# Obsidian Themes Themes restyle the entire [[Obsidian]] interface. A theme is just a `theme.css` file plus a manifest, installed per [[Obsidian Vault|vault]] into `.obsidian/themes/`. Hundreds of community themes are browsable and installable from **Settings → Appearance → Themes**. ## How they work - Obsidian exposes its whole UI through CSS variables; a theme overrides them (see [[Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)]]). - Themes support light and dark variants; Obsidian switches with the OS or manually. - Many themes expose options through the Style Settings community plugin instead of forcing you to edit CSS. Popular reference points: Minimal (by [[Steph Ango]], before he became Obsidian's CEO), Things, AnuPpuccin. Minimal in particular shaped what "clean Obsidian" looks like for a lot of users. ## Themes vs snippets A theme replaces the whole look. For targeted tweaks on top of any theme (hide an element, change a width), use [[Obsidian CSS Snippets]] instead; snippets survive theme switches and are much easier to maintain. ## Good to know - Themes are pure CSS: no code execution, so they are safe to install even in [[Obsidian Restricted Mode]] terms; restricted mode does not disable them. - A heavy theme can slow rendering on large notes; when Obsidian feels sluggish, testing with the default theme is a cheap first diagnostic. ## References - Themes: https://help.obsidian.md/Extending+Obsidian/Themes - Build a theme: https://docs.obsidian.md/Themes/App+themes/Build+a+theme ## Related - [[Obsidian]] - [[Obsidian CSS Snippets]] - [[Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)]] - [[Obsidian Vault]] - [[Obsidian Restricted Mode]] - [[Steph Ango]]