Every entry is a heading and therefore linkable: [[en/7-reference/01-glossary#Symlink]] jumps
straight to the term.
Accessibility
Building a site so that it stays usable without a mouse, without colour vision, with a screen reader or with system settings such as “reduce motion”. The rules for it are called WCAG. → 6.6 – Accessibility
Alias
A second name for a page, entered in the frontmatter under aliases. Obsidian finds the note
under it too; on the site a plugin builds a redirect for every alias. →
4.3 – Aliases
Backlinks
The list of pages that link to the current page, as a box below the text. → Backlinks
Base
A saved query over the vault in Obsidian: it collects notes by criteria and shows them as a
table, list, cards, board or gallery. The file ends in .base. →
3.1 – Bases
Breadcrumbs
The line above the title that shows the way from the home page to the current one: “2 Formatting › 2.5 Callouts › Callouts — the basic form”. → Breadcrumbs
Breakpoint
The window width at which a page breaks differently. This template has two: 1200 px (desktop to tablet) and 900 px (tablet to smartphone). → 6.5 – Page grids
Build
The process in which Quartz produces the finished site from the notes: read Markdown, apply
plugins, write HTML files into the output folder public/. In QuartzControl under
Preview & Build. → 1.3 – From note to website
Callout
A highlighted box in the text, written in Obsidian as > [!note]. There are thirteen types with a
colour and a symbol each; this template restates all the colours. →
2.5 – Callouts
Canvas
A free surface in Obsidian on which you arrange cards and connect them with arrows. The file
ends in .canvas; Quartz makes a zoomable page from it. →
3.2 – Canvas
Commit
A saved state in git, with date, author and description. You can return to any commit. → 1.2 – The tools
Colour scheme
Light or dark. The site follows the system setting and has a switch in the header; every colour of the template is set and measured for both schemes. → Colour scheme switch
Component
A part of the page with a job of its own — the explorer, the search, the table of contents —, each built by a plugin. QuartzControl’s layout editor calls them building blocks. → 5 – The design
CSS and SCSS
CSS is the language in which the look of a website is described — colours, spacing, typefaces, arrangement. SCSS is an extension of it with variables and nesting, translated to CSS at build time. Quartz and this template write SCSS. → 6.1 – Changing something
Dev server
A small web server on your own machine that QuartzControl starts under Preview & Build. It
rebuilds the site on every change and shows it at localhost:8080 — visible only to you. →
1.3 – From note to website
Diff
The comparison of two states of a file, line by line: what was added, what was dropped. git shows this way what a commit changed. → 1.2 – The tools
Draft
A page with draft: true in the frontmatter. It stays in the vault but is not built. →
4.2 – Draft and unlisted
Excalidraw
A drawing tool for sketches and diagrams, as a plugin in Obsidian. The drawing lives in an
.excalidraw.md file; on the site it stays zoomable. →
3.3 – Excalidraw
Explorer
The folder tree of all pages in the left column. It sorts by the pages’ titles, not by file name. → The explorer
Frame
The page grid: which areas a page has, where they lie, how wide they are — per screen width.
