Tategaki (vertical writing editor for Obsidian)

English | 日本語

Tategaki is a desktop-first Obsidian plugin that lets you edit and view Markdown in a vertical (tategaki) layout. Desktop only. Mobile is not supported.

Status:

• Submitted to Obsidian Community Plugins (currently under review).

What it can do

• Writing & Reference mode
  • Edits Obsidian Markdown directly (no conversion / no sync step)
  • Vertical / horizontal writing layout
  • Paragraph-level source text editing
  • Keyboard navigation tuned for vertical writing, including Home / End / PageUp / PageDown
  • Typewriter scroll
    • Keeps the caret near a configurable follow position while typing
    • Supports configurable follow position and follow band width
    • Works together with scroll past end so the caret stays comfortable near the document end
  • Visual focus options for Writing & Reference mode
    • Highlight the active editing block
    • Highlight the current line
    • Dim non-focused paragraphs / blocks
    • Can be used together with Typewriter scroll or independently
  • Ruby (furigana) support (Aozora Bunko style), e.g. ｜漢字《かんじ》
  • TCY support
    • Explicit TCY: ｟A｠ / ｟12｠ for 1-4 characters
    • Automatic TCY with configurable minimum / maximum alphanumeric digit length
  • Images (standard Markdown images and Obsidian embeds)
  • Outline navigation and heading folding
  • Selection mode options for Writing & Reference mode (fast-click / native-drag)
    • New installs now default to fast-click
    • While Typewriter scroll is active, selection behavior is treated effectively as fast-click
  • Outliner-style list editing: move items, change nesting with Tab / Shift+Tab, and keep ordered lists renumbered
  • Improved Enter / Shift+Enter behavior in list items and blockquotes
    • Enter continues or exits naturally, and Shift+Enter can be used for in-item line breaks and continuing blank lines
  • Horizontal rules can be deleted directly in Writing & Reference mode with Delete / Backspace
  • Toolbar controls for Typewriter features
    • Toggle Typewriter scroll, editing-block highlight, current-line highlight, and non-focus dimming from one menu
• Book mode
  • Measured pagination for reading
  • Frontmatter can be shown on a separate cover page
  • Page breaks or title pages can be inserted before headings
  • Ruby display support
  • Outline navigation and page transition effects
• Compatibility mode (TipTap-based editor) for older workflows
  • Search / replace
  • Inline source text editing
  • Checklist editing and heading folding
  • Automatic TCY digit-range settings are also applied here
  • Sync backups (can be disabled in settings)
  • Planned for removal in a future update; migration to Writing & Reference mode is recommended
• Theme and display settings
  • Fonts, spacing, heading layout, IME offsets, and related display options
  • Typewriter settings are temporarily disabled while source mode / plain text view / paragraph plain edit is active, then restored when returning to normal Writing & Reference mode

Installation (current)

Until it is available in Community Plugins, the recommended installation method is BRAT. Manual installation from GitHub Releases is still available as an alternative.

• Recommended: install via BRAT
• Alternative: https://github.com/cat-left-paw/tategaki-plugin-release/releases

See INSTALL.md for detailed steps: INSTALL.md If you are upgrading from <=1.2.1, check the ID migration notes in both README and INSTALL.md.

Migration Note (ID change)

As of 1.2.2, the plugin ID changed from tategaki-plugin to tategaki (submission requirement alignment).

If you are updating from older versions, Obsidian may treat this as a different plugin.

• Disable old plugin: tategaki-plugin
• Install/enable new plugin: tategaki
• If needed, copy settings manually:
  • from .obsidian/plugins/tategaki-plugin/data.json
  • to .obsidian/plugins/tategaki/data.json
• Re-check custom hotkeys for plugin commands
• After confirming everything works, remove old folder tategaki-plugin

Reviewer Notes

• Platform: Desktop only (Windows / macOS / Linux). Mobile is not supported.
• Telemetry: No telemetry or analytics of any kind.
• Network access: The only outbound request is the manual update check (Settings → "Check for updates" button). No automatic network calls occur.
• Local storage: Compatibility mode writes sync backups to <vault config folder>/tategaki-sync-backups/ (typically .obsidian/tategaki-sync-backups/). Writing & Reference mode does not create backup files.

Documentation

• Quick start: QUICKSTART.md
• Manual: MANUAL.md
• Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
• Japanese README: README.ja.md

License

Apache-2.0 (see LICENSE)