Top 35 Best Obsidian Themes as Decided By Its Users

An out-the-box visual snapshot of the top downloaded Obsidian themes for your procrastination pleasure. Plus the next one for you to try.

As I was procrastinating writing my 2000 words this morning, I found myself in the themes section of Obsidian. If it’s one thing that Obsidian is absolutely amazing for, it’s procrasti-creating. A little bit of tweaking here, a little bit of rearrangement there, oh it feels like such a great use of my time!

Therefore I thought I would help you procrasti-create further by giving 35 ‘out-of the box’ screenshots of the most downloaded Obsidian themes at the time of writing (April 2023). You are welcome, by the way, for your upcoming procrastination, I mean productive, reading and trying-out-new-Obsidian-themes session! This is for everyone, like me, that hasn’t currently delved into the myriad of style settings and custom css options.

These are ranked in order of most popular, or at least most downloaded, so the users are the deciders of this best list, not me! I’ve put downloads in brackets (approximately March 2023 -> April 2023) and a percentage increase within the three weeks between me initially writing this and the publishing. Which are the rising stars I wonder?

One thing of note, that you must do before trying out themes, and something I did not realise I needed until round number 10. Some of these themes rely on the ‘StyleSettings’ plugin to work correctly. So I would suggest that you install this first! Some of the differences are very subtle. For example in Blue Topaz, the tags changed colour and the bolded text no longer had a slight grey background.

I’m using my current vault to illustrate the themes and a blog post I published a while back (How I Use Obsidian To Create a Blog Pipeline) with some added tags, a standard callout box and a highlight. OK, I also had to do a little housework in my vault first, just so there was nothing illegal, I mean secret projects, on view.

I’m going to comment on them as I go along. You may well have different opinions because a theme is very personal. As a general rule, I tend to switch between light and dark mode depending on my mood. I also like headings that stand out and you will see this in the comments as we go.

I also have blue set as my accent colour which I will not change throughout. Because we’re going all arty farty I’m also going to consider how the theme designers used their inspiration and/or name to influence the design choice. This is a super way to take a deeper look at the meaning and effort put into the little things as well as the general look.

This is not a super complete review, merely a 2 minute delve into each of the themes for a first impressions look. I think we can generally agree that 2 minutes, even 30 seconds, is enough time to consider whether we like an out-the-box theme or not. It takes a lot more effort to go delving into the other not ‘out-of-the-box’ features.

This sort of post brings me the utmost joy and pleasure to bring you. I love delving into lists like these, exploring all the options and sharing them with you. I hope that you find it useful. Here we go:

1. Default by Stephen Ango

“The theme is designed to feel native across all platforms, while prioritizing accessibility and a clear visual language. The theme is highly customizable and provides a new level of cohesiveness to the app.”

I think the default Minimal theme works best in light mode. I’m finding the links and tags difficult to discern in dark mode. Light mode is clean, the font is nice and I think it is generally pretty good. One thing I don’t like about this one, is the headings can be a bit tricky to discern from general text particularly if you want to hone in on a section.

2. Minimal by kepano (410,281 -> 427,481; +4.2%)

Now CEO of Obsidian, kepano designed the most popular downloaded theme and second only to the default Obsidian install. A sign that its basic, no-frills styling is well-loved. In fact, by number of downloads it blows every other theme out of the water. I can see why people love it, but it’s not for me. I don’t like how small the headings are so the sections in my text aren’t obvious.

3. Things by colineckert (264,710 -> 275,354; +4.0%)

I’m really liking the ‘Things’ theme. Modelled on the Things 3 app, it has really nice use of colours and is clean and simple. I think it looks better in light mode than dark mode, but this is a good one for me. I like how the bold text is a different colour from the rest of the text, helping it stand out more. I also like the colour separation in the YAML. It stands out, but not too much. As of writing this is my current theme.

4. Blue Topaz by Whyl (208,283 -> 215,467; +3.4%)

Blue Topaz is a theme I use every now and again. It was my default for a while. Blue Topaz is pretty calm and relaxed. Not a fan of it in dark mode though; the colours get a bit weird in my eyes. I prefer the file structure in this one than ‘Things’ because the difference between notes and folder is more obvious.

