Color Math

🎨 Obsidian Color Math

Semantic color for LaTeX and MathJax equations — making math effortless to read and understand.

Monochrome LaTeX equations are visually dense and mentally exhausting to parse. Obsidian Color Math automatically transforms plain mathematical expressions into clear, semantically colored notation in real time, so your brain can distinguish operators, variables, functions, and differentials at a glance.

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🌈 Before & After (Live Rendered Math)

1. Calculus & Chain Rule

Before (Monochrome LaTeX):

{d}/{dx} f'(g(y)) = f'(g(y)) \cdot g'(y)y' " Now double quotes can be used for text. "
% {}/{} can be used for fractions. 

$$ \frac{d}{dx} f(g(y)) = f'(g(y)) \cdot g'(y)y' \text{ Now double quotes can be used for text. } $$

After (Semantic Color Math): $$ \textcolor{#bb9af7}{\frac{d}{dx}} \textcolor{#7aa2f7}{f}\textcolor{#e0af68}{(}\textcolor{#bb9af7}{g}\textcolor{#7aa2f7}{(}\textcolor{#e0af68}{y}\textcolor{#7aa2f7}{)}\textcolor{#e0af68}{)} = \textcolor{#7aa2f7}{f'}\textcolor{#e0af68}{(}\textcolor{#bb9af7}{g}\textcolor{#7aa2f7}{(}\textcolor{#e0af68}{y}\textcolor{#7aa2f7}{)}\textcolor{#e0af68}{)} \cdot \textcolor{#7aa2f7}{g'}\textcolor{#e0af68}{(}\textcolor{#e0af68}{y}\textcolor{#e0af68}{)}\textcolor{#e0af68}{y'} $$

2. Quantum Mechanics & Bra-Ket

Before (Monochrome LaTeX): $$ i\hbar \frac{\partial}{\partial t} |\psi(t)\rangle = \hat{H} |\psi(t)\rangle $$

After (Semantic Color Math): $$ \textcolor{#e0af68}{i}\textcolor{#e0af68}{\hbar} \textcolor{#bb9af7}{\frac{\partial}{\partial t}} \textcolor{#e0af68}{|}\textcolor{#ff9e64}{\psi}\textcolor{#e0af68}{(}\textcolor{#7dcfff}{t}\textcolor{#e0af68}{)}\textcolor{#e0af68}{\rangle} = \textcolor{#ff9e64}{\hat{\textcolor{#7aa2f7}{H}}} \textcolor{#e0af68}{|}\textcolor{#ff9e64}{\psi}\textcolor{#e0af68}{(}\textcolor{#7dcfff}{t}\textcolor{#e0af68}{)}\textcolor{#e0af68}{\rangle} $$

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✨ Features & Ergonomics

Typst Features

• Backslash-Free Greek & Constants: Write bare Greek letters (alpha, beta, gamma, pi, omega, Delta) and symbols (oo $\to \infty$, hbar $\to \hbar$, nabla $\to \nabla$, partial $\to \partial$, ell $\to \ell$) without tedious backslashes. Supports dotted Typst identifiers (arrow.r) and trailing primes (hbar'', alpha').
• Typst Font Callouts: Clean font macros like bb(R) $\to \mathbb{R}$, cal(L) $\to \mathcal{L}$, bold(v) $\to \mathbf{v}$, frak(g) $\to \mathfrak{g}$, scr(F) $\to \mathscr{F}$, with full support for nested expressions (bold(f(x)), bb(R^n)).
• Infix Inverted Division: Visual-first slash divisions like {a + b} / {c + d} or 12 / 3 are rendered as vertical fractions ($\frac{a+b}{c+d}$, $\frac{12}{3}$) directly on screen in Live Preview without mutating raw markdown text on disk.
• Double-Quoted String Literals ("..."): Typst-style string literals ("...") and \text{...} blocks are completely shielded from mathematical variable coloring, supporting script coloring and upright styling in exponents (x^"exp") and subscripts (x_"label"), while preserving consecutive spaces via LaTeX control spaces (\ ).
• Delimiter Auto-Scaling: Standard parentheses ( \frac{a}{b} ), single vertical bars | \frac{a}{b} |, and double bars \| \mathbf{M} \| automatically scale to matching \left ... \right heights for fractions, determinants, norms, and absolute values.

