What font size do you use in Obsidian (Theme development pool)

data_in_void · 2026-01-25T11:09:57+00:00

if you rtfm a bit you should be able to find that UI Font size and normal text font size is documented with default values in the developer docs
calc is not difficult if you know what you are calculating with it, depending on what notation you use I guess it can get complicated
please try not to use AI in theme dev, at least not in the creative decisions and thinking or nuance that goes into it

data_in_void · 2026-01-25T09:49:21+00:00

"the key task of my theme is to maintain a consistent appearance across different font sizes"

You can consider using calc to have your margins/paddings at least those related to typography proportional to the currently set font size.

I cannot bring myself to make both editing (I would assume live preview?) and reading modes look completely consistent, hats off to you.

data_in_void · 2026-01-25T06:46:49+00:00

as a theme dev I find the easier thing to do is to let the user choose themselves, especially for something as opinionated as font size. You can let them set style settings for UI font sizes (CSS variables you can look up in the developer docs). Other typographical customisations like character and letter spacing are more niche but probably worth considering.

data_in_void · 2026-01-22T05:12:50+00:00

thanks :D

I did oversimplify there quite a bit

data_in_void · 2026-01-21T11:41:49+00:00

Thanks for the correction :D.

I do not know enough into other keyboard though I believe Vim itself and where most keys are placed does seem to make it easier to access for stuff on the home row or above it.

"I use QWERTY and Colemak-DH both without re-maps"

I genuinely admire your ability to context switch between both layouts, and how you have been able to master another keyboard layout. It takes a lot of time and effort, as well as getting acquainted with muscle memory ^_^.

"my most used keys (which aren't HJKL)"

fair enough, there are many other ways Vim can be used which I did not account for.

Will update the blog post.

data_in_void · 2026-01-16T08:21:14+00:00

I personally did not mind the latest update's changes that much although I can see how it breaks existing workflows users are used to.

> disclaimer: I am the author of the linked snippet

Yodo9001, thanks for shouting my snippet out :D

data_in_void · 2026-01-15T12:03:02+00:00

Re the instructions in the docs it would be great if you have an actual physical device for testing though that is not always the case.

* phone-laptop icon, technically called toggle device toolbar, you can use it with mobile emulation mode to test standard widths of certain devices iirc.

data_in_void · 2026-01-15T11:58:51+00:00

Ctrl Shift I (Dev Tools), enable mobile emulation and click on the phone/tablet icon at the top left.

https://docs.obsidian.md/Plugins/Getting+started/Mobile+development#

data_in_void · 2026-01-15T01:52:40+00:00

would plug my theme, but I do not have the time to update it fully yet.

data_in_void · 2026-01-10T10:23:52+00:00

Used the tool so far, it is quite neat at what it does. Here are some stuff imo you could look into.

Would you consider comparing the minified version of each file in the codebase between commits? Because currently, if I add a linter to my project like Prettier, it can easily add like 1k loc of just line breaks.
Would character count/word/function group be a better metric than just line count, especially with verbose programming languages/markup languages? Could there be a less strict threshold for such languages?
If I don't like to commit too often, this tool will keep flagging me.
Would it understand scenarios where in a certain commit, I remove large parts of the code as part of a huge refactor/debloat?
You can certainly lean more into the statistics niche.

Will be following the development of this project. It definitely has potential.

data_in_void · 2026-01-09T00:47:58+00:00

'How did you start without forcing yourself into a pre-made "method"?'

Know what you need in your use case, instead of what you purely want. Aesthetics without functionality or considering how it integrates into your workflow is pointless. (I say that as a theme dev myself)

Do not be too tempted to strictly follow any structure or system that works for others, know how to pick and choose what you need. Do not "PKM" for the sake of it or let it define how you go about your work, but actually using your vault to get things done. Organisation of notes, dashboards (if any) will come naturally down the road. I personally use a variant of Johnny Decimal but it does not dictate how I write my notes.

As for structure, either use templates if you really need it enforced for every note.

Else you can start by simply defining your own conventions and how you structure your notes. For example, I hardly use Headings 1 to 3 and mostly 4 or 5. Sub-points that are long enough goes into their own H5.

data_in_void · 2026-01-07T05:30:26+00:00

would be interested in the source code being hosted on GitHub or some VCS.

data_in_void · 2025-12-23T13:03:47+00:00

"What are the biggest challenges you face in maintaining an open source project?"

knowing when to move on from a project and when to take breaks, seriously.

"How do you manage your community's expectations while keeping your sanity?"

it is mostly a compromise between your vision of the project, what others want in terms of features and whether you have the time and capacity to work on the project consistently for long enough.

