Markdown
Markdown is a lightweight markup language that uses plain-text formatting syntax to create structured documents. It converts to HTML and is the standard for README files, documentation, blogs, and note-taking apps. Markdown prioritizes readability in its raw source form.
MIME Type
text/markdown
Type
Text
Compression
Lossless
Advantages
- + Extremely simple syntax that anyone can learn in minutes
- + Version-control friendly — clean diffs in Git
- + Renders beautifully on GitHub, GitLab, and most platforms
- + Converts easily to HTML, PDF, DOCX, and other formats
Disadvantages
- − Limited formatting — no native support for tables of contents or footnotes
- − Flavor fragmentation (CommonMark, GFM, MDX) creates inconsistencies
- − No built-in styling — appearance depends on the renderer
When to Use .MD
Use Markdown for documentation, README files, blog posts, notes, and any content that benefits from version control and plain-text editing.
Technical Details
Markdown files are plain text using symbols like # for headings, * for emphasis, and [ ] for links. A Markdown processor (e.g., marked, markdown-it) parses the syntax into an AST and renders HTML output.
History
John Gruber created Markdown in 2004 with Aaron Swartz, aiming for a format that is readable as plain text and easily converted to HTML. CommonMark (2014) and GitHub Flavored Markdown standardized the syntax.
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