Core Features

• Zero Note Modification (Live Interceptor): Hooks directly into Obsidian's internal MathJax rendering engine. Equations appear in full color in Live Preview and Reading View without altering your raw markdown notes on disk.
• Live Syntax Warnings & Compiler Crash Immunity:
  • Live Preview Squiggly Warnings: Unclosed quotes ("), stray braces (}), and unbalanced delimiters receive subtle red wavy underlines directly in Live Preview to flag syntax mistakes without interrupting your typing.
  • Auto-Healing & Compiler Crash Immunity: Automatically auto-seals unclosed delimiters, converts unclosed quotes ($x = 1 " if y = 0$) into \text{...}, balances stray braces as {}, and heals unclosed \left with ghost closing tags so MathJax and KaTeX never throw fatal rendering errors while you type.
• Smart Whitespace & Function-Aware Normalization:
  • Context-aware argument grouping replaces TeX's rigid single-token splitting. Intelligently groups multi-digit numbers (\frac 12 3 $\to \frac{12}{3}$), cohesive monomials (\frac 1 2x $\to \frac{1}{2x}$), parenthesized terms (\frac (a+b) c $\to \frac{a+b}{c}$), and function calls (\frac \sin(x) \cos(x) $\to \frac{\sin(x)}{\cos(x)}$).
  • Strictly respects matrix and alignment cell walls (& and \\) to prevent arguments from overflowing across tabular boundaries.
• Matrix & Tabular Alignment Polish:
  • Adds comfortable cell breathing room and padding for matrix elements (mjx-mtd, .matrix td).
  • Protects \substack{... \\ ...} and tabular environments from delimiter misinterpretation and color flooding.
• Zero-ReDoS Physical Units & Whitespace Affinity Grammar:
  • Static Unit Engine: Instant $\mathcal{O}(1)$ table lookup for standard SI and compound units (m/s^2, km/h, GeV, \mu m, kHz), completely eliminating regex backtracking.
  • Whitespace Affinity: Tight spacing ($\le 1$ space / 0 spaces) treats expressions as dimensional units with automatic LaTeX thin spacing ($12\text{ m/s}^2 \to 12 ; \mathrm{m/s^2}$), while wide spacing ($\ge 2$ spaces) and arithmetic operators ($12 + m$) preserve standalone algebraic variables.
  • Single-Letter Safety: Single letters (m, s, g, N, A) are protected from accidental unit collision by default; activatable per-note via YAML frontmatter (units: physics), settings, or Typst quotes (12 "m").
  • Nested Unit Exponents: Unit powers and exponents are colored harmoniously (\textcolor{unit}{m/s^{\textcolor{upper}{2}}}).
• Rainbow Depth Coloring: Nested parentheses, brackets, and braces (((...))) receive recursive rainbow depth coloring so you never lose your place in deep algebraic expressions.
• Smart Mathematical Disambiguation:
  • Calculus Differentials: Identifies infinitesimal differentials (dx, dt, d\theta) and derivative fractions (\frac{df}{dx}, \frac{\partial u}{\partial t}) while leaving standalone variables like distance $d$ untouched.
  • Quantum Bra-Ket: Formats Dirac state vectors and expectation values (|\psi\rangle, \langle\phi|, \langle\phi|\psi\rangle).
  • Piecewise Environments: Full recognition of \begin{cases} environments, conditions, and relations.
• Eye-Comfort Palettes:
  • Calibrated default Tokyo Night palette designed to eliminate eye strain during long study and writing sessions.
  • Curated themes: Catppuccin Mocha, Nord, and Clean Light.
  • Auto-Contrast Adaptation: Automatically tunes operators (=, \cdot) for crisp readability across dark and light Obsidian themes.
• 100% Reversible (Zero Lock-In):
  • Bake Colors: Embeds standard LaTeX \textcolor{...}{...} wrappers when exporting notes to standard PDF or TeX.
  • Clean / Undo: Instantly strips all color markup back to pristine, uncolored LaTeX anytime.

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⚡ Performance & Battle-Tested Reliability

• 👑 Lemire MPHF Engine (6,897+ Symbols): Full-string FNV-1a hashing with Daniel Lemire's branchless fast range reduction and a 16 KB L1 displacement table delivers 55 ns flat lookup across 6,897 mathematical symbols with 100% collision-free resolution.
• Battle-Tested Reliability (172,000+ Formulas): Validated across a corpus of 6,392 multi-page math documents and 172,823 mathematical formulas from university-level mathematics, physics, and engineering — resulting in 0 syntax regressions and 0 parser crashes.
• 120 Hz Display Budget ($<8.33\text{ ms}$): Sub-microsecond tokenization ensures smooth, lag-free typing even on 120 Hz high-refresh displays.
• Linear Time Complexity $\mathcal{O}(N)$: Single-pass tokenization without backtracking — scales smoothly with note length.
• Viewport-Constrained: Live Preview highlights only equations currently visible on screen, keeping 10,000-word notes stutter-free.
• Zero Idle CPU (0.0%): Purely event-driven; no background polling loops, watchers, or worker processes.
• Hard-Bounded Memory: Built-in LRU render cache keeps memory overhead under ~5 MB.
• 100% Local & Private: Pure TypeScript with zero binary dependencies, zero telemetry, and zero network calls. Fully compatible with desktop and mobile (iOS & Android).

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🚀 Quick Start

Installation

1. In Obsidian, open Settings > Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode.
3. Click Browse, search for Color Math, then click Install and Enable.

Everyday Usage

• Read & Write: Just write your equations naturally ($...$ or $$...$$). Color Math renders them automatically in Live Preview and Reading View.
• Ribbon Palette Icon (fx): Click the left ribbon icon for instant access to Bake and Clean actions.
• Command Palette (Ctrl+P / Cmd+P):
  • Color Math: Bake colors into note (Permanent)
  • Color Math: Clean baked colors from note
  • Color Math: Bake / Clean current math block
  • Color Math: Bake / Clean selection

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🛠️ Settings & Customization

Open Settings > Color Math to customize:

• Palette: Fine-tune individual hex values for variables, numbers, operators, differentials, and constants.
• Feature Toggles: Individually enable or disable rainbow delimiters, calculus differentials, physical units, or bra-ket notation.
• Interactive Preview: Live equation sandbox inside the settings tab to test your palette in real time.

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📄 License

Released under the MIT License.