The Seedling

This essay demonstrates the simplest ScrollStory approach—perfect if you’re just learning Markdown or want students to focus on writing rather than complex formatting. As you scroll through, notice the clean, uncluttered design that lets content breathe.

What makes this a “Seedling” essay? It uses only basic components: section headings, images with captions, pull quotes, alert boxes, and footnotes. No background switching, no side-scrolling—just straightforward digital storytelling that’s more visually engaging than a standard web page.

The text below is mostly filler to show how an essay flows, but we’ll call out key features as you encounter them.

The Hero Header

When you loaded this page, the image above filled the entire browser window — that’s a hero header. The site navigation bar disappeared into the image rather than sitting above it, keeping the full visual impact intact. Scroll down a little and notice the essay content begins below the image.

Hero headers are controlled by three front matter fields at the top of this file:

header-image: images/your-photo.jpg
header-title: Your Title Here
header-subtitle: a short description

No header-tier means hero by default — the image fills 100% of the viewport height. You can also set header-position to adjust which part of the image is visible (useful when the focal point isn’t centered).

Images

This paragraph sits next to a right-aligned image. The ScrollStory layout gives images breathing room—you’ll never see cramped text squished against a photo. The spacing and typography are designed to feel more like a magazine than a typical web page.

Notice the caption below the image includes a clickable source link. This is how you maintain scholarly rigor while keeping the visual design clean.

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Footnotes work normally in ScrollStories — you can place them anywhere in the page flow.¹

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Another image

Images don’t have to be on the right. Here’s a left-aligned image — the text wraps on the other side. Left-aligned images work well when you want to create a different visual rhythm within your essay.

Mixing left and right placement keeps readers’ eyes moving, which prevents the page from feeling monotonous. Try alternating sides as you write.

Standalone Images

Not every image needs text beside it. The standalone figure sits within the text flow with its own caption. Here’s one centered in the page:

Several Images at Once

When you have more than one picture of the same thing, a carousel shows them in one place instead of stacking them down the page. Readers move through the slides themselves, so three photographs take up the room of one.

Carousels need their lists defined before the include, because a list is something Markdown cannot express inside a parameter. Define them with split, then hand them over by name:

Captions are split on | rather than a comma, so a caption can contain commas of its own — which most real captions do, once you start crediting photographers.

Section Headings Create Visual Breaks

Each section heading (marked with ## in Markdown) creates a clear visual break in your essay. This helps readers navigate long-form content and gives you natural places to shift topics or introduce new ideas.

Why this matters: Breaking essays into clear sections makes both writing and reading much easier. You can also use bold text to start paragraphs or inside, just put ** at the beginning and end of the bold part, like **Why this matters:**

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Pull Quotes Add Emphasis

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The pull quote you just saw is created with a simple include component, one of many reusable components in Xanthan. You can put important quotes, key statistics, or memorable phrases in these boxes to create visual interest and emphasize crucial points.

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Subsection Headings (Optional)

If you need more structure within a section, use subsection headings (marked with ###). These are slightly smaller than main section headings and help organize complex topics without breaking up the flow too much.

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Alert Boxes for Key Information

Sometimes you need to draw attention to something important — a tip, a warning, or a key piece of context. Alert boxes do this:

Alert boxes support full Markdown inside, including bold, links, and lists. They’re especially useful in instructional essays where you need to flag things readers should pay attention to.

Block Quotes for Extended Quotations

Block quotes work well when you want to quote an entire paragraph or passage, while pull quotes are better for short, punchy excerpts you want to highlight visually.

This is a block quote, created by putting a > symbol before your text. Use these for extended quotations from primary sources, scholarly works, or historical documents. They’re visually distinct from pull quotes—block quotes span the full text width, while pull quotes float to the side.

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The Rhythm of a ScrollStory

By now you’ve scrolled through several sections and noticed the rhythm of a ScrollStory: heading, text, image, text, pull quote, text. This creates a visual cadence that keeps readers engaged without overwhelming them.

Think about pacing. Where do readers need a visual break? Where should an image reinforce your argument? When does a pull quote emphasize a key point? These decisions make the difference between a wall of text and an engaging narrative.

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What You’ve Learned So Far

If you can create this Seedling essay, you can:

• Structure content with section headings
• Add images with captions and source links (both standalone and wrapped with text)
• Place images on either side of the page (left or right)
• Include footnotes for citations
• Use pull quotes for emphasis
• Format block quotes for extended quotations
• Add alert boxes for tips and warnings
• Show several images in one place with a carousel

That’s enough to create compelling digital scholarship. The Forest essay uses additional Xanthan components, but this foundation works for many projects, especially when just getting used to designing an essay.

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Ready to Create Your Own?

New to Xanthan? Start with the Getting Started guide to create your own site first. Once you have a working site, you’ll have your own scrollstory you can edit.

Start simple. Get comfortable with the basics. You can always add complexity later by copying and pasting components out of the Forest essay.

To see the rest of them in action, head over to the Forest Essay.