Color Math

Automatically apply beautiful, semantic colors to LaTeX and MathJax equations in Obsidian Markdown.

Obsidian Color Math dynamically transforms plain monochrome equations into rich, readable mathematical expressions. It operates seamlessly across both Live Preview and Reading View, with support for dynamic real-time coloring and permanent Markdown exports.

Rendered MathJax equations displayed with signature Tokyo Night semantic color roles.

[!TIP] 100% Local, Pure TypeScript & Zero Dependencies: Color Math runs completely offline on Desktop and Mobile (iOS & Android). It makes zero network requests, collects no telemetry, and requires no external tools or AI services.

[!NOTE] Looking for the Python CLI & Library? Check out python-color-math (pip install python-color-math) to colorize equations in batch scripts, terminal pipelines, Jupyter notebooks, or Quarto documents without needing Obsidian open!

✨ Key Features

1. ⚡ Dynamic MathJax Interceptor (Zero Note Modification)

• Automatic Rendering: Color Math hooks directly into Obsidian's internal MathJax pipeline (tex2chtml and tex2svg). Rendered equations in Live Preview and Reading View appear in full color automatically without altering your raw notes!
• Both Inline & Display Math: Full support for inline equations ($...$) and display blocks ($$...$$).
• Piecewise Environments (\begin{cases}): Full multi-branch recognition with condition alignment (&) and relations (\ge, \le, \ne, <, >).

2. 🌈 Rich Semantic Palette & Theme Integration

• Signature Tokyo Night Palette: Carefully calibrated pastel tones designed to reduce visual clutter and eye strain.
• Theme Auto-Sync: One-click extraction of accent and syntax colors from your active Obsidian theme.
• Light / Dark Mode Contrast Adaptability: Automatically shifts operator contrast (e.g. =, \cdot, spacing) so equations never wash out on light backgrounds.

3. 🧠 Smart Mathematical Disambiguation

• Piecewise Cases & Relations: Accurately formats and colors multi-branch conditional functions without swallowing subsequent lines.
• Half-Colored Completion: Automatically detects partially colored or edited equations and completes them end-to-end rather than skipping them.
• Physical Units & Metric Prefixes: Distinguishes metric prefixes (e.g. 1.064\, \mu m, 10 m/s, 500 nm, 50 kg) from algebraic variables, with a dedicated "Natural Color" option to keep units uncolored if desired.
• Calculus Differentials & Derivatives: Identifies infinitesimal differentials (dx, dt, d\theta) and derivative fractions (\frac{d}{dx}, \frac{df}{dx}, \frac{\partial \psi}{\partial t}) so calculus operators stay unified, while preserving standalone distance $d$.
• Quantum Bra-Ket Notation (Dirac): Recognizes kets (|\psi\rangle), bras (\langle\phi|), and brackets (\langle\phi|\psi\rangle, \langle\psi|\hat{H}|\psi\rangle), keeping delimiters cleanly styled.
• Dimensionless Numbers: Recognizes contiguous engineering numbers (Re, Ma, Pr, Nu), while preserving separated variables (R e) as distinct entities.

4. 🛠️ IDE Visual Enhancements

• Rainbow Delimiters: Recursively colors nested parentheses, brackets, and braces by depth to eliminate delimiter blindness in complex algebraic expressions.
• Symbol Taxonomy: Distinguishes constants ($\pi, \hbar, \infty$), Greek parameters ($\alpha, \theta, \lambda$), standard functions ($\sin, \cos, \ln$), and bound iteration indices ($\sum_{i=1}^n$).
• Variable Data-Flow Hashing: Deterministically assigns unique, consistent colors to distinct identifiers across an equation to visually trace the flow of variables.

🚀 Usage

Ribbon Menu

Click the Color Math palette icon on the left ribbon to access quick actions:

• Bake colors into note (Permanent): Permanently embeds LaTeX \textcolor{...}{...} wrappers into all math blocks and inline math in your note.
• Clean baked colors from note: Safely strips all color wrappers back to clean, plain LaTeX.
• Bake / Clean current math block: Targets only the equation under your cursor.
• Bake / Clean selection: Targets highlighted text in the editor.

Command Palette

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+P or Cmd+P) and search for:

• Color Math: Bake colors into note (Permanent)
• Color Math: Clean baked colors from note
• Color Math: Bake colors into current math block
• Color Math: Clean baked colors from current math block
• Color Math: Bake colors into selection
• Color Math: Clean baked colors from selection

⚙️ Settings

📦 Installation

From Obsidian Community Plugins (Recommended)

1. In Obsidian, open Settings > Community plugins.
2. Turn off Restricted mode.
3. Click Browse and search for Color Math.
4. Click Install, then Enable.

Manual Installation

1. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
2. Create a folder named color-math inside <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/.
3. Move the downloaded files into that folder.
4. Reload Obsidian and enable Color Math under Settings > Community plugins.

💬 Feedback & Community

Feedback, questions, and feature requests are very welcome!

• Share your thoughts or suggest features: Join the conversation on GitHub Discussions.
• Report bugs or rendering issues: Open a GitHub Issue.

🛠️ Development & Testing

npm install
npm run build     # Builds production main.js
npm run test      # Runs Vitest test suite (97/97 passing)
npm run dev       # Watch mode with inline sourcemaps

📄 License

Released under the MIT License.