# ITS Theme: an Obsidian theme built around image and text adjustment > ITS Theme is an Obsidian theme by SlRvb, written for the author's own story vault and published for others to use, with a SCSS source tree, bundled CSS snippets and a Style Settings integration. It suits readers who want heavy control over images, embeds and typography and are willing to install a community plugin to get it. **SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme** — Theme designed with readability and customizability in mind. Change it easily to your liking with the Style Settings plugin installed. - Repository: https://github.com/SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme - Website: https://publish.obsidian.md/slrvb-docs/ITS+Theme/ITS+Theme - Stars: 778 · Forks: 129 - Language: SCSS - License: GPL-2.0 - Published: 2026-10-20 · Updated: 2026-10-20 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/slrvb-obsidian-its-theme ## A story vault theme that became a published theme ITS Theme by SlRvb started as a personal project. The documentation opens by describing it as a theme for the author's own Obsidian story vault, In The Shadows, and the repository name and directory layout make that origin visible. The SCSS directory holds the sources, the Guide directory holds per feature documentation, and the Snippets directory holds the CSS that the theme activates inside a vault. The stated design goal is readability and customizability, and the second of those words is the one that shapes the project. The theme is not a single look delivered as a finished artifact. It is a base style plus a set of independent adjustments, several of which are documented in the Guide directory as separate pages: image positions and adjustments, alternate checkboxes, callouts, CSS classes, embed adjustments, alternate themes, and folder styles. That is unusual for a theme and it is a genuine strength. Rather than asking you to accept a single opinion about how a checkbox or a callout should look, the project breaks the interface into pieces you can accept one at a time. It also means the surface area for breakage is larger, which is the trade nobody advertises in a theme repository. The project is published under GPL-2.0, it is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-13. The repository has no GitHub releases, so there is no tag history and no changelog of published versions to consult; the way to get the current state is to read the main branch. ## The repository is a source tree that compiles to a theme folder The file list at the top of the repository describes how the theme is assembled. There is a `SCSS/` directory holding the sources, and at the root sit `theme.css`, `obsidian.css` and `publish.css`, plus a `manifest.json` and a YAML file named `ITS Icons.yml`. Alongside those sit `Guide/`, `Snippets/`, `Images/`, `Slide Shows/` and an `Alt Color Schemes/` directory. Several things follow from that layout. The `manifest.json` at the root is the file Obsidian reads to register a theme, so the root of this repository is shaped like an installed theme folder rather than like a package. The `SCSS/` directory and the compiled `theme.css` coexist, which means the CSS that ships is generated from Sass sources rather than hand written end to end. A `.stylelintrc.json` at the root implies the styles are linted, and the `.github/` directory holds the automation for it. `publish.css` exists because of how the theme documents itself. The project documentation is hosted on Obsidian Publish, and that publishing service renders Obsidian notes, so the theme needs a stylesheet that works inside Publish as well as inside the app. That is a small detail that tells you the theme is tested in two rendering environments. The `Alt Color Schemes/` and `Slide Shows/` directories point to a second dimension of the project: alternative colour schemes and presentation files for the theme, rather than only an editor skin. The Guide directory includes an Alternate Themes page, and the feature list includes an entry for All Alternate Themes, so the alternate palettes are delivered as a snippet that ships with the theme rather than as separate releases. ## Getting the theme in place, and the plugin it expects There is no command line installation step in the project documentation, so there is nothing to run and no package name to add. The documentation points to the ITS Theme Documentation on Obsidian Publish as the place to start, and the repository itself is the artifact: a theme folder whose manifest can be placed in a vault's theme directory. What the documentation does spell out is the companion files. It tells you to download the Style Settings plugin, and describes it as allowing you to customize the ITS Theme to your liking. Two further files are recommended: an Encoded Icons snippet and an Encoded Fonts snippet, both located in the Snippets directory of the repository. Those two exist to supply the other icon fonts used by the Alternate Themes snippet, so the alternate palettes look right rather than falling back to missing glyphs. The rest of the snippets need no download at all. The documentation is explicit that the included snippets work out of the box the moment the theme is installed, and it lists them: checkboxes, callouts, image adjustments, aside, embed adjustments, kanban, and all alternate themes. The separate Encoded Icons and Encoded Fonts files are the exception, which is exactly why the documentation calls them out for download. So the intended sequence is short. Put