Easy Symbols

Easy Symbols is an Obsidian plugin that makes it easy to write arrows, symbols, subscripts, and superscripts in your notes.

You're taking notes and want to add an arrow, a subscript, or a Greek letter. A whole math expression feels like extra work for one small symbol.

With Easy Symbols, just type ->, x_i, or \alpha to see →, x_i, or α. No $ signs needed. Your Markdown stays unchanged.

Works offline in Live Preview and Reading Mode. Move your cursor away to see the symbols. Move it back to edit. Source Mode shows your original text.

Arrows

What you type	What you see
->	→
<-	←
<->	↔
-->	⟶
<--	⟵
<-->	⟷
=>	⇒
<=>	⇔

Subscripts & superscripts

Start with a single letter. Subscripts and superscripts can contain letters and numbers, in either order.

What you type	What you see
x_i	xi
A_123	A123
x_ij	xij
x^2	x2
x^23	x23
x_i^2, x^2_i	xi2

Math operators

What you type	What you see
>=	≥
<=	≤
!=	≠
~=	≈
+-	±
-+	∓

<= means ≤. For ⇐, use \Leftarrow.

Symbols from commands

Backslash commands are case-sensitive. This setting includes arrow and operator commands.

What you type	What you see
\alpha	α
\beta	β
\gamma	γ
\delta	δ
\theta	θ
\lambda	λ
\mu	μ
\sigma	σ
\omega	ω
\Delta	Δ
\infty	∞
\emptyset	∅
\sum	∑
\partial	∂
\nabla	∇
\forall	∀
\exists	∃
\in	∈
\subset	⊂
\land, \wedge	∧
\lor, \vee	∨
\rightarrow	→
\leftarrow	←
\leftrightarrow	↔
\longrightarrow	⟶
\longleftarrow	⟵
\longleftrightarrow	⟷
\Rightarrow	⇒
\Leftarrow	⇐
\Leftrightarrow	⇔
\geq	≥
\leq	≤
\neq	≠
\approx	≈
\pm	±
\mp	∓

Install

1. Create plugins/easy-symbols/ inside your vault’s configuration folder (.obsidian by default).
2. Copy main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css into it, then reload Obsidian.
3. Enable Easy Symbols in Settings → Community plugins.

Choose which conversions to enable in Settings → Easy Symbols. All four are on by default.

Notes

• Code, existing math formulas, note properties, and link destinations stay unchanged.
• Braces and nested expressions are unsupported; use Obsidian’s built-in math for full equations.
• Live Preview’s table editor and some embedded views may show the original text.
• Mobile support, minimum-version compatibility, and performance on large notes still need testing.

Build from source

Requires Node.js 22.12+ or 24+ and npm.

npm ci
npm run check

npm run dev watches for changes. npm run build generates main.js.