Tategaki

English | 日本語

Tategaki is a desktop-first Obsidian plugin that lets you edit and view Markdown in a vertical (tategaki) layout. Desktop only. Mobile is not supported.

Status:

• Available from Obsidian Community Plugins.

What it can do

• Writing & Reference mode
  • Edits Obsidian Markdown directly (no conversion / no sync step)
  • Vertical / horizontal writing layout
  • Paragraph-level source text editing
  • Keyboard navigation tuned for vertical writing, including Home / End / PageUp / PageDown
  • Typewriter scroll
    • Keeps the caret near a configurable follow position while typing
    • Supports configurable follow position and follow band width
    • Works together with scroll past end so the caret stays comfortable near the document end
  • Visual focus options for Writing & Reference mode
    • Highlight the active editing block
    • Highlight the current line
    • Dim non-focused paragraphs / blocks
    • Can be used together with Typewriter scroll or independently
  • Ruby (furigana) support (Aozora Bunko style), e.g. ｜漢字《かんじ》
  • TCY support
    • Explicit TCY: ｟A｠ / ｟12｠ for 1-4 characters
    • Automatic TCY with configurable minimum / maximum alphanumeric digit length
  • Images (standard Markdown images and Obsidian embeds)
  • Outline navigation and heading folding
  • Selection mode options for Writing & Reference mode (fast-click / native-drag)
    • New installs now default to fast-click
    • While Typewriter scroll is active, selection behavior is treated effectively as fast-click
  • Outliner-style list editing: move items, change nesting with Tab / Shift+Tab, and keep ordered lists renumbered
  • Improved Enter / Shift+Enter behavior in list items and blockquotes
    • Enter continues or exits naturally, and Shift+Enter can be used for in-item line breaks and continuing blank lines
  • Horizontal rules can be deleted directly in Writing & Reference mode with Delete / Backspace
  • Toolbar controls for Typewriter features
    • Toggle Typewriter scroll, editing-block highlight, current-line highlight, and non-focus dimming from one menu
• Book mode
  • Measured pagination for reading
  • Frontmatter can be shown on a separate cover page
  • Page breaks or title pages can be inserted before headings
  • Ruby display support
  • Outline navigation and page transition effects
• Compatibility mode (TipTap-based editor) for older workflows
  • Search / replace
  • Inline source text editing
  • Checklist editing and heading folding
  • Automatic TCY digit-range settings are also applied here
  • Sync backups (can be disabled in settings)
  • Planned for removal in a future update; migration to Writing & Reference mode is recommended
• Theme and display settings
  • Fonts, spacing, heading layout, IME offsets, and related display options
  • Typewriter settings are temporarily disabled while source mode / plain text view / paragraph plain edit is active, then restored when returning to normal Writing & Reference mode

Installation

The recommended installation method is Obsidian's built-in Community Plugins browser.

1. Open Obsidian Settings.
2. Go to Community plugins.
3. Select Browse and search for Tategaki.
4. Install and enable Tategaki.

See INSTALL.md for detailed install, update, manual install, and uninstall notes. If you are upgrading from <=1.2.1, check the ID migration notes in both README and INSTALL.md.

Migration Note (ID change)

As of 1.2.2, the plugin ID changed from tategaki-plugin to tategaki (submission requirement alignment).

If you are updating from older versions, Obsidian may treat this as a different plugin.

• Disable old plugin: tategaki-plugin
• Install/enable new plugin: tategaki
• If needed, copy settings manually:
  • from .obsidian/plugins/tategaki-plugin/data.json
  • to .obsidian/plugins/tategaki/data.json
• Re-check custom hotkeys for plugin commands
• After confirming everything works, remove old folder tategaki-plugin

Reviewer Notes

• Platform: Desktop only (Windows / macOS / Linux). Mobile is not supported.
• Telemetry: No telemetry or analytics of any kind.
• Network access: The plugin only contacts GitHub when the user explicitly presses the manual update check button or opens the release/support link. No automatic network calls occur.
• Vault file listing: The plugin enumerates Markdown files to support file switching, paired Writing & Reference views, and new-note workflows.
• Vault read/write: The plugin reads and writes vault files only for editor/reader operation, new-note creation, compatibility-mode sync, and backup creation.
• Clipboard access: Clipboard read/write is used for explicit copy, cut, and paste operations inside the editor or context menu.
• Local storage: Compatibility mode writes sync backups to <vault config folder>/tategaki-sync-backups/ (typically .obsidian/tategaki-sync-backups/). Writing & Reference mode does not create backup files.

Documentation

• Quick start: QUICKSTART.md
• Manual: MANUAL.md
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Japanese README: README.ja.md

License

Apache-2.0 (see LICENSE)