Digital Lab Notebook (DLN)

💡 Paper is past. Go digital.

The Digital Lab Notebook (DLN) is a lightweight, flexible, and researcher-friendly toolkit built in Obsidian. Unlike heavy, complex ELN (Electronic Lab Notebook) systems, the DLN gives you exactly what you need — clean structure, powerful search, and smart automation — without the overhead.

Designed for individual scientists and collaborative teams, this notebook streamlines the full research workflow:

• 🧪 Measurements & Experiments – Create structured measurement notes with templates for methods, observations, results, and analysis.

• ✅ Tasks & Collaboration – Assign and track lab tasks across team members, ensuring nothing gets missed.

• 📊 Data & Visualization – Import CSV data, preview raw measurements, and generate interactive plots right inside your notes.

• 🔗 Smart Linking – Connect projects, researchers, and samples seamlessly for context-rich documentation.

• 🔍 Dashboards – Summarize open tasks, ongoing projects, and latest measurements in one glance.

• 🧾 Project Trackers – Automatically compile all measurements within a project and track completion progress.

Included Guides & Tutorials

To help you get started quickly, the DLN comes with clear Obsidian and Plugin guides:

• 📘 Obsidian Basics – Learn how to navigate Obsidian, create notes, and use backlinks effectively.

• 📑 Dataview Plugin – Build live tables, summaries, and dashboards of your projects and measurements.

• ✅ Tasks Plugin – Track open tasks, assign them to team members, and create “due soon” views.

• 📊 CSV Table Plugin – Import and preview raw CSV measurement data directly in your notes.

• 📈 Plotly Integration – Generate beautiful, interactive plots of your data without leaving Obsidian.

Why choose the DLN?

• Lightweight & easy to use – No complex setup, no IT department required.

• Flexible & customizable – Adjust templates and dashboards to your lab’s needs.

• Future-ready – Works with your files (Markdown, CSV, images), ensuring long-term portability and no vendor lock-in.

📘 The DLN is not just a notebook — it’s a living lab companion that helps you manage experiments, track results, and collaborate effectively.

🚀 Free download 

The lab tools were developed alongside my book The Organized Lab: A Note-Taking System for Research Teams. They remain available free of charge to anyone who finds them useful — please email HeronSpecs to request access. If the tools resonate with you, the book goes deeper into the ideas behind them.