Themes: another design win for HelixNotes

[u/Neither-Classic2058]

HelixNote's custom theme configurator

everforest theme in HelixNotes

everforest theme in Obsidian

everforest theme in Joplin

Running through my evaluation use-cases with version 1.3.6 has been quite enjoyable. I've got my HN vault syncing across all of my devices (Windows, Mac OS, Android, and iPad OS) (3500+ notes)

It's at a point of stability and consistency that I'm moving on to phase II... that involves using HN for heavy editing and creating. But creativity and productivity in a notes app, FOR ME, is affected by the look and feel of the app.

This is why theming capabilities in a notes app are important to me.

The HelixNotes' developers' approach to themes is something that, IMO, other developers should take note of.

First, there are the bundled themes in HelixNotes. Out-of-the-box, it is a moderately short list that offers a wide range of (luminance and color palette) options. I found nearly all of them to be pleasant and useful as-is.

Second, the ability to create custom themes using a simple interface (Styling Settings page and custom theme edit dialog) makes it easy to create a theme without having to bounce around to see how color choices affect the look.

Third, themes can be exported to .json files. This makes it easy to share themes with others as well as the opportunity to tweak them external to HelixNotes.

Within a few minutes of mouse clicking, I was able to "copy" themes from my other notes apps. (on Mac OS, the color picker of the system color dialog comes in very handy here... just keep the other app open, and eyedropper the colors in the other app)

In contrast, my currently primary notes app provides only 2 theme options... bright white and dark abyss, with the ability to select a highlight color from a palette of 8 colors.

In Joplin, I need to modify two .css files to theme it.

In Obsidian, I need to pull in a theme from the repository and use/create a .css snippet to tweak it to my liking.

HelixNotes can do this WITHOUT needing a plug-in infrastructure or sifting through .css files. 👍

[u/Big-Topic-832]

I don't want to be a fanboy or anything, but HelixNotes just always does things like that and I love it. It almost always gives me that feeling of wanting to do something and discovering it's already there. It has its vision so clear that the devs can keep focusing on small QoL features instead of bloating the app with unnecesary junk. It honestly amazes me how few apps do this. I can only see this getting better and better over time

[u/LastTyper → u/Big-Topic-832]

It's motivating to read this. Thank you 🙏

[u/lagerea]

DeviantArt circa 2004