/. Push to main. That's
the whole publishing flow. No CMS, no database, no build config per post. The site auto-discovers
new posts and adds them to the blog index, RSS feed, and sitemap.