Synthwave Pro

Synthwave Pro

English • Italiano

An Obsidian theme with a VaporWave / RetroWave vibe, built for people who spend long hours at the screen: programmers, engineers, heavy readers.

Philosophy

• Never pure black, never pure white — deep indigo background, warm off-white text.
• Neon used sparingly — accents reserved for headings, links, focus and syntax highlighting. Body copy stays calm.
• WCAG AA contrast on body text.
• Optional retro effects (glow, perspective grid, CRT scanlines): all off by default, toggle from Style Settings.
• Programmer feel: monospace headings by default, #/## prefixes on titles, code blocks with neon left border, monospaced status bar. The Terminal text style puts every line of your notes on a fixed monospace grid, like a terminal window.

Installation

1. Settings → Appearance → Themes → Manage, search for Synthwave Pro, then Install and use
2. Install the Style Settings plugin
3. Open Settings → Style Settings → Synthwave Pro

Manual install: copy manifest.json and theme.css into <vault>/.obsidian/themes/Synthwave Pro/, then select the theme in Settings → Appearance.

Requires Obsidian 1.13 or newer (callout colors changed format in 1.13). The theme also uses color-mix(), which needs a recent Obsidian installer (Chromium 111 or newer). If colors look wrong, download the latest installer from obsidian.md.

Variants (Style Settings)

Usage hints

• Long coding sessions → Tokyo Night or Soft Reading palette, glow off, depth medium.
• Maximum retrowave vibe → Synthwave + grid on + glow on (mind the headache after an hour).
• Long reading → Soft Reading, line-height 1.7, text style Clean.

Upgrading from 1.0.x

The old "Monospace headings" switch is now Typography → Text style. Classic (the default) keeps monospace headings. If you had turned monospace headings off, choose Clean.

Structure

obsidian-synthwave-pro/
├── manifest.json
├── theme.css
├── background.png      (screenshot, Synthwave palette)
├── background2.png     (screenshot, Tokyo Night palette)
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
└── README_it.md

Callouts & checkboxes preview

The blocks below render with full styling only inside Obsidian. GitHub renders a subset of callouts (NOTE / TIP / IMPORTANT / WARNING / CAUTION) and shows custom task markers as plain checkboxes.

Callouts

[!NOTE] Standard note Default block. Useful for general info that doesn't need extra emphasis. Syntax: > [!NOTE]

[!TIP] Useful tip Use callouts to organize notes visually. They can be nested. Syntax: > [!TIP]

[!IMPORTANT] Important Crucial information for understanding what follows. Syntax: > [!IMPORTANT]

[!WARNING] Warning Pay attention — this could cause confusion if ignored. Syntax: > [!WARNING]

[!CAUTION] Caution Proceed carefully. A wrong action here may cause data loss or major errors. Syntax: > [!CAUTION]

[!ABSTRACT] Summary Ideal for executive summaries. [!SUMMARY] is an alias. Syntax: > [!ABSTRACT] or > [!SUMMARY]

[!INFO] Info Technical details or supporting data. Syntax: > [!INFO]

[!QUOTE] Quote "The best way to predict the future is to create it." Syntax: > [!QUOTE]

[!SUCCESS] Success A process completed correctly or a hypothesis was verified. Syntax: > [!SUCCESS]

[!QUESTION] Question Open question highlighted as such. Syntax: > [!QUESTION]

[!FAILURE] Failure Something didn't work as expected, or a test failed. Syntax: > [!FAILURE]

[!DANGER] Danger High risk. Use only for critical warnings. Syntax: > [!DANGER]

[!BUG] Bug Track known software bugs in your notes. Syntax: > [!BUG]

[!EXAMPLE] Example

1. Start with > [!TYPE]
2. Add content on following lines. Syntax: > [!EXAMPLE]

Collapsible callout

Add a - after the type to make it collapsed by default.

[!TIP]- Click to expand Hidden until clicked. Good for long details or exercise solutions. Syntax: > [!TIP]-

Custom checkboxes

Base states

• To-do (default) [ ]
• Completed [x]
• Completed (uppercase) [X]
• [-] Cancelled / N/A [-]

Priority & urgency

• [!] URGENT — immediate action [!]
• [>] Delegated to someone else [>]
• [<] Postponed / scheduled [<]
• [/] In progress [/]

Ideas & creativity

• [*] Brilliant idea / favourite [*]
• [l] Insight / lightbulb [l]
• [B] Brainstorming [B]
• [Y] Reflection / thought [Y]

Doubts & verification

• [?] Open question [?]
• [w] To review [w]
• [V] Verified [V]

Development & tech

• [b] Bug to fix [b]
• [f] Feature request / flag [f]
• [k] Key / password / critical [k]
• [S] Secure / locked [S]
• [c] Cloud / sync [c]

Time & organization

• [t] Target / goal [t]
• [D] Deadline / date [D]
• [O] Estimated time [O]
• [z] Snoozed [z]
• [R] To refresh [R]

Communication & info

• [i] General info [i]
• [n] Numeric note [n]
• [Q] Open discussion [Q]
• [u] User involved [u]
• [m] Place / map [m]

Misc

• [p] Pin / fixed [p]
• [d] To delete / trash [d]
• [C] Recycle / review [C]
• [E] External link / web [E]
• [F] Hot / trending [F]
• [H] Home / main [H]
• [J] Celebration [J]
• [K] Tool [K]
• [L] Reading / study [L]
• [M] Finance / cost [M]
• [N] Quick note [N]
• [P] Pin (variant) [P]
• [T] Ticket / support [T]
• [U] High priority (up) [U]
• [W] Manual work [W]
• [a] Audio / recorded [a]
• [e] Email to send [e]
• [s] Saved / bookmark [s]

Author

Ing. Roberto Bissanti — aerospace engineer applied to renewable energy innovation (vertical-axis wind turbines, small wind systems, shape-memory alloys), based in Palermo, Sicily. Also a software developer for the cases the spreadsheet can't reach.

Mac user since 1989 — old enough to remember when "dark mode" meant the screen was off. The eyes are no longer twenty, hence Synthwave Pro.

• 📬 [email protected]
• 💼 LinkedIn
• 🐙 GitHub @robertobissanti

Issues, ideas and PRs are welcome on github.com/robertobissanti/obsidian-synthwave-pro.

License

MIT — use, fork, modify.

Credits

• Visual inspiration: Obsidian SynthWave by Marco Luzi.
• The Catppuccin palettes use the official colors of Catppuccin (MIT License, © 2021 Catppuccin).
• Terminal text style: line-grid technique from Stéphan Zych.

Third-party assets

• Lucide icons (ISC License) — used for custom checkbox glyphs.