Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-05 20:34:29

I need to write some documentation and would prefer to do that in markdown.

Markdown editors I tried either show text in one panel and preview next to it, or immediately convert the typed text into 'live preview'.

Both gitlab & github offer a simple markdown editor where you can switch between edit & preview mode.
I very much prefer that workflow, but can't find a standalone editor that works that way.

Do you know one ?

dimich · 2025-11-05 21:17:20

Retext has both "Preview" and "Live preview" modes.

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-05 22:41:17

I should have phrased that clearer :
in edit mode i want to see only the raw text, in preview the markdown effect .

ReText does show the raw text but also seems to immediately apply (some) markdown effects.
try putting piet and ***piet*** in it and notice the 2nd piet looks much different then the first.

Allan · 2025-11-05 23:29:04

Didn't Libreoffice get markdown support recently?

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-06 10:34:28

It's not mentioned in the release notes for 25.8, seems to be only in git for now.

Did some more searching and it seems every markdown editor has a live preview mode (that can't be disabled)

I may have to settle for a program that can show markdown like okular.

icar · 2025-11-06 10:38:58

Are you aware of https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.g … Apostrophe ? You can switch between preview, text or both. It does apply some styling, but it never hides the actual characters afair.
You could also just have a text editor (with markdown LSP support?) and run pandoc?

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-06 10:56:58

It's also in repos (and brings in a lot of haskell deps) and does seem to do the job.

Will have to test it.

pandoc converts one format to another ? That would add an extra step.

dimich · 2025-11-06 11:38:48

Lone_Wolf wrote:

ReText does show the raw text but also seems to immediately apply (some) markdown effects.

Indeed. It doesn't seem like markdown but rather syntax highlight for markdown. Ugh.

Lone_Wolf wrote:

I may have to settle for a program that can show markdown like okular.

You can convert markdown into temporary html with md2html and render it in a browser. Inconvenient additional steps, however.

icar · 2025-11-06 13:53:40

Lone_Wolf wrote:

pandoc converts one format to another ? That would add an extra step.

I'm surprised you don't know pandoc. It's a swiss army of text formats. For your use case,

pandoc file.md -o file.pdf # or any other extension that makes sense

Probably a good idea to mix that with inotifywait and you get auto updated PDF every time you save the MD file.

seth · 2025-11-06 14:32:10

There's also https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/md4c/
nb. that github, gitlab, marked etc. implement (disjunct, I think) supersets of basic markdown

inotify will require you to write every change.
sqriptor currently has some questionable syntax highlighting for markdown (better than what qtscite does)
If https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/richtext-html-subset.html is sufficient and you don't find anything else I could add a QTextView and then pass the document through an external process like md2html or pandoc (configurable) when you switch the view (this won't create much overhead/dependencies but I won't link QWebView or any specific md interpreter) - you'd get a button in the menubar (and a shortcut) to toggle between edit and preview mode.

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-07 11:02:57

The doc files I need to write will be used in a few mods for oolite which is played on MacOS, linux and windows . They'll be published in git repos on sourcehut or codeberg (most likely sourcehut) so supporting only basic markdown is a big plus.

Seth, I will test apostrophe and if that doesn't work well your custom solution sounds like a very good alternative .

Sidenote

icar wrote:

I'm surprised you don't know pandoc. It's a swiss army of text formats. For your use case,

A big part of my IT career took place in manufacturing environments where highly specialised hardware and software is used.
Around 2009 I had to figure out how to apply a small change in default settings for custom software running on ibm os/2 system from 1992 .
Communication with the device was over a RS 422 cable.
Even an ecomstation system wasn't able to establish communication, fortunately the software company was willing to sell us one of their spare 1992 development systems.
Converting the settings using later versions of the software failed, so I had to learn how to use the tools used to create the software in 92 to apply the changes.
Such experiences have made me very wary of using conversion tools.

P.S.
Recently I was contacted by that software company for details on the setup I created then. It seems that the hard/software will be replaced by state-of-the-art devices in 2030 .
The new software will include a few expert systems, but any other use of AI is forbidden.