the theme in the vault, install Style Settings, add the two encoded snippets if you want the alternate icon fonts, and then adjust the look through Style Settings rather than by editing CSS. The documentation also points to the Translation Contribution Guide for localization work, which is a separate concern from installation but a sign of how the project is run. ## Images get the most attention: centering, zoom and position The feature list devotes more lines to images than to any other single element, and that is where the theme's personality shows. Images are centered by default. Clicking and holding an image enlarges it, a behaviour credited to Kepano's image zoom snippet. And image positions can be changed, with the theme offering left, right and center placement, plus the ability to change types, inspired by Lithou's Image Flags snippet. The position feature has a documented conflict. The documentation warns that if you use Lithou's snippet, this feature does conflict with it, and it goes further than a warning by making position part of the attribution markup itself. An image wrapped in an italic pair of tags can carry an `alt` attribute that pushes the attribution to one side: ```html alt="left" alt="right" ``` Adding `alt="left"` or `alt="right"` pushes the attribution to the left or right of the screen, and the text inside the italic tags gets a different colour so that an attribution is distinguishable from surrounding prose. So the theme asks you to encode layout intent in note content, which is a design decision with a cost: the notes stop being plain text, and moving a note to another vault or another theme carries the markup along. Embedded files are handled separately from ordinary images. Embedded files get smaller headers and a single colour, so an embed reads as a distinct object rather than as a page of its own. There is also a whole snippet for embed adjustments, and an aside style for comments. ## Readability choices that some readers will not want The theme is opinionated, and a few of its choices will cost you more than they give. Headings are underlined with a rule that spans the page depending on the heading level, tags are rendered as rectangular pills rather than plain hash marks, edges are squared rather than rounded, and the graph view is coloured. Metadata is styled in a minimal way, and a custom horizontal line replaces the default one, credited to a forum post by TriDiamond. Popovers are larger than the Obsidian default, with images fitted inside the popover window in some cases and cropped in others. Blockquotes get a soft background, a wider measure, and quotation marks added in the top right corner. Line relationships are drawn as bullet points, credited to Lizardmenfromspace, and folder navigation icons are credited to Deathau. None of that is a technical problem. It is a taste problem, and it is the reason the theme ships with an adjustable typography section. The documentation names the main fonts, with the primary ones near the `listed:` key and alternates below it: Calisto MT for headings with Suez One, Palatino Black and Georgia Bold as alternatives, and JetBrains Mono Medium for monospace with Recursive Mono Casual Static Medium as an alternative. If a heading font is not installed on your system, the fallback matters more than the theme's own CSS, and that is one of the few things to check before you decide the theme looks wrong. The Style Settings support is what makes the adjustments possible without a CSS editor, and the description of the theme, readability and customizability, is a fair summary of the project. The Style Settings plugin is a community plugin, and a vault that forbids community plugins cannot use it. ## Deprecated snippets, an absent release trail, and the GPL-2.0 terms Some of the theme's history is still visible in the repository, and it is worth reading before you copy files around. The Guide directory includes a section of deprecated snippets, listing the HTML `` attributes, the Asides snippet, and Alternate Admonitions. The deprecated list is in a comment in the project documentation, which means it is easy to miss, and copying a deprecated snippet into a vault can reintroduce behaviour the author has since replaced. The maintenance picture is thin but not worrying. The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-13, which puts it inside a six month window at the time this is written. There are no GitHub releases, so there is no versioned artifact to download and no release notes to read; you install from the main branch and you get whatever is there. For a theme that depends on a plugin for its settings interface, the compatibility question is the one to ask: the plugin reads the settings the theme declares, and a theme update that changes those declarations can leave a stale plugin configuration behind. The project documentation does not describe a migration path or a rollback. The licence is GPL-2.0. For personal use the terms are not something you act on. If you want to redistribute the theme, fork it, or bundle it in something you publish, the GPL obligations attach, and a modified version distributed to others has to be offered under the same terms. The LICENSE file in the repository holds the full text. That is a question for whoever handles licensing where you work rather than something to decide from a summary, but the broad answer is that GPL-2.0 is permissive for use and demanding for distribution. One last practical note: the theme also credits a documentation site of