# Obsidian - Banners (2025) ![[images/Obsidian-Banners-2025.webp]] [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zOtm6nYWr4) · 20:53 · Josh Plunkett · 2025-04-13 ## Outline ### 00:00 Intro - Banners make the top of a note stand out, but along with icon plugins, banner plugins are the ones Josh thinks of first when plugins break. They've struggled to keep up with Obsidian changes for years. - This video is a fresh look at what banner options are available in 2025. ### 00:39 ITS Theme banners - **ITS Theme** by SlRvb, a member of the TTRPG community, is the theme in all of Josh's vaults and ships with his Patreon vault. Its snippets handle image alignment, wiki-style infobox tables and banners. - To install it, go to Settings → Appearance → Manage, search "ITS Theme", then install and enable it. The ITS documentation site explains the extras, and there's a Ko-fi link to support SlRvb. - If you use another theme, the standalone **Image Adjustments** CSS snippet gives you the same features. Put it in the snippets folder (Appearance → CSS snippets → open folder), refresh, then enable it. - To make a banner, embed any image (drag or paste it in) and add `|banner` after the link. Variants include banner small, banner tall and so on. ![[images/Obsidian-Banners-2025-t0340.webp]] - Images often get cropped badly. You reposition them with modifiers after the pipe, such as `p+t` (top), `p+c` (center) and `p+ct` (slightly higher), but you can only pick from preset positions. - Pros: no plugin, just a link that sits anywhere in the note. Con: limited control over the final framing. ### 05:56 Pixel Banner - A demo note shows a **Pixel Banner** with rounded corners, a fade effect and a skull icon overlay. - To install it, open Community plugins, browse for "Pixel Banner" by Justin Parker, then install and enable it. - It has optional AI features. Pixel Banner **Plus** needs an account (email plus API key). Josh's signup button failed at first and his details were emailed to him the next day. Plus lets you buy tokens, roughly one token per banner. Keep the API key private. - The settings offer many options for both banners and icons. ![[images/Obsidian-Banners-2025-t0605.webp]] ### 08:03 Add a Pixel Banner - In a new note, "add banner" puts a flag at the top. Clicking it opens a panel with AI Banner, Store, Your Vault and URL sources. Josh uses Your Vault about 90% of the time. - A default folder can be set in settings (his is `Z_assets/banners`), and the plugin lists every image in it. After you pick one, it offers to add an icon (he picks a troll). - In the settings pane he sets the flag color to black to hide it, the cover height to around 300, and the content start position, which controls where the note text begins. - His favorite feature is dragging the image's focal point visually, which is much easier than the ITS modifiers. Display modes are auto, contain, repeat, cover and cover-zoom. ![[images/Obsidian-Banners-2025-t1020.webp]] - Icon settings cover position (left or right, overlapping the banner), optional text, text color, font weight, background color and border radius (circle to square). - He personally needs neither icon nor text; a clean banner is enough. ### 13:17 Banner properties - Pixel Banner stores its settings as **frontmatter properties** (banner, icon and so on) in the note. - The settings' custom fields section lets advanced users rename fields and control X/Y position, icon position and fade amount. Fade is available as a property but not in the UI. ### 14:15 Store banners - The flag menu's **Store** offers pre-made banners. Some are free, and others cost tokens (shown by small icons). - You pick a save folder and filename, and it's saved and applied. Josh doesn't expect to buy many; he'd rather find images himself. ![[images/Obsidian-Banners-2025-t1430.webp]] ### 15:37 AI banners - **AI Banner** takes a prompt ("goblins riding wolves through a snowy forest"). "Grow your idea" expands it into a florid description, and generating costs one token (he had four left). - You can download the result to the banners folder and adjust it like a local image. - Alternatives: your own AI tool (ChatGPT, Midjourney) or Google image search, ideally paying artists for their work. ![[images/Obsidian-Banners-2025-t1655.webp]] ### 18:09 Outro - Both ITS Theme and Pixel Banner are strong options. After making this video Josh is switching to Pixel Banner for its focal-point control and adjustable content start. - Patreon update: the vault CLI tool has cut weekly support questions by about 95%. - New users should start at obsidianttrpgtutorials.com (Getting Started, then Plugin Tutorials) rather than bingeing YouTube, and join the Obsidian TTRPG Community Discord, which has beginner and advanced channels. ## Things mentioned ### Obsidian plugins, themes and snippets - **Banners** (legacy plugin) is free, but has many problems and hasn't been updated in over a year. - **ITS Theme** by SlRvb is a free theme with a `|banner` image syntax and positioning modifiers (Ko-fi donations welcome). - **Image Adjustments CSS snippet** (from ITS) is free and works with other themes. - **Pixel Banner** by Justin Parker is a free plugin with banners, icons, a visual focal point, display modes and property-based settings. - **Pixel Banner Plus** is a paid, token-based service for store banners and AI-generated banners (about one token per banner). - Icon plugins get a passing mention as another category of plugin that breaks often. - The **Obsidian TTRPG CLI tool** for the Patreon vault (paid, via Patreon). ### Tools and websites - **ChatGPT** and **Midjourney** are mentioned as alternative AI image sources (paid or freemium). - **Google image search** for finding banner art (pay the artists). - **Ko-fi**, for supporting SlRvb. - [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/) (free), [Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials](https://obsidianttrpgtutorials.com), the Obsidian TTRPG Community Discord, and the [Patreon vault](https://www.patreon.com/JPlunkett) (paid). ## Bios - **Josh Plunkett** is a GM and YouTuber behind Obsidian TTRPG Tutorials, known for Obsidian vaults for running tabletop games and a Patreon vault of templates. - **SlRvb** is a member of the Obsidian TTRPG community and long-time maintainer of ITS Theme and its CSS snippets. - **Justin Parker** is the developer of the Pixel Banner plugin and its Plus service.