docs: add index.rst to allow docs to build, fix rendering issues in readme

Author: zmx27

README.rst

@@ -44,28 +44,28 @@ Independent Installation
 ------------------------
 You can also install ``diffpy.distanceprinter`` independently for yourself.
 
-Assuming you have a wheel file in the current working directory, in an active conda environment please type
+Assuming you have a wheel file in the current working directory, in an active conda environment please type ::
 
     pip install ./diffpy.distanceprinter-VERSION.whl
 
 where you replace VERSION with the actual version you have so the command matches the filename of the
 wheel file you have.
 
-The commands to create and activate the conda environment with name "distanceprinter-env" is
+The commands to create and activate the conda environment with name "distanceprinter-env" is ::
 
     conda create -n distanceprinter-env python=3.13
     conda activate distanceprinter-env
 
 If you don't have conda installed, we recomment you install `miniconda
 <https://docs.conda.io/projects/miniconda/en/latest/miniconda-install.html>`_
-To install this software from a Python wheel distribution format execute
+To install this software from a Python wheel distribution format execute ::
 
     pip install ./diffpy.distanceprinter-VERSION.whl
 
 If you are a developer, you can also install this package from sources. First, obtain the source archive
 from `GitHub <https://github.com/diffpy/diffpy.distanceprinter/>`_.
 Install the packages in ``./requirements/conda.txt`` and ``./requirements/tests.txt``
-using the `--file`` command:
+using the ``--file`` command ::
 
     conda activate distanceprinter-env
     conda install --file ./requirements/conda.txt

docs/source/index.rst

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+#######
+|title|
+#######
+
+.. |title| replace:: diffpy.distanceprinter documentation
+
+``diffpy.distanceprinter`` - Distance Printer, calculate the inter atomic distances. Part of xPDFsuite.
+
+| Software version |release|
+| Last updated |today|.
+
+===============
+Getting started
+===============
+
+Welcome to the ``diffpy.distanceprinter`` documentation!
+
+This package is not designed to be installed independently. To get started, please visit
+https://www.diffpy.org/products/xPDFsuite.html for more information about the xpdfsuite package and 
+download the package together with ``diffpy.xpdfsuite``.
+
+=======
+Authors
+=======
+
+``diffpy.distanceprinter`` is developed by Xiaohao Yang and Billinge Group members. The maintainer for this project is Simon Billinge. For a detailed list of contributors see
+https://github.com/diffpy/diffpy.distanceprinter/graphs/contributors.
+
+============
+Installation
+============
+
+See the `README <https://github.com/diffpy/diffpy.distanceprinter#installation>`_
+file included with the distribution.
+
+================
+Acknowledgements
+================
+
+``diffpy.distanceprinter`` is built and maintained with `scikit-package <https://scikit-package.github.io/scikit-package/>`_.
+
+=================
+Table of contents
+=================
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 2
+
+   Package API <api/diffpy.distanceprinter>
+   release
+   license
+
+=======
+Indices
+=======
+
+* :ref:`genindex`
+* :ref:`search`