How I made Obsidian feel like Bear
I like Obsidian for files, links, and search. I don’t like how it looks out of the box — too much cockpit for a writing day.
If you want something closer to Bear (calm type, centered column, less chrome), you don’t need twenty plugins. Here’s what actually changed it for me:
| What | How |
|---|---|
| Things + Moonstone | Appearance → theme, light base, accent #d14c3e |
| Bear Sans / Avenir, 15px | Appearance → interface & editor font |
| Readable line length | Editor → on (narrow column, no extra plugin) |
| Smart Typography | Quotes/dashes while typing |
| Hider | Trim chrome; stop before Search/tabs get annoying |
That’s the stack. Filename helpers, Git sync, AI — add them when you have a job for them, not for the aesthetic. For browsing notes as documents instead of paths, I use Papertrail; that’s separate from how the editor looks.
Links: Things · Smart Typography · Hider