Aubade is a retro-brutalist theme for Obsidian. It prioritises strict geometry, high contrast, and tactile interactions over soft gradients and rounded corners. Designed for users who require their digital workspace to feel like a structural tool.
- Strict Geometry: A zero-radius policy applied globally. Every corner is sharp; every container is a box.
- Tactile Feedback: Buttons and interactive elements feature hard, directional shadows (4px offset) that flatten physically when pressed.
- High Contrast Borders: 2px thick borders define every UI element, ensuring clear separation between panes, notes, and metadata.
- Retro Typography: Defaults to
Space Monofor UI andAzeret Monofor text, reinforcing the terminal/typewriter aesthetic.
Default |
Reader |
Amber |
Solarized |
Midnight |
Sunset |
Ocean |
Forest |
Lavender |
Warm |
Cool |
Monochrome |
Brutalist |
Patterns
- Dashboard Ready: Built-in grid support for dashboard layouts, automatically handling column breaks and gap spacing.
- Mobile Optimised: Features a custom bottom navigation bar, neutralised animations for better performance, and enlarged touch targets.
- Nuclear Anti-Roundness: Specific overrides ensure no plugin or native element introduces rounded corners.
- Striped Headers: Windows 95-style pinstripe gradients on window titles and tab containers.
This theme contains the following typefaces:
- iA Writer Quattro S by Information Architects: Source
- Azeret Mono by Displaay: Source
- Space Mono by Colophon Foundry: Source
- Noto Sans Mono by Google: Source
- iA Writer Duo S by Information Architects: Source
- iA Writer Mono S by Information Architects: Source
Clarification: Typefaces are embedded within the theme, ensuring they are available offline and on any device without requiring local installation.
In Style Settings, you can choose any of these fonts for either the Body or the UI/Headers.
You can fine-tune the reading experience in Style Settings.
Modify the text alignment of your notes using the dropdown menu:
- Left aligned (Default)
- Right aligned
- Centre aligned
- Justified
When Obsidian's "Readable line length" setting is enabled, the editor width defaults to 700px. You can adjust this global maximum width in Style Settings using a slider ranging from 500px to 1600px.
Note on Mobile: These width constraints apply to Desktop only. On mobile devices, the theme automatically fits content to the screen width.
- Line Height: Adjust line spacing between 1.0 and 3.0 (Default: 1.5).
- Inline Title Size: Adjust the size of the inline title between 1.0em and 5.0em (Default: 3em).
Use the cssclasses property in your frontmatter (YAML) to override global settings for specific files. These classes function regardless of your global "Readable line length" setting.
Useful for notes containing wide tables or diagrams:
width-800(800px)width-900(900px)width-1000(1000px)width-1200(1200px)width-1600(1600px)full-width(100% of pane width)
To hide the frontmatter, inline title, and property metadata for a specific note:
hide-all
Example:
---
cssclasses:
- width-1200
- hide-all
---The theme allows you to organise your notes into a clean, visual grid. The system supports native Obsidian Callouts and automatically handles column distribution (responsive flow).
To activate, add cssclasses: dashboard to your note's frontmatter. Every Callout within that note will transform into a masonry card.
---
cssclasses:
- dashboard
---
> [!abstract] General
> - [[Link 1]]
> - [[Link 2]]
> [!abstract] Essays
> - [[Link A]]
> - [[Link B]]
> - [[Link C]]
> [!abstract] Projects
> - [[Project X]]
> - [[Project Y]]- Open Settings > Appearance.
- Click Manage under Themes.
- Search for Aubade.
- Click Install and then Use.
- Download
theme.cssandmanifest.jsonfrom the Releases page. - Open your Obsidian vault folder.
- Navigate to
.obsidian/themes. - Create a new folder named
Aubade. - Paste the files into this folder.
- Reload Obsidian and select Aubade in Settings > Appearance > Themes.
