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How to Increase and Resize Text in Obsidian Notes App

Obsidian is a popular note-taking and knowledge management app that uses markdown formatting. With its flexibility and customizability, Obsidian enables you to effectively organize your ideas and reference materials.

However, some users find the default text size in Obsidian too small for comfortable reading and editing. Fortunately, there are a few straightforward ways to increase text sizes in Obsidian to suit your needs.

Adjusting Font Size in Settings

The simplest method to make text bigger in Obsidian is by changing the font size in Settings:

  • Click on the gear icon in the bottom left to open Settings
  • Go to Appearance > Font
  • Adjust the Interface Font Size and Text Font Size sliders until you reach your desired text size

Benefits:

  • Affects all notes and panels in Obsidian
  • Simple to adjust back and forth
  • Granular control over text sizes

Drawbacks:

  • Requires relaunching Obsidian to take effect
  • Universal size change may not suit all content types

Using Markdown Headers

Markdown headers automatically increase heading text sizes. To resize a text block, turn it into a header:

# Heading 1
## Heading 2 
### Heading 3

Benefits:

  • Allows different text sizes within the same note
  • Headers help structure notes
  • No relaunch needed to take effect

Drawbacks:

  • Only useful for headings and formatting text blocks
  • Excess headers can clutter notes

Employing HTML Tags

For temporary text resizing, wrap the text in HTML tags like <font size="5"> and </font> to dynamically increase sizes.

Benefits:

  • Customize specific parts without affecting everything
  • Instant preview without relaunching Obsidian
  • Creative possibilities for text formatting

Drawbacks:

  • HTML knowledge required
  • Easy to neglect closing tags
  • Not as beginner friendly

Installing Themes and Plugins

The community has developed various Obsidian themes and plugins that give advanced text formatting controls.

For example:

  • Minimal Theme – customize font sizes directly in plugin settings
  • Style Settings – format text color, size, fonts through toolbar

Benefits:

  • Granular formatting options
  • Live preview edits
  • No CSS knowledge required

Drawbacks:

  • Dependence on third-party development
  • Potential compatibility issues during updates
  • Additional setup time required

Using Custom CSS Snippets

For full text formatting flexibility, CSS snippets allow customizing text sizes and styles.

To access:

  • Go to Settings > Appearance
  • Under “CSS snippets”, click the folder icon
  • Create a new CSS snippet like content {font-size: 22px;}
  • Save and enable the snippet

Benefits:

  • Complete text formatting control
  • Adapts Obsidian’s looks to your exact needs

Drawbacks:

  • Requires CSS knowledge
  • Potential debugging of style conflicts
  • Snippets syncing can be tricky

Other Text Resizing Options

Here are some other helpful tips for resizing text in Obsidian:

  • Use zoom accessibility settings under Appearance
  • Toggle reading mode for clean text view
  • Try different community themes
  • Adjust system display scaling settings

While Obsidian’s default text size may seem small at first, there are ample solutions through built-in settings, Markdown, plugins, CSS snippets, and OS configurations.

With some experimentation, you can customize Obsidian’s text sizes, styles, and reading experience to suit your exact needs and preferences. The helpful Obsidian community is also constantly improving text formatting flexibility with new plugins and themes.

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