Quartz brings three fixed ones; this template builds three of its own (editorial, index,
drawing) in QuartzControl’s frame editor. → 6.5 – Page grids
Frame box
Width, alignment and padding of a frame, set per breakpoint. It decides how wide the text gets. → 6.5 – Page grids
Frontmatter
The block at the very top of a note between two lines of ---, in which statements about the
page stand: title, description, tags, date. Obsidian calls it “Properties”. →
4 – Controlling a page
git
A program that records the history of files: every saved state, with date and description. You do not have to operate it for this template; QuartzControl brings it along. → 1.2 – The tools
Graph
The pages drawn as dots and their links as lines, in the right column. → The graph
Hover
The state of an element while the mouse pointer rests on it. A link changes colour then; on a touch screen this state does not exist, which is why nothing may be visible only on hover. → 6.6 – Accessibility
HTML
The language web pages are written in and a browser reads. Quartz translates Markdown into HTML. You can also write HTML directly into a note. → HTML in Markdown
Contrast
The ratio of brightness between text and ground, written as 4.5:1. WCAG demands at least 4.5:1 for normal text, 3:1 for large type. This template measures 93 pairs on every run. → 6.2 – Colours and contrast
Layout
Which component appears at which place of the page — header, left and right column, before and after the content, footer —, per page type. In QuartzControl under Layout. → 1.4 – How a page is built
Layout box
A plugin that places a box of your own with HTML or Markdown at a spot of the layout. This template uses it seven times: word mark, chapter name in the bar, sidebar box, “Read on”, mobile hint, colophon — and once without a box coming out of it at all. → 5.5 – Layout boxes
Markdown
The notation of the notes: text with few characters that carry meaning — **bold**, # Heading,
[[link]]. Obsidian writes it, Quartz reads it. → 2 – Formatting
Media query
A condition in CSS that applies rules only at a certain window width — this is how breakpoints come about. A media query cannot read a variable; that is why the breakpoints stand as numbers in the stylesheets. → 6.4 – Variables
Mermaid
A text notation for diagrams — flowcharts, sequences, timelines — that Quartz translates into a graphic. → 2.9 – Diagrams
Obsidian
The program in which the notes are written. It stores Markdown files in a vault. → 1.2 – The tools
Part
A delimited piece of a template package — colours, stylesheets, plugins — that you can take over individually on import. → 6.8 – The template package
Plugin
A building block of Quartz with one job: one builds the explorer, one the search, one reads the date. Quartz brings many along; more come from the marketplace in QuartzControl. Obsidian has plugins of its own that have nothing to do with Quartz’s. → 1.2 – The tools
Project
A folder with a Quartz installation, its configuration and the content. QuartzControl manages several of them. → 1.2 – The tools
Publishing
Bringing the built site to its destination: a folder, a server, a git repository. In QuartzControl under Publish. → 1.3 – From note to website
Quartz
The static site generator that builds a website from Markdown notes and understands Obsidian’s notation. → 1.2 – The tools
QuartzControl
The app with which you operate Quartz: projects, plugins, colours, typefaces, layout, preview, build, publishing. This template is made for it. → 1.2 – The tools
Repository
A folder whose history git keeps. The vault of this site is one; the Quartz project is a second. → 1.2 – The tools
Slug
The part of the address that names a page: en/2-formatting/05-callouts/basics.md becomes
/en/2-formatting/05-callouts/basics. Quartz derives it from the file path; spaces become
hyphens. → Wikilinks
Snapshot
A backup of the project that QuartzControl takes before larger interventions — before an import,
an update, a plugin change — and that you can return to. The content is not included when
content/ is a symlink. →
1.3 – From note to website
Static site generator
A program that produces finished HTML pages from text files, pages that can lie on any web space without a database and without a running program. Quartz is one. → 1.2 – The tools
Stylesheet
A file with CSS or SCSS that describes the look. This template has twelve, under Styles → Custom CSS: one for the layout, one for the content, one for the callouts, one per kind of component and one per plugin of its own. → 5 – The design
Symlink
A link in the file system that makes a folder appear in a second place without copying it. The
folder content/ of this project is a symlink to the vault. →
1.3 – From note to website
Tag
A keyword, in the frontmatter under tags or in the text as #word. Quartz builds a page for
every tag with all the notes that carry it. → Tags
Template
A design for QuartzControl, packed into a .qtpl file that you import into a project. This site
is the handbook of the template Example. →
1.1 – What this template is
Token
A named variable the design is made of — --tpl-space-md for the base spacing, --tpl-radius-md
for the corners. Change the token and every place that reads it changes. In QuartzControl they are
simply called variables. → 6.4 – Variables
Unlisted
A page with unlisted: true: built and reachable through its address, but in no list. →
4.2 – Draft and unlisted
Variable
A named value that stylesheets read instead of containing it themselves — --tpl-space-md, say.
That is what the tokens are called in QuartzControl under Styles → Variables, where you change
them. → 6.4 – Variables
Vault
Obsidian’s word for the folder in which the notes live. This site has one of its own. → 1.2 – The tools
WCAG
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, the guidelines for accessible websites. Level AA is the common threshold: contrast 4.5:1 for text, 3:1 for controls, target size at least 24 px. This template measures against AA. → 6.6 – Accessibility
Wikilink
A reference to another note in double square brackets: [[Page]] or [[Page|displayed text]].
The notation comes from Obsidian; Quartz resolves it at build time. →
Wikilinks
YAML
The notation of the frontmatter and of the Quartz configuration: key: value, lists with one
hyphen per line, indentation with spaces. →
Frontmatter