basekno / obsidian-sanctum

A minimalist theme for Obsidian, with the aim of creating a serene space of retreat, for thought and uninterrupted work.

Sanctum’s a minimalist theme with the aim of creating a serene space of retreat, for thought and uninterrupted work.

Installation

Sanctum is now available in Community Themes! In obsidian, go to Settings ➞ Appearance ➞ Manage, and look for Sanctum.

You can also manually install Sanctum by:

1. Downloading the CSS file and moving it into the folder .obsidian/themes/ located in your vault folder;
2. Rename the css file to Sanctum.css;
3. In Obsidian, go to Settings ➞ Appearance ➞ Themes ➞ Reload themes, and select Sanctum.

Font recommendations

This theme recommends the use and installation of the IBM Plex font family in your system, although it still works well with default fonts. It also supports iA Writer fonts, for those who enjoy using them in their writing, and has them by default. This is because iA Writer is much more space efficient, and won't interfere a lot with the theme's loading time. You can download IBM Plex using this snippet, and enabling it in Appearance ➞ CSS Snippets.

If you do want to have IBM Plex as the main font, or any other font for that matter, you can install the Style Settings Plugin, and add them under Typography➞Fonts, in the Style Settings Plugin Options.

Recommended Plugins

• Smart Typography: for a better and coherent writing experience;
• Contextual Typography: For a better typographic experience.
• Style Settings: for customization options

Design Principles

Intentional

• This theme was made with the intent of clarifying Obsidian's UI, reducing the unnecessary clutter and keeping what's essential for an enjoyable and intuitive experience;
• Greyscale palette is the same both for light as well as dark theme;
• Colour is also used for contrast when hovering and activating elements.

Consistent

• Every element is styled according to a predetermined grid, scale, animations (based on IBM's Carbon Design System) and colours - this conveys consistency throughout the theme;
• The theme was created with the intention of using only one workhorse font, used everywhere, but styled differently. Thus the theme comes with only 1 font family - iA Writer's font family, specifically iA Writer Mono V and iA Writer Quattro V. This font family not only provides the user with an enjoyable experience, but it also comes in variable files, meaning they're smaller in size, and shouldn't affect the theme's performance. It is expected that this font family will be compiled into a single file in the future, which will only make the theme lighter in size, as well as more versatile when it comes to text styling.
• Offer a similar enjoyable experience, independently of screen size or device.

Clean

• Use of calming colours, only used either to convey importance, or in the note file itself;
• The background colour is the same in every element, to reduce visual noise and give a more calming atmosphere;
• Elements are related to each other using the rules of visual gestalt. This means that they're grouped by proximity, in a common region or as a focal point.

Showcase

Preview Mode

Edit Mode

Modal

Prompt

Resize Handles

• Resize Handles are understated, until hovered.

Features

• Variable headings - they'll change size depending on screen size;
• Custom icons (as well as custom file icons!);
• Sidenotes (credit @SlRvb);
• Multi-Color Highlights (credit @Atlas);
• Custom Checkbox / Task types;
• Custom Codeblock language - pure-text, that enables you to write text for easy copying;
• Custom Link icons;
• Image desaturation: better for consistency, they gain normal colour when hovered (credit @kepano);
• WYSIWYG hr elements in Edit Mode, as a compliment to Smart Typography. If the plugin is enabled, add and extra dash for it to work;
• Active line highlighting;
• Folded heading/list indicator (in edit and preview mode).

(for a more comprehensive walkthrough of Sanctum's features, check out the Theme Guide)

Plugin Support

• Advanced Tables
• Block Reference Counter
• Breadcrumbs
• Calendar
• Changelogs
• Charts
• Checklist
• Copy Code Button (it now supports Obsidian v0.12.17's new code copy button!)
• Dataview
• Excalidraw
• Gallery
• Kanban
• Quick Explorer
• Sliding Panes (Andy’s Mode)
• Style Settings
• Templater

(for plugin support requests & issues, refer to Feedback & Contributions)

Feedback & Contributions

If you encounter an issue, or would like to contribute to this theme, don't hesitate to submit an issue or raise a PR. You can also message me on Discord @jdaniel or on the Obsidian Forums.

Disclaimer

The following theme significantly alters Obsidian's original css, and so is prone to breaking upon new Obsidian updates, as well as being incompatible with custom css snippets. It is also in a very early stage of development, and so quick and sometimes drastic changes may be expected in the near future. Having said that, any and every piece of feedback is appreciated! More customization options will be available in the future.

Support

If you enjoy my work and would like to support it, you may click the icons below, or the links on the right side of this repository.