MarsDawn

Four themes built in. More in the gallery.

MarsDawn comes with four preview themes, Dawn, Classic, Modern and Vivid, each with a light and a dark palette. Since version 1.1 you can add more from the Theme Gallery inside the app, and Quick Look in Finder shows your documents in the theme you chose.

The four themes

Modern isn't pictured yet; the fourth shot shows dark mode instead.

Each one has its own light and dark variant, so switching your Mac's appearance switches the theme's palette with it, not just the interface chrome.

In MarsDawn, open Settings ▸ Appearance and click Get More Themes…. The Theme Gallery loads its list when it opens. It goes online only while it is open; without a connection it shows a notice, and the four built-in themes keep working.

Eight themes today, all made and reviewed by us: Dracula, Gruvbox, Nord and Solarized, adapted from the well-known palettes and adjusted for readability, plus Guide, Ledger, Spec and Story, made for user guides, budgets, PRDs and sprint notes.

Reviewed, and only data

Every theme is reviewed and merged by us before it appears in the gallery. A theme is a small JSON file of colours and a few bounded options: no scripts, no CSS and no images from its author, and MarsDawn checks every value before installing it. A reported theme leaves the gallery within 24 hours. If it is harmful, it is also removed from Macs that installed it the next time the gallery opens there, and MarsDawn switches back to Dawn if it was in use.

The gallery asks only marsdawn.southern-light.dev/themes/v1/, and only when you open it, check for updates or install a theme. It sends no account, no identifier, no cookies and nothing from your documents.

Quick Look uses your theme

Select a Markdown file in Finder and press Space. Quick Look shows it in the theme you chose, installed themes included, and follows the Appearance setting in MarsDawn: Light and Dark stay as chosen, and System follows your Mac.

PDF export and print

Export to PDF or print, and the page uses the theme you picked for Light: Mermaid diagrams are drawn into it, code blocks keep their highlighting, and page breaks avoid splitting a heading from its section or cutting a table or diagram in half. The free marsdawn command-line tool uses the same exporter, with any of the four built-in themes via --theme.

After the page is printed

A meeting around printed pages, a pen in the margin, a paper record on file.

Build your own

Build a theme in your browser: pick colours and a few style options, see them applied live, and submit it as a GitHub issue for review. You need a GitHub account, but no install and no git. A submission publishes nothing by itself; it appears in the gallery only after we have reviewed and merged it.

Working with an agent? Have it make the theme, then tune it in your browser.

Next