Native macOS markdown editor and viewer
A lightweight, Typora-inspired app with live rendering, tabs, an outline sidebar, and full export support.

Download · Issues · Developer Guide

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Origin

zMD is a simple markdown reader for macOS, with just enough editing built in when you need to make a change. Open a file, it renders instantly; switch to Source or Split when you want to edit; export to PDF/HTML/Word when you're done.

It's a native SwiftUI app built around Apple's NSTextView rather than a web view — no Electron, no Tauri. Under 5 MB, signed, distributed as a direct .dmg.

If you read markdown, occasionally edit it, or hand markdown to other humans as PDFs and Word docs, this is for you.

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How It Works

Open .md --> Live Preview + Source Editor --> Export PDF/HTML/Word

1. Open a file: ⌘O, drag-drop, or create a new untitled doc with ⌘N
2. Choose a view mode: Preview (rendered), Source (editor with syntax highlighting), or Split (side-by-side with scroll sync)
3. Edit with assistance: line numbers, autocomplete, auto-indent, list continuation, Cmd+B/I/K shortcuts, find & replace with regex
4. Preview everything: headings, code blocks with syntax highlighting, tables, Mermaid diagrams, LaTeX math, clickable links
5. Export anywhere: PDF (paginated), HTML (with or without styles), Word (.docx / .rtf), native print

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Features

Editor

• Source mode with markdown syntax highlighting, line numbers, current-line highlight
• Split view — source and preview side-by-side with bidirectional scroll sync
• Format toolbar — one-click bold, italic, strikethrough, code, link, image, lists, HR
• Keyboard shortcuts — ⌘B, ⌘I, ⌘⇧X, ⌘⇧K, ⌘⇧L for formatting
• Auto-save — optional 2s debounced save, toggleable per-window
• Find & replace (⌘⌥F) with regex and case-sensitive toggles
• New untitled tab (⌘N) — instant, no save dialog until you hit ⌘S

Preview Rendering

• Typora-style typography — rendered headings, proper line-height, collapsed syntax markers
• Emphasis via asterisks — *italic* / **bold**; underscore emphasis (_text_) is not supported by design
• Syntax highlighting for Swift, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, C/C++, Bash, SQL, JSON, HTML, XML, YAML
• Mermaid diagrams — flowcharts, sequence diagrams, class diagrams rendered inline
• LaTeX math — inline $...$ and block $$...$$ via KaTeX
• Tables — GitHub-flavored markdown tables with alignment
• Nested lists — proper indentation with different bullet styles (•, ◦, ▪, ▹)
• YAML frontmatter — displays document metadata from --- blocks
• Clickable links — external URLs open in browser, relative .md links open as new tabs
• Task lists — - [ ] / - [x] rendered as checkboxes

Navigation & Search

• Multi-tab interface — drag to reorder, right-click for tab options
• Folder sidebar — open a directory and browse all markdown files with FSEvents watching
• Outline sidebar — hierarchical heading navigation with click-to-scroll
• Quick switcher (⌘⇧O) — fuzzy search across open files, or @file / #heading targeted search
• Command palette (⌘K) — every app action, searchable
• Find in document (⌘F) — match highlighting with next/previous navigation
• Reading position memory — automatically remembers scroll position per document

Export & Print

• PDF export — paginated, formatted, with syntax-highlighted code blocks
• HTML export — with or without embedded CSS styling
• Word export — both .docx (native XML) and .rtf formats
• Native print (⌘P) — macOS print dialog with full formatting
• Mermaid and KaTeX — included in exports with CDN script references

File Management

• Live file watching — detects external edits and prompts to reload
• Multi-encoding detection — auto-decodes UTF-8, Windows CP1252, ISO Latin-1, Mac Roman, UTF-16
• File operations — Duplicate, Rename, Move To, Reveal in Finder
• Open Recent — last 10 files with bookmarks for sandboxed access
• Drag-and-drop — drop .md files onto the window to open
• Security-scoped bookmarks — persistent save access across launches

UX Polish

• Focus mode (⌘⇧F) — hides everything, centers content at 720px max, floating exit pill
• Status bar — word count, character count, reading time, view mode, detected encoding
• Toast notifications — save confirmations, file change alerts, export success
• Zoom — ⌘+ / ⌘− / ⌘0, pinch-to-zoom trackpad gesture
• Auto-update — silent GitHub release check on launch (once per 24h)
• Themes — System / Light / Dark, with font style (System / Serif / Monospace)

Autocomplete

• Word completion — suggests words from the current and all open documents after 3 characters
• Markdown snippets — type link, bold, codeblock, table, etc. for quick insertion
• HTML tag completion — type < to see available HTML tags with descriptions
• Debounced — 300ms after typing pauses, never interrupts the cursor

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Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
UI	SwiftUI + AppKit interop
Text engine	NSTextView (Apple's native text system, not a web view)
Parser	Custom line-based markdown parser (single source of truth for preview + export)
Syntax highlighting	Regex-based, ~10 language grammars
Diagrams / Math	Headless WKWebView with Mermaid + KaTeX CDN scripts
File watching	DispatchSourceFileSystemObject + FSEventStream for directories
Persistence	UserDefaults + security-scoped bookmark data
Distribution	Signed .app inside a drag-to-Applications .dmg (direct download, not Mac App Store, no sandbox)
Deployment target	macOS 13.0+

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Quick Start

Install

Download the latest .dmg from Releases, open it, drag zMD to your Applications folder, and launch. First launch on unsigned builds requires right-click → Open to bypass Gatekeeper.

Build from Source

git clone https://github.com/umzcio/zMD.git
cd zMD
open zMD.xcodeproj

Press ⌘R in Xcode to build and run.

Requirements: macOS 13.0+, Xcode 15.0+

Build a Release DMG

./scripts/build-dmg.sh

Produces build/zMD.dmg with the drag-to-Applications installer layout.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘N	New untitled file
⌘O	Open file(s)
⌘⌥O	Open folder
⌘⇧O	Quick switcher (fuzzy search files + headings)
⌘K	Command palette
⌘S	Save
⌘W	Close tab
⌘F	Find in document
⌘⌥F	Find and Replace (source/split mode)
⌘G / ⌘⇧G	Next / previous match
⌘P	Print
⌘1 / ⌘2 / ⌘3	Preview / Source / Split view
⌘⇧F	Focus mode
⌘B / ⌘I	Bold / italic
⌘⇧X / ⌘⇧K / ⌘⇧L	Strikethrough / inline code / link
⌘= / ⌘− / ⌘0	Zoom in / out / reset
⌘,	Settings
⌃Tab / ⌃⇧Tab	Next / previous tab

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License

MIT. Want to contribute? See CONTRIBUTING.md.

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"It doesn't have to be a web view."
_{-- every macOS user, every time they launch VS Code}