Upgrade Your GitHub README.md

#github #tutorial #design

Creating Your README.md
Brainstorming
Skill Badges
Social Media & Languages/Frameworks
README.md Generator
DevCard
Helpful Links

Your profile README.md acts like the resume recruiters see after your resume. We want it to be as captivating and presentable as it can be while still holding a bit of our personality within it.

What does your README.md look like? Does it include your GitHub stats? Any blog posts from Medium, Dev.to, etc. (if you post)? Do you have languages and frameworks neatly displayed as icons or categorized as most used? No? Me either...Let's figure out how to do just that.

Get Started

We can't exactly customize a README.md that doesn't exist. GitHub Docs perfectly explains how to create yours, if it doesn't already exist.

Time to Get Ideas

There are plenty of others who already have beautifully designed (and some, complex) files we can get ideas from. Your readme.md is yours. While displaying the appropriate content, it should reflect a bit of you.

Here's are some links that may be helpful:

Adding Your Skills

You can use shields.io to create cunstomized badges. It would look like this:

![](https://img.shields.io/badge/<WORD_ON_LEFT>-<WORD_ON_RIGHT>-informational?style=flat&logo=<LOGO_NAME>&logoColor=white&color=2bbc8a)

Similarly, you can also use this approach:

<div id="badges">
  <a href="your-linkedin-URL">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/LinkedIn-blue?style=for-the-badge&logo=linkedin&logoColor=white" alt="LinkedIn Badge"/>
  </a>
  <a href="your-youtube-URL">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/YouTube-red?style=for-the-badge&logo=youtube&logoColor=white " alt="Youtube Badge"/>
  </a>
  <a href="your-twitter-URL">
    <img src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Twitter-blue?style=for-the-badge&logo=twitter&logoColor=white " alt="Twitter Badge"/>
  </a>
</div>

Adding Icons

When you want to add a section that says something like You can find me at [twitter icon] or on [linkedin icon] then you can use a version of the following code:

<!-- Actual text -->

You can find me on \[!\[Twitter\][1.2]\][1], or on \[!\[LinkedIn\][3.2]\][3].

<!-- Icons -->

[1.2] : http://i.imgur.com/wWzX9uB.png (twitter icon without padding)
[2.2] : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MartinHeinz/MartinHeinz/master/linkedin-3-16.png (LinkedIn icon without padding)

<!-- Links to your social media accounts -->

[1] : https://twitter.com/Martin_Heinz_
[2] : https://www.linkedin.com/in/heinz-martin/

When it comes to including your languages and frameworks, DevIcons GitHub Repository has free logos you can use. This would look something like:

<div>
  <img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/java/java-original-wordmark.svg" title="Java" alt="Java" width="40" height="40"/>&nbsp;
  <img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/react/react-original-wordmark.svg" title="React" alt="React" width="40" height="40"/>&nbsp;
  <img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/spring/spring-original-wordmark.svg" title="Spring" alt="Spring" width="40" height="40"/>&nbsp;
  .
  .
  .
  <img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/nodejs/nodejs-original-wordmark.svg" title="NodeJS" alt="NodeJS" width="40" height="40"/>&nbsp;
  <img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/amazonwebservices/amazonwebservices-plain-wordmark.svg" title="AWS" alt="AWS" width="40" height="40"/>&nbsp;
  <img src="https://github.com/devicons/devicon/blob/master/icons/git/git-original-wordmark.svg" title="Git" **alt="Git" width="40" height="40"/>
</div>

README Generator

Wait...I don't have to write the code myself? No.

Check out github-profile-readme-generator by Rahul Jain. The simply to use site generates the markdown you need. All you have to do is enter in your desired statements. Try for yourself here!

daily.dev DevCard

A while ago, we launched dev cards! A fantastic concept where you can show off how many articles you read, your favorite publications, and show off your rank!
Chris Bongers

Creating a DevCard is quite simple with a GitHub profile. And using GitHub actions, it will automatically get updated, showing your reading interests and ranking. A wonderfully detailed step-by-step guideline on how to set up yours by Chris is right here: