Calliope

Calliope

An editorial theme for Obsidian. Cream paper and ink in light mode, paper by candlelight in dark mode, with typography borrowed from books and magazines.

Features

• Editorial typography: a serif for body text, a display serif for headings, and a clean sans-serif for the interface.
• Light and dark modes: warm cream paper with a terracotta accent, and a dark mode tuned to feel like reading by candlelight.
• Comfortable reading: generous line height and a narrow line width, like a printed page.
• Paper grain: a subtle noise texture over the note area.
• Book-style headings: small headings (h4–h6) in spaced uppercase, and a hairline rule under the note title.
• Ornamental dividers: horizontal rules (---) become a centered ⁂.
• Clean tables: horizontal rules only.
• Magazine-style blockquotes: slightly larger and in italics.
• Code blocks: a dashed border over a dot pattern.
• Colorful file explorer: folder and file icons, with six folder colors applied in sequence.
• Paper-like tabs: the active tab title uses the accent color and casts a soft shadow, like a sheet resting on another.

Fonts

The fonts are not bundled with the theme. For the intended look, install them on your system. All four are free:

Installation

From Obsidian

1. Open Settings → Appearance.
2. Under Themes, select Manage.
3. Search for Calliope and select Install and use.

Manually

1. Download manifest.json and theme.css from the latest release.
2. In your vault, create the folder .obsidian/themes/Calliope/.
3. Move both files into that folder.
4. Open Settings → Appearance and choose Calliope under Themes.

Feedback and suggestions

Missing something in Calliope? Have an idea, or found something that looks off? I'd love to hear from you. Open an issue on GitHub with your suggestion, and include a screenshot if it helps explain what you mean. You can also reach me by email.

Credits

• File explorer icons from Lucide, under the ISC license.