Obsidian’s Markdown dialect is called Obsidian Flavored Markdown (OFM). OFM is based on [[en/Features/Markdown/GitHub Flavored Markdown|GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)]], with additions and some deviations.

Unfortunately, Obsidian does not publish formal specification for OFM. Due to the lack of specification, Macana’s support for OFM is best-effort.

• Basic formatting syntax - Obsidian Help
• Advanced formatting syntax - Obsidian Help
• Obsidian Flavored Markdown - Obsidian Help

Supported features

Wikilinks

By default, Obsidian uses their own variant of wikilink for internal links. To use this link style, surround the target file name without file extension or path to the file from the Vault root (document root) without file extension, with [[ and ]].

• Internal links - Obsidian Help

- [[Overview|Alternative Title]]
- [[Overview]]
- [[Overview#Arbitrary document tree]]

• [[Overview|Alternative Title]]
• [[Overview]]
• [[Overview#Arbitrary document tree]]

Image size attributes

Add a vertical pipe (|) following text specifying image dimensions to set the image size inside image’s alt text.

• Basic formatting syntax - Obsidian Help

![Engelbart|100x145](https://history-computer.com/ModernComputer/Basis/images/Engelbart.jpg)

Embeds

You can embeds files in accepted file formats by adding ! right before the wikilink’s opening square brackets.

• Embed files - Obsidian Help

Images

To set the display image size, add a vertical pipe (|) following text specifying image dimension.

• Embed files - Obsidian Help

![[dog.jpg|128x128]]

![[dog.jpg|128x128]]

Highlights

Surround text with == to make the text highlighted.

• Basic formatting syntax - Obsidian Help

==Hello, World!==

==Hello, World!==

Callouts

• Callouts - Obsidian Help

> [!info]+ Title, _Italic_
> Both title and body can contain Markdown.

[!info]+ Title, Italic Both title and body can contain Markdown.

Mathematical expressions

Macana supports mathematical expressions, both inline one ($) and block one ($$).

• Advanced formatting syntax - Obsidian Help

Macana uses Temml while Obsidian uses MathJax, in order to support environments without JavaScript. Possible differences including, but not limited to:

• Resulting graphics differs (Macana uses standard MathML, Obsidian uses MathJax’s SVG output)
• Certain LaTeX macros available on Obsidian but not on Macana and vice versa.
• Rendering differences between User Agents due to rendering engines and/or available fonts.

This is an inline math expression $e^{2i\pi} = 1$.

This is an inline math expression $e^{2i\pi} = 1$.

$$
\begin{vmatrix}a & b\\
c & d
\end{vmatrix}=ad-bc
$$

$$ \begin{vmatrix}a & b\ c & d \end{vmatrix}=ad-bc $$

Comments

Surround portion of text with %% to exclude them from the output HTML.

• Basic formatting syntax - Obsidian Help

Foo %%Bar%% Baz

%%
This entire block

should not be in the output HTML.
%%

Foo %%Bar%% Baz

%% This entire block

should not be in the output HTML. %%

Unsupported features

Nested callouts

For a technical reason, Macana currently cannot parse nested callouts. This example is from Obsidian help document:

> [!question] Can callouts be nested?
> > [!todo] Yes!, they can.
> > > [!example]  You can even use multiple layers of nesting.

[!question] Can callouts be nested? > [!todo] Yes!, they can. > > [!example] You can even use multiple layers of nesting.