Write in plain text.
Publish anywhere.
Markdown is a lightweight way to format text using punctuation you already know. It reads cleanly as plain text and converts straight to HTML — no editor, no lock-in, no markup soup.
Explore
Basics
The core syntax — everything you need to write a complete document with nothing but your keyboard.
Extensions
Beyond the core: flavours and plugins that add tables, task lists, footnotes, diagrams, math and more.
Tools
A directory of editors, converters and apps for writing and managing Markdown on every platform.
Developers
Markdown parsing and rendering libraries for building Markdown into your own software, grouped by language.
Why Markdown?
Because it is just text. It is readable before it is rendered, it works in any editor, it diffs cleanly in version control, and it has become the default format for README files, documentation, notes, static sites, chat messages and academic writing alike. Learn it once and you can write for any of them.