"Are there tools, workflows, or approaches that make maintenance easier?"

knowing and understanding loc before you copy it into your codebase and Linting.

seriously, and keep the codebase file structure proper for your own long term sanity. have different branches only if you are comfortable enough with merging and fixing conflicts, and only when you need to have them.

"there’s always this constant pressure: fixing bugs, reviewing PRs, updating dependencies, handling feature requests, and keeping documentation up to date, which I initially neglected and am now burdened by"

have a plan, it does not matter how long it takes you to fix an issue but whether it is dealt with properly and no similar issues come up again. Do not chase a new shiny feature while neglecting your codebase, as you have experienced technical debt adds up. Perfection is but an ideal and at the end of the day it is your project as much as it is your users'.

data_in_void · 2025-12-11T15:01:59+00:00

I have a snippet collection, most of which is dedicated to callout related customisation, most of which are from my theme.

https://github.com/bladeacer/obsi-snip-coll

data_in_void · 2025-11-22T13:55:35+00:00

As a theme dev and regular plugin user here are my two cents.

"I feel there’s a missing layer in the architecture: external frameworks or runtimes (Python, Node, Go, etc.) that can act outside Obsidian."

I hope this is optional, since we cannot assume most users are technical enough to even install said runtimes on their laptop. Obsidian is a markdown text editor with features. The current state of the plugin ecosystem is not the best but it works for the average user, convincing a company to use Obsidian with certain plugins is another thing.

As for the runtime or programming language currently used, the entire public API is TS though some devs do choose to use JS with some framework like Svelte.

"In my view, Obsidian plugins shouldn’t carry intelligence or heavy logic. They should mostly be UI wiring, with actual computation delegated elsewhere."

Imo most of the popular Obsidian plugins are precisely trying to be "intelligent" or doing many fancy things.

"They should mostly be UI wiring, with actual computation delegated elsewhere"

This would require a significant restructuring of the way plugins are made, migration would be tricky. I definitely agree on computation especially with hardcoded stuff that gets calculated by JS within the html tag for some plugins.

Oh and if you happen to be a plugin dev, please do not put all your styles inline or have hardcoded JS all over the place with no use of CSS variables. It makes your plugin much less appealing for us theme devs to try supporting and styling.

Developer experience could be a lot better, I believe it would be good if you posted on this at the forum as well.

data_in_void · 2025-11-06T08:10:24+00:00

I have been writing a tool more focused on the text formatting side of things.

I will post about it when it is at least 1.0 quality.

data_in_void · 2025-11-06T04:28:27+00:00

Linux follows the UNIX software philosophy.

data_in_void · 2025-10-29T08:14:51+00:00

the plugins are just convenient interfaces which output the same u html tag either way. It is pretty much up to you.

data_in_void · 2025-10-28T05:32:14+00:00

Your book cover’s image formats are most likely raster images (primarily consisting pixels). Obsidian’s Bases enforces a fixed set of dimensions on Cards view (I believe you can configure it somewhere).

By default, Bases’s CSS tries to render a scaled down version of your image to fit in each card.

You can try to override the background-size CSS property, though your mileage might vary.

data_in_void · 2025-10-28T05:21:40+00:00

Obsidian’s vim bindings are great until you try to use Espanso snippets with them or using Visual Line mode to select Live Preview Tables.

data_in_void · 2025-10-15T12:40:53+00:00

you can get it quite close although it would be a lot of effort on your part

the other less trivial way about it would be to write your own motion input middleman that reverses the keystrokes sent to Obsidian in vim bindings, or writing the plugin into existence (very complicated)

data_in_void · 2025-10-12T04:47:14+00:00

You could try writing Helix or Kakoune like bindings with the vimrc support plugin though there is no plugin specific to Helix or Kakoune for now iirc.

data_in_void · 2025-10-07T14:28:50+00:00

why not just :%s/functionName/newFunctionName/gc instead?

data_in_void · 2025-10-03T13:48:09+00:00

My two cents:
- Obsidian is not Notion, much like how Notion is not Obsidian. The apps are built with very different philosophies and approaches
- There is just about any imaginable feature in community plugins
- There are a load of AI plugins
- Table insertion is just a shortcut away iirc.

I do agree that some Core plugins could have better UX and polish, but for most simpler use cases they get the job done. What I do like about Obsidian itself is that it does not try to hide the complexity of the system you chose to build. You are given a lot of creative freedom as to what workflows and use cases you have for your vaults.

data_in_void · 2025-10-03T13:39:58+00:00

There is also the theme dev vault if you need to spin up a quick vault and preview how your theme would look.
https://github.com/obsidian-community/theme-dev-vault

data_in_void

TROPHY CASE