BrewVault

BrewVault is an Obsidian plugin for turning Markdown notes into themed, D&D 5e-style documents. Preview your work inside Obsidian, export directly to PDF using preconfigured themes, or export as HTML and apply custom CSS styles.

Features

• Live rendered preview that follows the active Markdown note as its source.
• Preconfigured Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, and SRD / Unearthed Arcana themes.
• Styling inspired by Homebrewery fonts, page measurements, headings, tables, notes, descriptive boxes, monster blocks, and page furniture.
• Standard Obsidian Markdown plus Homebrewery-style blocks, inline tags, page breaks, column breaks, and wide elements.
• Compact Homebrewery tag labels in the Markdown editor for a seamless workflow transition.
• Automatic pagination without changing the source Markdown file.
• Direct PDF export with backgrounds and fonts preserved.
• Self-contained HTML export that can be opened without Obsidian or BrewVault.
• Configurable vault-relative export folder; defaults to the root folder at BrewVault-Exports.
• Fully local and offline. Desktop requires no external browser, server, or Chromium installation; mobile delegates only the final print/export step to an installed browser.

Mobile support

Mobile preview scales each fixed-size page to the available screen space without changing page count, columns, wrapping, tables, or explicit page boundaries. Mobile PDF commands save a self-contained .brew.html file first, then open it through a browser that supports Print → Save as PDF. The HTML file remains available if the handoff is cancelled or fails.

Note: Current releases are tested on Android devices only. Behavior on iOS may vary.

Installation

BrewVault 0.4.0 supports desktop and mobile Obsidian 1.7.2 or newer.

1. Download or obtain manifest.json, main.js, and styles.css from the BrewVault release package.

2. Create this folder inside your vault:

   <vault>/.obsidian/plugins/BrewVaultPlugin/
   

3. Copy the three files into that folder.

4. Restart Obsidian, or reload the app without saving.

5. Open Settings → Community plugins and enable BrewVault.

Functions

Open the Command Palette with Ctrl/Cmd + P to run these functions. The preview can also be opened using BrewVault's scroll icon in the ribbon.

Function	Effect
Open preview	Opens or reveals a live BrewVault preview of the active Markdown note.
Export current file as HTML	Creates a self-contained .brew.html file using the selected theme.
Export current file as BrewVault PDF	Creates a direct PDF on desktop or starts the browser-assisted mobile workflow using the selected theme.
Export current file as BrewVault PDF in PHB style	Uses the Player's Handbook parchment theme for direct desktop PDF or mobile browser handoff.
Export current file as BrewVault PDF in DMG style	Uses the Dungeon Master's Guide theme for direct desktop PDF or mobile browser handoff.
Export current file as BrewVault PDF in SRD style	Uses the SRD / Unearthed Arcana theme for direct desktop PDF or mobile browser handoff.
Export current file as BrewVault PDF in Blank style	Uses the plain Blank theme for direct desktop PDF or mobile browser handoff.

Theme-specific PDF functions do not change the saved preview theme.

On mobile, PDF commands first save a collision-safe .brew.html artifact in the configured export folder. BrewVault then opens a dialog where Open in Browser asks Android to open the saved file with its default application. In the browser, use Print → Save as PDF. The HTML artifact remains in the vault if Android cannot open it. Android controls the available-app chooser and may include HTML viewers or system handlers alongside browsers; BrewVault cannot filter that system list.

Desktop exports are written directly to the configured folder without opening a print or save dialog. For a note named Alchemist.md, BrewVault creates:

BrewVault-Exports/Alchemist.pdf

If that file already exists, the next exports are named:

BrewVault-Exports/Alchemist_1.pdf
BrewVault-Exports/Alchemist_2.pdf

HTML exports use the same policy with names such as Alchemist.brew.html and Alchemist_1.brew.html.

Custom Markdown syntax

BrewVault supports normal Markdown headings, emphasis, links, blockquotes, lists, and tables. It also recognizes Homebrewery-style syntax.

Blocks

Open a block with {{className and close it with }}. Content inside a block continues to use normal Markdown.

{{note
##### Rules Note
This text is displayed as a Homebrewery note.
}}

Common semantic block classes include note, descriptive, monster, and classTable.

Multiple classes and wide elements

Separate classes with commas or spaces. Add wide when a component should span both columns.