5. Obsidian Nord by insanum (150,108 -> 156,154; +4.0%)

I love the NORD github page; “An arctic, north-bluish color palette. A total of sixteen, carefully selected, dimmed pastel colors for a eye-comfortable, but yet colorful ambiance. … Nord consists of four named color palettes providing different syntactic meanings and color effects for dark & bright ambiance designs.”

With colour themes set around ‘Polar Night’, ‘Snow Storm’, ‘Frost’ and ‘Aurora’, what’s not to love? This one absolutely gets my top mark for inspired design.

I think it also has to be one of my favourites for dark mode. At first, I wasn’t sure about the blue, but after seeing a lot of the other dark mode options out there I think (personally) this is one of the better ones. It’s also pretty nice in light mode too.

6. Atom by kognise (141,158 -> 146,812; +4.0%)

A really nice clean interface. I like this one. It transfers really well between light and dark; better than the Default theme. Otherwise I had to compare this one side-by-side to the Default theme as it seems pretty similar. The highlighter is a little brighter as are the tags and page links. This is a good one if you want to use the same theme switching between light and dark.

7. Obsidianite by Benny Guo (117,168 -> 120,853; +3.1%)

Super cool name for this one and some unusual colour styling with the bold font. I’m a huge fan of the heading underlines which are denoted in a ‘swipe’ fashion. Overall though it is very similar to the default in the out the box mode. Dark mode is a little more different with a more intense blue background and different colour stylings.

8. Sanctum by jdanielmourao (88,704 -> 91,928; +3.6%)

“Sanctum’s a minimalist theme for creating a serene space of retreat, for thought and uninterrupted work.”

An interesting design choice with the orange; I wonder if that is inspired by the orange colours that buddhist monks wear? That’s pretty inspired if it is. I don’t think the orange works for me personally though. Night mode switches to green which is nice and ‘foresty’ which is also a cool touch. It’s definitely minimalist and it enables you to focus on the words rather than complicated design.

Given how close the following themes are in terms of downloads these will likely be jostling places as time goes on. And in fact 9 and 10 have switched place between my first and last drafts.

9. Shimmering Focus by pseudometa (77,941 -> 81,495; +4.6%)

A very interesting theme, which was the winner of the Obsidian Theme Award in 2022. Its ‘Design Philosophy’ is that of ‘Radical Minimalism’, a ‘Condensed Display of Information’ and a ‘High Customizability’. I definitely noticed the side bar on the left disappear, which I realise I don’t really use anyway. When I first installed it I thought I wouldn’t like the standard font choice, but actually, you know what? I think I really like it! I much prefer the light mode. This will be one I come back to for sure. And do you know what else I love, there is a bar at the side of the paragraph so I can tell the section I’m working on. That’s a nice touch. I can see why this theme won an award.

10. Dracula for Obsidian by jarodise (77,944 -> 80,582; +3.4%)

Great name, but not a theme I am personally keen on. I do like the definition of sections and this is the first on this list where this is the case. There is no light mode for this one, because that would make Dracula disappear in a poof of smoke, don’t you know.

11. Wasp by Santi Younger (71,942 -> 74,583; +3.7%)

Wasp comes into its own in dark mode, light mode is not so great. I love the yellow line styling of the sections and can see where the inspiration has been drawn from.
Santi has a great YouTube channel (and moustache) which I dip into occasionally (the channel, not the moustache…) . He is always full of useful tips and guidance, so I can’t help but be in awe! However this theme is not for me. But clearly 71,942+ people don’t agree 😅

12. Prism by Damien Korcz (65,258 -> 68,219; +4.5%)

Prism was the point at which I had to install the ‘StyleSettings’ plugin.
I really like Prism. Clearly styled on the purple of Obsidian, it has some really nice features, such as making it super obvious what tabs/views are open. I like the subtle colouring and the big bold headings. Overall a very inspired minimalist design which I like.

I feel this is another one that switches over to dark mode well. I’m definitely a fan of light and dark having the same colours to denote the same thing.

13. Cybertron by nickmilo (63,182 -> 65,012; +2.9%)

Created by the ever lovable and hard-working Nick Milo at ‘Linking Your Thinking’. A dark mode theme with inspiration drawn from the likes of videos games and movies and Keanu Reeves, this sets a bar for thoughtful design. Personally I’m not a fan of the colouring but as Nick says “You will either love this theme, or avoid it at all costs.” I’m afraid it’s the latter for me, but many disagree.

