📝 Markdown Preview
Write Markdown and see the rendered HTML output in real time. Supports headings, lists, code blocks, blockquotes, and links.
How to Use the Markdown Preview
The Markdown Preview tool gives you a live, side-by-side editor and preview for Markdown text. Type or paste Markdown in the left panel and see the rendered HTML output update in real time on the right. The tool supports the full CommonMark Markdown specification including headings (# through ######), bold (**text**), italic (*text*), inline code (backtick), fenced code blocks with language labels, unordered and ordered lists, block quotes (>), horizontal rules, and hyperlinks ([text](url)).
To get started, click Sample to load a demonstration document that shows the most common Markdown syntax. You can clear it and start writing your own content. The rendered preview uses clean typography with proper spacing. To copy the raw Markdown source, click Copy Source. This tool is ideal for writing README files, blog posts, documentation, and notes. Markdown parsing is powered by the marked library and runs entirely in your browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Markdown?
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Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004. It allows you to write formatted text using plain-text syntax — for example, wrapping a word in asterisks makes it bold, and starting a line with # creates a heading. Markdown is widely used for writing README files on GitHub, documentation, blog posts, and notes.
How is Markdown converted to HTML?
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A Markdown parser reads the plain-text Markdown and replaces the syntax tokens with HTML tags. For example, **bold** becomes <strong>bold</strong>, # Heading becomes <h1>Heading</h1>, and [text](url) becomes <a href="url">text</a>. This tool uses the open-source `marked` library to do that conversion in real time.
What is CommonMark?
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CommonMark is a standardized, unambiguous specification for Markdown. Before CommonMark, different Markdown parsers handled edge cases differently, leading to inconsistent output. CommonMark defines precise rules so that the same Markdown input always produces the same HTML output across all conforming parsers.
Can I use the Markdown Preview to generate HTML for my website?
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Yes. You can write your content in Markdown, preview it in real time, and then use the generated HTML in your website or CMS. However, always sanitize user-generated Markdown before inserting the HTML into a page to prevent XSS (cross-site scripting) attacks.