markdown-it
Advanced tools
Markdown parser done right. Fast and easy to extend.
Table of content
node.js:
npm install markdown-it
[!NOTE]
For a quick look at
dist/folder contents, see https://unpkg.com/markdown-it/.For browser you can use unpkg.com, esm.sh or any other CDN, wich mirror npm registry
See also:
// node.js
// can use `require('markdown-it')` for CJS
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
const md = markdownit()
const result = md.render('# markdown-it rulezz!');
// browser with UMD build, added to "window" on script load
// Note, there is no dash in "markdownit".
const md = window.markdownit();
const result = md.render('# markdown-it rulezz!');
Single line rendering, without paragraph wrap:
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
const md = markdownit()
const result = md.renderInline('__markdown-it__ rulezz!');
(*) presets define combinations of active rules and options. Can be
"commonmark", "zero" or "default" (if skipped). See
API docs for more details.
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
// commonmark mode
const md = markdownit('commonmark')
// default mode
const md = markdownit()
// enable everything
const md = markdownit({
html: true,
linkify: true,
typographer: true
})
// full options list (defaults)
const md = markdownit({
// Enable HTML tags in source
html: false,
// Use '/' to close single tags (<br />).
// This is only for full CommonMark compatibility.
xhtmlOut: false,
// Convert '\n' in paragraphs into <br>
breaks: false,
// CSS language prefix for fenced blocks. Can be
// useful for external highlighters.
langPrefix: 'language-',
// Autoconvert URL-like text to links
linkify: false,
// Enable some language-neutral replacement + quotes beautification
// For the full list of replacements, see https://github.com/markdown-it/markdown-it/blob/master/lib/rules_core/replacements.mjs
typographer: false,
// Double + single quotes replacement pairs, when typographer enabled,
// and smartquotes on. Could be either a String or an Array.
//
// For example, you can use '«»„“' for Russian, '„“‚‘' for German,
// and ['«\xA0', '\xA0»', '‹\xA0', '\xA0›'] for French (including nbsp).
quotes: '“”‘’',
// Highlighter function. Should return escaped HTML,
// or '' if the source string is not changed and should be escaped externally.
// If result starts with <pre... internal wrapper is skipped.
highlight: function (/*str, lang*/) { return ''; }
});
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
const md = markdownit()
.use(plugin1)
.use(plugin2, opts, ...)
.use(plugin3);
Apply syntax highlighting to fenced code blocks with the highlight option:
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
import hljs from 'highlight.js' // https://highlightjs.org
// Actual default values
const md = markdownit({
highlight: function (str, lang) {
if (lang && hljs.getLanguage(lang)) {
try {
return hljs.highlight(str, { language: lang }).value;
} catch (__) {}
}
return ''; // use external default escaping
}
});
Or with full wrapper override (if you need assign class to <pre> or <code>):
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
import hljs from 'highlight.js' // https://highlightjs.org
// Actual default values
const md = markdownit({
highlight: function (str, lang) {
if (lang && hljs.getLanguage(lang)) {
try {
return '<pre><code class="hljs">' +
hljs.highlight(str, { language: lang, ignoreIllegals: true }).value +
'</code></pre>';
} catch (__) {}
}
return '<pre><code class="hljs">' + md.utils.escapeHtml(str) + '</code></pre>';
}
});
linkify: true uses linkify-it. To
configure linkify-it, access the linkify instance through md.linkify:
md.linkify.set({ fuzzyEmail: false }); // disables converting email to link
If you are going to write plugins, please take a look at Development info.
Embedded (enabled by default):
Via plugins:
By default all rules are enabled, but can be restricted by options. On plugin load all its rules are enabled automatically.
import markdownit from 'markdown-it'
// Activate/deactivate rules, with currying
const md = markdownit()
.disable(['link', 'image'])
.enable(['link'])
.enable('image');
// Enable everything
const md = markdownit({
html: true,
linkify: true,
typographer: true,
});
You can find all rules in sources:
Here is the result of readme parse at MB Pro Retina 2013 (2.4 GHz):
npm run benchmark-deps
benchmark/benchmark.mjs readme
Selected samples: (1 of 28)
> README
Sample: README.md (7774 bytes)
> commonmark-reference x 1,222 ops/sec ±0.96% (97 runs sampled)
> current x 743 ops/sec ±0.84% (97 runs sampled)
> current-commonmark x 1,568 ops/sec ±0.84% (98 runs sampled)
> marked x 1,587 ops/sec ±4.31% (93 runs sampled)
[!NOTE]
CommonMark version runs with simplified link normalizers for more "honest" compare. Difference is ≈1.5×.
As you can see, markdown-it doesn't pay with speed for its flexibility.
Slowdown of "full" version caused by additional features not available in
other implementations.
markdown-it is the result of the decision of the authors who contributed to 99% of the Remarkable code to move to a project with the same authorship but new leadership (Vitaly and Alex). It's not a fork.
Big thanks to John MacFarlane for his work on the CommonMark spec and reference implementations. His work saved us a lot of time during this project's development.
Related Links:
Ports
Marked is a fast Markdown parser and compiler built for speed. It is less extensible than markdown-it but is known for its performance and being a low-level compiler.
Remarkable is another Markdown parser that claims to be very fast and efficient. It offers similar extensibility to markdown-it with a plugin system and is often used for its speed and comprehensive Markdown support.
Showdown is a JavaScript Markdown to HTML converter that can run both on the server and in the browser. It is often chosen for its client-side capabilities and extensibility with extensions.
FAQs
Markdown-it - modern pluggable markdown parser.
The npm package markdown-it receives a total of 18,169,366 weekly downloads. As such, markdown-it popularity was classified as popular.
We found that markdown-it demonstrated a healthy version release cadence and project activity because the last version was released less than a year ago. It has 1 open source maintainer collaborating on the project.
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