MarsDawn
How to view a Markdown file on a Mac.
A .md file is plain text. The headings, bold words, tables and diagrams are written as marks: # for a heading, ** around bold, pipes for a table, a mermaid code block for a diagram. Open it in a plain text editor and you read the marks. To read the page the way its author meant, something has to render it.
Today, for free: turn it into a PDF
The free marsdawn command-line tool renders a Markdown file to a PDF, which any Mac can open. Tables, math, Mermaid diagrams and highlighted code come out rendered, and it needs nothing else installed, not even the MarsDawn app.
brew tap redtear1115/tap && brew install marsdawn
marsdawn export notes.md
open notes.pdfexport writes notes.pdf next to the Markdown file, and open shows it in your PDF viewer. It needs macOS 15 or later. The walk-through, with a real exported page, is on Markdown to PDF.
Coming soon: read it in MarsDawn
MarsDawn is a Markdown editor for the Mac, coming soon to the Mac App Store. Open a .md file and read the rendered page next to the source:
- The preview updates as you type, and the two panes scroll together.
- Mermaid flowcharts and sequence diagrams are drawn in the preview, and code blocks are highlighted.
- In Finder, press Space on a Markdown file for a Quick Look preview, diagrams included.
- When you want to change something, the source is right there. MarsDawn is an editor, not only a viewer.
If an AI agent wrote the file, this is the loop MarsDawn is built for: the agent writes, you read it rendered, and it revises. See the home page, and marsdawn for agents for letting an agent open files for you.
Next
- Every option of the command-line tool: Command Line.
- What MarsDawn doesn't do: the list.