Graph Node Icons

I am an avid Obsidian user, but I found the graph customization frustratingly limited. I made this plugin for myself, and it turned out to be quite useful, so I’m sharing it here.

The plugin is meant to customize the native graph. It adds some of the options I wish had been there in the first place.

The main features are:

Node icons

You can add an image on top of a node so we can recognize it at a glance. We can do this by adding the Property image: and link to the image in the vault you want to use as icon.

Custom node size

You can give custom size to a node using the property node_size that overrides the default size by importance that obsidian gives by default

Additionally, you can give default node_sizes to nodes with a certain property. For example if a node has the property type:hub you can do type=system:50 in the settings to give it a static size.

There is also an option Scale node_size with graph base so that once those sizes are set up, they get linked to the global node sizes in obsidian, then if you move the graph node size bar, the nodes you customized scale with the rest.

Replace local graph view

This is my favourite. You can enable Focus global graph on active node and then you could attach the global graph to the side panel. When you move through your notes the graph on the size focus on the location of your note on the global graph, zooming out just enough to have all the node links visible. If you move to another note, the graph smoothly moves towards the position of the just openned note. Is like navigating through your links. For this I would recommend using Persistent graph so the graph stays static, but not strictly necessary.

Thats it, I hope you find it useful. Cheers!

Installation

1. Download manifest.json and main.js from the latest GitHub release.
2. Create this folder inside your vault:

.obsidian/plugins/graph-node-icons/

3. Copy both files into that folder.
4. Reload Obsidian and enable Graph Node Icons in Settings -> Community plugins.

Examples

Use a fixed node size:

---
node_size: 24
---

Add an image or icon:

---
image: "[[RegionOverview.png]]"
---

Use rule-based sizing from plugin settings:

type=hub:100
status=important:60