This site is the handbook of the template Example for QuartzControl. It explains what the template does and how to adapt it — and it is the evidence at the same time: every page here is built with exactly this template. Whoever changes something on their own site can compare it with the original here.
Three doors
New here? Chapter 1 – Getting started explains on four short pages what Obsidian, Quartz and QuartzControl have to do with each other, and how a note becomes a website.
Writing? Chapter 2 – Formatting shows every element you can write in Obsidian — as source and as result.
Changing something? Chapter 6 – Adapting says where a colour, a typeface or a spacing comes from and how to change it, mostly without a line of code.
The seven chapters
| Chapter | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| 1 – Getting started | What is this, and how does it fit together? |
| 2 – Formatting | How do I write bold, a table, a diagram — and what does it look like then? |
| 3 – Obsidian formats | What becomes of a base, a canvas, a drawing? |
| 4 – Controlling a page | How do I hide a page, give it a date, a second name, a cover image? |
| 5 – The design | What does the template do differently from Quartz on every part of the page — and why? |
| 6 – Adapting | How do I change colours, typefaces, spacing, the page grid, the languages? |
| 7 – Reference | What does this word mean? What does not work, and why? |
What makes the template
Three decisions carry everything else; in full they stand under 1.1 – What this template is.
- The width decides the grid. The page grid gives the text its column; there is no second limit on the individual paragraph that could fall out with it.
- Colours are measured. 93 colour pairs meet the contrast threshold of the WCAG guideline in light and dark, the thirteen restated callout colours included. Quartz’s own do not — eleven of their thirteen types fail.
- No stylesheet sets a colour or a measure itself. Both come from variables that stay editable in QuartzControl after the import.
Two languages, one vault
The same pages exist in German; the switch is at the top right. The content lives in an Obsidian vault of its own, which the project points to through a symlink — whoever changes something here changes it at the source. How both are built: 6.7 – Two languages and 1.3 – From note to website.