What is Markdown?

Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004. It lets you write formatted content using plain-text syntax that is easy to read and write. Markdown is widely used for documentation, README files, blog posts, comments, and messages on platforms like GitHub, Reddit, and Stack Overflow.

This tool provides a real-time preview of your Markdown as you type. It uses the marked library to parse Markdown and render it as HTML instantly in your browser. No data is sent to any server -- all processing happens client-side.

Supported Syntax

The Markdown Preview tool supports the full CommonMark specification, including the following elements:

• Headings -- Use # through ###### for H1 through H6.
• Bold & Italic -- Double asterisks for bold (**bold**), single for italic (*italic*).
• Lists -- Unordered with - or *, ordered with 1..
• Code -- Inline with backticks, fenced blocks with triple backticks and optional language tag.
• Tables -- Pipe-delimited rows with a separator line.
• Links & Images -- [text](url) and ![alt](src).
• Blockquotes -- Prefix with >.
• Horizontal rules -- Three hyphens (---).

Markdown vs HTML

Markdown is designed to be a simpler, more readable alternative to writing raw HTML. While HTML gives you full control over layout and styling, Markdown focuses on content structure. Here are the key differences:

• Readability -- Markdown source is easy to read as plain text; HTML source is not.
• Verbosity -- A Markdown link is [text](url); in HTML it requires an anchor tag with opening and closing tags.
• Precision -- HTML offers fine-grained control over attributes, styling, and layout that Markdown does not support.
• Use case -- Markdown is ideal for content-first writing; HTML is better for complex layouts and interactive pages.

This tool bridges the gap by letting you write in Markdown while instantly seeing the rendered HTML output.