its own on Obsidian Publish, and the Guide pages in the repository cover image positions, alternate checkboxes, callouts, CSS classes, embed adjustments, alternate themes and folder styles in more detail than the summary in the README does. ## When ITS Theme is the wrong choice The first case is a vault that is mostly text. A theme that spends its effort on image placement, attribution markup, embed styling and popover geometry buys you very little if your notes are prose and links. The underlining on headings, the tag pills and the squared edges would be the parts you would actually see, and they are precisely the parts most likely to clash with a preference for plain text. The second case is a plugin-restricted environment. The intended way to adjust the theme is through the Style Settings plugin, and the encoded icon and font snippets are also community snippet files. In a vault where community plugins are off, the theme installs but you lose the adjustment layer that the project's own documentation presents as the point of the theme. The third case is content portability. The attribution markup with `alt="left"` and `alt="right"` embeds layout intent inside your notes. If you move notes between vaults, or share them with someone on a different theme, that intent travels with the text and produces different results in the other place. The documentation presents this as a feature, and it is one, but it is a feature with a coupling cost. The alternative worth comparing is the plain snippet approach: a handful of CSS snippets in your own vault, adjusted by hand, with no theme folder and no plugin dependency. The difference in approach is ownership and surface. A theme is a complete replacement for the application styling, so you accept its choices about headings, tags, popovers and the graph view, and you fight it in the places you disagree. A snippet is additive, so you change only what you care about and leave the rest of the interface as Obsidian renders it. ITS Theme wins when you want that single coherent look and are willing to tune it; snippets win when you want one specific adjustment and no opinions about the rest. The third option is a different style of theme entirely, one that treats the editor as secondary to the reading view, and ITS Theme is not that, because its feature list is built around the editing surface with the metadata, image adjustment and folder styling work. ## Conclusion ITS Theme is worth trying if you want an Obsidian appearance that treats images, embeds and callouts as first class objects and if you already accept community plugins in your vault, since the Style Settings plugin is the intended way to adjust it. It is a poor fit if you want a neutral look, if you cannot install plugins, or if you need a theme with a published release trail, because the repository has no GitHub releases and the last push was on 2026-09-13. Before adopting it, read the ITS Theme documentation on Obsidian Publish, check the deprecated snippets list so you do not re-enable retired CSS, and confirm that the Style Settings plugin and the encoded icon and font snippets are acceptable in your vault. ## FAQ ### How do I install ITS Theme in Obsidian? The project documentation has no command line install step. It points to the ITS Theme Documentation on Obsidian Publish, and the repository root is shaped like a theme folder with a manifest.json, theme.css, obsidian.css and publish.css. ### Do I need the Style Settings plugin to use ITS Theme? The documentation describes the Style Settings plugin as the way to customize the theme to your liking, and the feature list states that Style Settings is supported. The theme still installs without it, but you lose that adjustment layer. ### Which snippets come with ITS Theme and which do I have to download? Checkboxes, callouts, image adjustments, aside, embed adjustments, kanban and all alternate themes ship with the theme and work out of the box. The Encoded Icons and Encoded Fonts snippets in the Snippets directory have to be downloaded separately, because the alternate themes rely on those icon fonts. ### How do I move an image to the left or right in ITS Theme? The theme centres images by default and offers left, right and center positions, inspired by Lithou's Image Flags snippet. The documentation notes that this conflicts with Lithou's snippet if you use it, and that the image flags feature does conflict with it. ### Does ITS Theme support dark and light mode? Yes. The feature list names dark and light mode, and the repository includes preview images for both, along with separate images for the feature panels and for edit mode. ### Is ITS Theme still maintained and what licence is it under? The repository is not archived and the last push was on 2026-09-13, though it has no GitHub releases, so there is no versioned artifact to install. The theme is distributed under GPL-2.0, with the full text in the LICENSE file. ## Sources - [Issues](https://github.com/SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme/issues) - [License: GPL-2.0](https://github.com/SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme/blob/main/LICENSE) - [Project website](https://publish.obsidian.md/slrvb-docs/ITS+Theme/ITS+Theme) - [README](https://github.com/SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme/blob/main/README.md) - [SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme on GitHub](https://github.com/SlRvb/Obsidian--ITS-Theme) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/slrvb-obsidian-its-theme