I can highly recommend his Obsidian flight school. Personally there are too many different colours for me in this theme and I’m not a fan of the background colour. That being said I like the design aesthetic he is going for and I think it is very inspired.

14. Obsidian Gruvbox by insanum (57,219 -> 59,689; +4.3%)

Gruvbox has an interesting yellow or ‘solarized’ colour scheme going on. I mean it’s like, woo sunshine! I don’t think I could work on this for a long time though, the colour takes some getting used to that’s for sure.

“Designed as a bright theme with pastel ‘retro groove’ colors and light/dark mode switching in the way of solarized. The main focus when developing gruvbox is to keep colors easily distinguishable, contrast enough and still pleasant for the eyes.”

15. Typewriter by crashmoney (56,986 -> 59,553; +4.5%)

Another winning theme designed for a focused writing experience
The creator has paid special attention to the font and page colour for the ‘vintage typewriter’ experience. The font is very similar to Shimmering Focus, so also consider that one if you like it.

16. Big Sur Aesthetic by David Golding (57,598 -> 59,308; +3.0%)

This theme is inspired by “macOS Big Sur’s interface styles”. Since I am not a mac user I can’t relate to this. Apart from the red colour tweak, I kind of feel this is pretty similar to the default and Atom themes in light mode, though dark mode is black rather than like the blue of Atom.

17. Everforest by MrGlitchByte (53,286 -> 56,057; +5.2%)

“Everforest is a green based color scheme, it’s designed to be warm and soft in order to protect developers’ eyes.”

18. 80s Neon by deathau (53,593 -> 55,222; +3.0%)

Dark, retro-future 80s inspired theme. This is one of the funkier themes available with a cool purple and pink vibe going on. It also has some neon lighting effects behind the sub-headings which is pretty cool too. I think this would be fun to try out for a short while but I’m not sure I could use it long term.

19. ITS Theme by SIRvb (49,117 -> 51,296; +4.4%)

“… designed with readability and customizability in mind”

I think for me this is one of my favourite dark theme modes. I typically find dark theme modes plagued by weird colour combos, but this one works for me, as it just focuses on one; red. I love the heading underlines which clearly separate out the different sections. I also like how the folders and files are clearly separated by colour too. I’m not sure red is necessarily the colour I would want to have in the longer run, especially in combination with blue and it would be something I would to change. Overall this one makes it into my top 5 for definite.

20. Notation by deathau (45,156 -> 46,765; +3.6%)

I couldn’t get this one to work?! Could be a clash with a plugin I have.

21. Obsidian You by joschua (39,481 -> 40,658; +3.0%)

“Obsidian You is based on Google’s Colour System and Typography. Carefully generated colour palettes make Obsidian beautiful, consistent and accessible.”

I don’t find this one hugely different from Default, but this one is apparently optimised for mobile which is great if you are a regular phone user. There’s some colour styling shifts which I like and if you’re a regular Google user then you may also appreciate the nod towards their colour scheme system.

25. Solarized by harmtendder (33,012 -> 34,748; +5.0%)

“Precision colors for machines and people”

I find the text hard to see in dark mode, but I do rather like the use of colour in light mode. As the name suggests it falls into the family of solarized styles with the yellow screen cast.

26. Terminal by zcysxy (31,559 -> 32,539; +3.1%)

Well, this is a special one! If you want to go all retro and remind yourself of what computers used to be like then head over to ‘Terminal’. The green reminds me of the Matrix. I used to code in R in a similar theme. It was pretty fun to think I was coding an alternate universe where machines rule the human race…but I digress. I did find it a bit trickier to navigate around the menus and things using this theme, but top marks for fun originality.

27. Clair de Lune by Jamie Byrnes (31,287 -> 32,209; +2.9%)

Clair de Lune has to be one of my favourite dark mode options. When I first tried it I wasn’t so sure but actually all the colours work really well together. If you like this one another one to consider would be Nord by insanum. This one however only has a dark mode. I’m a fan of colour in the YAML header which not that many themes tend to do.

