Markdown Format Guide

About Markdown Format

Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber and Aaron Swartz in 2004. It was designed to be easy to read and write in its raw form, while being convertible to structurally valid HTML. Markdown uses simple punctuation characters to indicate formatting: # for headings, ** for bold, * for italic, - for lists, and [] () for links.

Markdown has become the de facto standard for documentation, README files, and content authoring across the software industry. It is natively supported by GitHub (GitHub Flavored Markdown), GitLab, Bitbucket, Stack Overflow, Reddit, Discord, Notion, Obsidian, and thousands of other platforms. Various flavors extend the original specification with tables, task lists, syntax highlighting, footnotes, and more.

Available Conversions

Markdown Format Features

• Simple Syntax: # headings, **bold**, *italic*, - lists, [links](url)
• Code Support: Inline `code` and fenced code blocks with syntax highlighting
• GitHub Flavored: Tables, task lists, strikethrough, autolinks
• Images:  syntax for embedding images
• Blockquotes: > prefix for quoted text
• HTML Compatible: Inline HTML allowed in most implementations
• Front Matter: YAML metadata headers supported by static site generators

Common Uses

• GitHub: README.md, documentation, issues, pull requests, wikis
• Documentation: MkDocs, Docusaurus, VuePress, GitBook, Read the Docs
• Static Sites: Jekyll, Hugo, Gatsby, Next.js, Astro content
• Note-Taking: Obsidian, Notion, Bear, Typora, iA Writer
• Forums: Stack Overflow, Reddit, Discord formatting
• Blogging: Ghost, Dev.to, Hashnode, Medium import
• Knowledge Bases: Confluence, GitLab wikis, internal docs