# Setup

Material for MkDocs offers a wide range of options for customizing and adjusting 
your documentation. In this section, we will explain how to make the most use of 
Material for MkDocs to change the look of your documentation, add more content,
improve its functionality, and work with extensions.

## Customizing the look

Make your documentation reflect your brand by changing its colors, fonts, icons, 
logo, and more with just a few lines of configuration. Material for MkDocs makes 
it easy to extend the basic configurations and provides many options to alter 
the appearance.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :material-brush-variant: __[Colors]__ – Change colors with an existing color palette or customize with CSS
- :fontawesome-regular-file-word: __[Fonts]__ – Change fonts using Google Fonts or load self-hosted fonts
- :material-google-downasaur: __[Logo & Icons]__ – Change the logo, use any of the +8,000 icons, or add new ones 

</div>

  [Colors]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/changing-the-colors/
  [Fonts]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/changing-the-fonts/
  [Logo & Icons]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/changing-the-logo-and-icons/

## Adding additional content

Easily extend the content of your documentation. Adjusting headers, including a 
footer, creating a blog, implementing comment systems, and automatically creating 
social media previews.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :material-format-header-1: __[Header]__ – Customize the header using different configurations 
- :material-format-font-size-decrease: __[Footer]__ – Add links to social media or other websites in the footer 
- :material-cards-variant: __[Social Cards]__ – Create automated Social Media previews when sharing links
- :material-book-open-outline: __[Blog]__ – Build a standalone blog or expand your documentation with one
- :material-comment-text-outline: __[Comment System]__ – Add a third-party comment system on any page or footer

</div>

  [Header]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-the-header/
  [Footer]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-the-footer/
  [Social Cards]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-social-cards/
  [Blog]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-a-blog/
  [Comment System]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/adding-a-comment-system/

## Enhancing functionality

Improve the functionality of your documentation by integrating navigation and 
site search, categorizing pages using tags, changing the language, or adding 
multiple languages, and deploying multiple versions.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :material-navigation-variant-outline: __[Navigation]__ – Create a clear, concise, and comprehensive navigation structure
- :material-tab-search: __[Site Search]__ – Set up an excellent client-side search implementation
- :fontawesome-solid-earth-americas: __[Language]__ – Change the language using one of the +50 existing translations
- :octicons-tag-16: __[Tags]__ – Categorize your pages with tags and group related pages
- :octicons-versions-16: __[Versioning]__ – Deploy multiple versions by integrating with external utilities

</div>

  [Navigation]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-navigation/
  [Site Search]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-site-search/
  [Language]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/changing-the-language/
  [Tags]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-tags/
  [Versioning]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-versioning/

## Optimizing your site

Optimize your site by displaying information from your Git repository, getting a 
higher ranking on search engines, ensuring compliance with data privacy 
regulations, and unlocking offline usage.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :fontawesome-brands-git: __[Git Repository]__ – Display information to your project's repository on your static site
- :material-screwdriver: __[Optimized site]__ – Create optimized sites that rank great on search engines, i.a.
- :octicons-lock-16: __[Data Privacy]__ – Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations
- :octicons-cloud-offline-16: __[Offline usage]__ – Build an online and offline-capable documentation

</div>

  [Git Repository]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/adding-a-git-repository/
  [Optimized site]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/building-an-optimized-site/
  [Data Privacy]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/ensuring-data-privacy/
  [Offline usage]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/building-for-offline-usage/

## Working with extensions

Extend the range of available features and enhance your technical writing by 
working with extensions in your documentation.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :material-language-python: __[Python Markdown]__ – Unlock a large range of features that require Python Markdown
- :material-plus-box: __[Python Markdown Extension]__ – Advance your technical writing with a collection of extensions

</div>

  [Python Markdown]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/extensions/python-markdown/
  [Python Markdown Extension]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/extensions/python-markdown-extensions/

## Dependencies

Install external libraries to allow for image processing as part of the build 
pipeline to make use of social cards and image optimization features.

<div class="grid cards" markdown>

- :fontawesome-regular-image: __[Image processing]__ – Install external libraries for image processing during the build pipeline

</div>

  [Image processing]: https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/dependencies/image-processing/