{{monster,wide,frame
## Elder Drake
*Huge dragon, neutral*

Monster statistics go here.
}}

Inline tags

Use a class followed by its content inside a single pair of braces:

The attack deals {{damage 2d6 piercing}} damage.

Inline tag content supports Markdown formatting. For example, an attribution can italicize its source title:

{{quote
The thief crept through the shadows, watching for danger.

{{attribution Unknown, *Darkness Rising*}}
}}

Stat fields and vertical spacing

Use :: between a stat label and its value. Each source line becomes a separate rendered row and the delimiter itself is hidden:

**Armor Class** :: 14 (chain mail, shield)
**Hit Points**  :: 136 (1d4 + 5)
**Speed**       :: 18 ft.

Place : on its own line to add one line of vertical space between template sections. Use :: on its own line for two lines of space.

Page and column breaks

Place break directives on their own lines:

First page content.

\page

Second page, first column.

\column

Second page, second column.

An explicit \page appears in the Markdown editor as a numbered horizontal separator such as Page 2. Select the separator to reveal the source directive.

Obsidian links

Obsidian wikilinks render as readable text without their brackets:

See [[Classes/Alchemist|Alchemist]].

The rendered document displays See Alchemist.

Vault-local raster images use the same embed syntax as an Obsidian note:

![[Images/imp.png]]
![[Images/imp.png|Infernal scout]]
![[Images/imp.png|320]]
![[Images/imp.png|320x180]]
![[Images/imp.png|392]]{width:200px}

BrewVault resolves these through Obsidian, embeds their image data in preview, HTML, and PDF output, and leaves the Markdown source unchanged. PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, AVIF, and BMP files are supported. A numeric alias sets width; WIDTHxHEIGHT sets both dimensions. Unresolved or unsupported embeds are omitted instead of exposing vault paths.

Homebrewery-style size attributes may follow a local or standard Markdown image, with or without a separating space. Supported properties are width, height, min-width, min-height, max-width, and max-height. When both an Obsidian numeric size and a Homebrewery width are present, the Homebrewery attribute takes visual precedence.

Plugin settings

Open Settings → BrewVault to configure the plugin.

Setting	Default	Effect
Choose theme	Player's Handbook (parchment)	Controls the live preview and normal HTML/PDF export appearance.
Submit custom stylesheet	None	Validates and stores a selected local .css file as a selectable theme.
Export folder	BrewVault-Exports	Sets the vault-relative output folder. BrewVault creates it automatically.
Page width	816px	Controls rendered page width; the default represents 8.5 inches at 96 CSS dpi.
Page height	1056px	Controls rendered page height; the default represents 11 inches at 96 CSS dpi.
Re-render debounce	250ms	Sets how long BrewVault waits after typing before refreshing the preview.

Custom export paths remain unchanged. Installations using the former exact default BrewVault Exports are automatically migrated to BrewVault-Exports.

Custom CSS styles

Use Submit custom stylesheet to select a local .css file. Add this metadata tag inside a CSS comment to control the name shown under Choose theme:

/* @brewvault-theme: Midnight Parchment */

.brewvault-theme-custom .brewPage {
	background: #171717;
	color: #f3ead3;
}

If the tag is absent, BrewVault assigns Custom_Style_1, then Custom_Style_2, and so on. Submitted CSS must contain valid rules, may use embedded data: resources, and cannot import stylesheets or load other resource URLs. Every style selector must include .brewvault-theme-custom so that user CSS cannot affect the surrounding Obsidian interface. Custom styles are stored locally in the plugin settings. Removing the currently selected custom style returns Choose theme to the default Player's Handbook theme.

The generic Export current file as BrewVault PDF function always uses the theme currently selected under Choose theme. The PHB, SRD, and Blank export functions remain explicit one-off overrides and do not change that selection.

Accreditation and licensing

BrewVault is inspired by and adapts theme resources from the open-source Homebrewery project by Scott Tolksdorf and the NaturalCrit contributors. Homebrewery is distributed under the MIT License. Vendored theme, font, and decorative-asset notices are kept with their respective resources.

The project scaffold is adapted from the official, 0BSD-licensed Obsidian sample plugin. Third-party packages and assets remain subject to their own licenses.

BrewVault is an independent community project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by NaturalCrit, Obsidian, or Wizards of the Coast. Dungeons & Dragons and related marks are property of Wizards of the Coast.

BrewVault itself is released under the MIT License.