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2025-11-07 11:04:01)

seth · 2025-11-07 13:37:22

https://archlinux.org/packages/extra/any/apostrophe/ is in the repos btw.

killertofus · 2025-11-07 17:44:03

if you install neovim and the plugin knap with zathura it can do what you want

neovim and the plugin for “auto-refreshing” or “self-updating” preview of the results of the file being edited

and zathura for showing the markdown

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-08 10:49:55

auto-preview is almost the opposite of what i want.
Also seeing 3 companies that focus on AI listed as sponsors make me want to stay away from neovim as far as possible.

seth · 2025-11-08 20:38:13

Fwwi, I implemented a basic PoC - don't hesitate to call if you're unhappy w/ apostrophe

seth · 2025-11-09 14:40:44

Is now in the main branch, defaults to the Qt built-in markdown processor but I found it to have issues w/ at lease embedded html.
The external processor can be any command that reads markdown on stdin and writes html to stdout.

anubis_shadow · 2025-11-09 17:14:38

I'm a huge fan of Ghostwriter. Live preview can be toggled off. As a writer my favorite feature is Hemingway mode which disables the backspace button to prevent you from excessive self-editing which has significantly helped my ability to actually finish a project I start.

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-10 13:54:15

Ghostwriter live preview can indeed be toggled off, but the only way to preview it seems to be to toggle it again.
I very much prefer NOT seeing normal text and markdown side by side.

I've tested apostrophe and it's preview pane is rather slow, but its main disadvantage is markdown syntax highlighting that can't be disabled (afaict) .

@Seth :
It looks like your code is the only option left besides using a non-markdown text editor + a viewer.
Where can I find it ?

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2025-11-10 13:55:55)

seth · 2025-11-10 14:00:03

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/sqriptor-git

its main disadvantage is markdown syntax highlighting that can't be disabled

We'll probably have to work on that (preview is only available for md and html and you'll get unconditional syntax highlighting from that)
Feel free to open an issue on the github and comment on the status quo so we can wiggle that into place.

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-11 11:07:23

It turns out the MD syntax HL is not what bothers me, but how it's presented.

The method used in sqriptor required an adjustment, but now works very well for me.

I need to write more markdown before declaring this solved but sqriptor is definitely the top contender.

seth · 2025-11-11 16:14:58

As you'd expect from the greatest and best texteditor in the world (tribute!)
I just added support for custom css for the preview and fine-tuned the handling of bold and italic text a bit.

mountaintrek · 2025-11-11 22:34:55

retext has Preview and Live Preview. The former is what I think you are look'n for.

In their October blog entry, Libreoffice mentioned supporting markdown::

Markdown support is coming to LibreOffice! This is just one of the projects from the Google Summer of Code 2025, and should be included in our next major release, LibreOffice 26.2, due in February next year.

It's Foss magazine reviews some markdown editors.

I usually start with what is in the supported repositories, double check what language they are written in, and when was the last update.

pacman -Ss markdown|grep -B1 -i edit

Lone_Wolf · 2025-11-12 11:12:17

GitHub flavored Markdown: Yes

I view that as a downside and also dislike split views for preview (both normal and preview display should have their own pane) , so that disqualifies a lot of the available choices.

seth · 2025-11-12 13:48:51

nb. that the Qt-internal markdown parser defaults to the github flavor (and there's no config for that in sqriptor) so you (currently) want to use an external processor.
Not sure how big the differences are, though.

Arch Linux

#1 2025-11-05 20:34:29

Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#2 2025-11-05 21:17:20

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#3 2025-11-05 22:41:17

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#4 2025-11-05 23:29:04

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#5 2025-11-06 10:34:28

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#6 2025-11-06 10:38:58

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#7 2025-11-06 10:56:58

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#8 2025-11-06 11:38:48

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#9 2025-11-06 13:53:40

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#10 2025-11-06 14:32:10

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#11 2025-11-07 11:02:57

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#12 2025-11-07 13:37:22

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#13 2025-11-07 17:44:03

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#14 2025-11-08 10:49:55

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#15 2025-11-08 20:38:13

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#16 2025-11-09 14:40:44

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#17 2025-11-09 17:14:38

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#18 2025-11-10 13:54:15

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#19 2025-11-10 14:00:03

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#20 2025-11-11 11:07:23

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#21 2025-11-11 16:14:58

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#22 2025-11-11 22:34:55

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#23 2025-11-12 11:12:17

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

#24 2025-11-12 13:48:51

Re: Markdown editor like those used on gitlab/github ?

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