28. Red Graphite by Sean Williams (30,776 -> 32,055; +4.2%)

This theme is based on Bear.app’s Red Graphite theme. The first theme on the list to use a major dual colour styling in light mode. I love it! It really gives focus to the writing window. To be honest I did find it a little too distracting in light mode. The contrast difference between the dark and light is a little too much for the eyes i the longer run. I do like the tab colour differentiation at the top though. In many themes it can be hard to see which tab it is you are actually on and this one solves that problem. The styling of the main window itself is almost identical to the ‘Default’.

29. Obuntu (Legacy) by Dubinin Dimitry (27,770 -> 28,884; +4.0%)

Modelled on Obuntu, this theme is now Legacy, which means it has limited further use and I guess won’t be updated in the future. I feel there are one or two interesting stylings such as the compressed menu making more efficient use of space. I did use this theme for a little while actually but stopped because I’m not a fan of the red as a highlight colour. It looks pretty good in dark mode though.

30. Night Owl by Ben Hong (27,654 -> 28,541; +3.2%)

This is quite a funky one but I do find it really bad for eye strain. The contrast between the blue and slightly off white make it too much for my eyes to bear. I do love the highlighted dividers though sectioning everything out as also used by Dracula and Wasp. No light mode for this one if you need to switch between the two modes.

31. Ono Sendai by pH (26,916 -> 28,158; +4.6%)

I’m thinking maybe this was inspired by the Sega development company; Ono Sendai? Some funky design points with this theme. The dark mode uses some interesting and vibrant colour highlights with the blue which I’m not such a fan of.

32. Typomagical by Hung-Su Nguyen (25,960 -> 26,992; +4.0%)

I like Typomagical. It’s super clean, no fuss styling is pretty appealing. I love the font use here. It was using this them up until I stwitched to Things. The reason was it didn’t seem to work properly with Make.md so I had to move away from it for now.

It transfers between light and dark mode really well which is partly why I find it appealing. I think the major reason is the ‘out-the-box’ font choice. Definitely one of my favourites this one. Ideally I would have liked to seen more definition between the general text and the headings. I also really like how the links stand out too.

33. AnuPpuccin by Anubis (22,692 -> 26,527; +16.9%)

This is a pretty cool theme if you’re into the blue look. It has a nice font and the layout is pretty clean. It’s an interesting choice to use orange as a secondary colour. I think for this reason, it works better in dark mode. However I find my eyes get a bit strained on the dark mode so this one is a no from me!

It was voted best theme in the Gems of the Year 2022 awards.

34. Spectrum by Wiktoria Mielcarek (25,876 -> 26,515; +2.5%)

I like spectrum for its retro looks.
Spectrum has a cool font style designed with the retro enthusiast in mind. The colour use I find a little random; I definitely think that it looks better in dark mode though. In fact I would go as far to say that the dark mode is pretty smart and actually the colours work well.

35. Bubble Space by Emrie Candera (25,916 -> 25,945; +0.1%)

I love bubble space. It is super cute. It was my go to theme for a good while.
This theme is inspired by Bubbles for Light Mode and Outer Space for Dark Mode hence the name “Bubble Space”!
Emrie has clearly worked very hard at making something that stands out from the rest of the crowd. Love it or hate it, this design gets top marks for out there design. I find the use of colours very tasteful and not at all garish.

Round-Up

I hope that you have enjoyed these screenshots. I left my initial draft using Typomagical, but then had issues with make.md so I switched to Things in light mode.

If you’re looking for the up and coming theme then you might want to check out AnuPpuccin. Once you dive deeper into this theme, it is super loaded with options. There are some cool rainbow palettes to play about with including custom tabs and backgrounds, custom callouts and checkboxes plus more besides. Looks to be a very powerful theme and one I clearly need to have a play around with.

Next procrastination session sorted.

I’ll leave my top out of the box, and the next 35 themes for another day…

If you’re curious about How I Use Obsidian To Create a Blog Pipeline it’s here on Medium.

Did you have a favourite? Are you a light and dark mode switcher like me?; I even have a custom hot key for light (Alt+L) and dark (Alt+D). Or have you gone out on your own and gone down the mega customisation route?

Until next time; procrasta-la-vista baby!