Obsidian is undoubtedly a powerhouse for knowledge management. However, the out-of-box aesthetics may feel bland to some. If you are looking for a note-taking space that not only organizes your thoughts but also delights the eye, you are not alone. Let me show you how I crafted an Obsidian vault that is not only highly functional and organized but also a genuinely beautiful and visually pleasing space to spend time with.
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Explore the default Obsidian settings
Before we dive into custom themes or CSS snippets, let’s explore the default appearance settings first. It offers a surprising amount of control over your vault’s look. Here’s what you need to do.
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Launch your Obsidian vault and open Settings.
- Head to Appearance.
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You can tweak interface font style, font size, text editor font, accent color, zoom level, window frame style, apply a custom app icon, and more.
These settings provide a quick and easy way to make significant visual changes without needing any coding knowledge (like CSS). At times, you might find that a community theme, combined with some adjustments to font sizes and accent colors, is all you need.
Install a third-party theme
Here is where Obsidian truly shines. The PKM tool has a robust fan following, and these power users offer around 370+ third-party themes to choose from. Whether you prefer minimal, busy, or dark aesthetics, you have ample options in the theme library. I personally prefer Encore theme for my vaults as it offers several eye-catching dark and translucent shades.
- Launch Obsidian and head to Settings.
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Select Appearance and click Manage beside Themes.
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Search for Encore (or any theme that you want to apply). Glance over the theme preview. If you like what you see, click Install and use.
And that’s it. You can now enjoy a UI makeover on your Obsidian vault. While most community themes are actively maintained, occasionally a theme might not be fully compatible with the latest version of Obsidian. If you encounter any unexpected issues after installing a theme, you can always switch back to the default theme or try a different community theme.
Some themes offer additional customization options within their settings. These might appear in the Appearance tab or even create their own dedicated settings tab.
Set up Style Settings plugin
In many cases, you can simply download your preferred theme and use the Style Settings plugin to unlock more customization options for your vault. It is one of the Obsidian plugins I wish I knew earlier.
Instead of requiring you to write and manage complex CSS code, Style Settings provides a panel of options in the form of dropdown menus, color pickers, sliders, and toggles that directly modify the underlying CSS variables of your theme. Many theme developers build in compatibility with Style Settings and offer various options for easy user customization.
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Head to Obsidian settings and open Community plugins.
- Disable restricted mode and browse the community plugins.
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Search for Style Settings plugin and install it.
- After a successful installation, the Style Settings plugin should appear under the Community plugins banner.
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Expand Numericals and make required changes.
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In my case, I can expand Encore (the theme that I installed) option and explore the range of customization options.
Here, I can apply different light and dark themes, tweak colors in text, translucency strength, apply a background image, and even add custom colors for italic text, bold, and headers. Overall, you won’t have a hard time tweaking your Obsidian vault to your liking.
Download Calendar plugin
I use Obsidian as a digital journal. Since it doesn’t come with a calendar integration, I use a third-party plugin to enable and pin the monthly calendar view on the Obsidian dashboard. That way, I can easily switch between my daily notes.
- Head to the community plugins menu (check the steps above).
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Search and install the Calendar plugin.
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Open any note and expand the sidebar from the top-right corner.
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Select calendar and now you can drag and drop it to any bottom corner (I have placed it at the bottom left corner).
Similarly, you can pin a graph on your Obsidian dashboard and navigate the relationships between your notes seamlessly.
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Install Iconize plugin
Iconize is another neat plugin for my eye-catching Obsidian vault. It lets me assign any icon to notes. You can head to the community plugin store, download Iconize plugin, and enable it for your vault.
From now on, you can type /icon in any note, search for an emoji (via text), and assign it to a note.
Fall in love with your notes
Creating a visually pleasing Obsidian setup is a personal journey. What resonates with one person might not with another, and that’s perfectly alright. By sharing my own process and design choices, I wanted to offer some inspiration and practical ideas to spark your own creativity.
I recommend you look at your own Obsidian setup with fresh eyes. Don’t be afraid to experiment with themes, CSS snippets, plugins, and even the subtle tweaks of your note organization. The goal is to craft a digital space that strikes the perfect balance between aesthetics and functionality. Check out my separate post if you are planning to migrate your life into Obsidian.
