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Ask HN: Is there any beautiful Markdown editor?
Can anyone tell me if there is a beautiful markdown editor? I have been looking for it for quite a long time but I found nothing fit! Every markdown editor I found is ugly! Help! I can't write raw markdown without a beautiful UI!
- craggyjaggy 4y agoI quite like Ghostwriter: https://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/ https://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/
- account-5 4y agoThis! Unlike nearly every other editor it's not a PWA/electron. Brilliant editor
- nateb2022 4y agoNeovim + Glow (https://github.com/ellisonleao/glow.nvim https://github.com/ellisonleao/glow.nvim). It's beautiful.
- TotoHorner 4y agoBeauty is in the eye of the beholder
- wilsonfiifi 4y agoThere’s Marktext [0] that is pleasant, feature rich and has a minimalist UI. [0] https://github.com/marktext/marktext https://github.com/marktext/marktext
- theschmed 4y agoFYI that page still links to https://marktext.app/ https://marktext.app/ on the right under About.
- jrockway 4y agoI always liked Dropbox Paper's pseudo-markdown. I also liked their font enough to buy a license for my own website.
- kube-system 4y agoI feel like we’re coming full circle. 1. Existing rich text solutions require applications to edit, let’s make one that is so simple you can read/write in plaintext. Markdown is born. 2. Wait I need more features, let’s add more stuff 3. Hey this is too complicated to work with, I need an editor! That being said, check this out: https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/languages/markdown https://code.visualstudio.com/Docs/languages/markdown
- zccm 4y agoIndeed!
- lovingCranberry 4y agovscode + markdown preview :)
- somecommit 4y agothis, I use it to write my CV since some years, works perfectly
- hpschrei 4y agoTypora has an elegant, minimalist interface: https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/
- anotheryou 4y agoAlso has hybrid rendering! No weird 2nd pane just to have the readable pretty markdown. For android: https://jotterpad.app/ https://jotterpad.app/ (also has a desktop app, never tested it though)
- DishyDev 4y agoI've had good results with https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/ writing articles a couple of years ago. It was free when I was using it because it was in beta, it's now $15. If I needed to write in markdown more regularly I'd probably buy it.
- aurora72 4y agoEven if it was free and ad-free, doing Markdown editing on the cloud is inappropriate. Come on.
- smileybarry 4y agoTypora is fully offline and works on real files, there's no cloud dependency here AFAIK. At most you can keep files in your Google Drive/OneDrive/Dropbox syncing folder to make it "cloud".
- glmeece 4y agoI, too, have used Typora for years whilst in Beta. I appreciated it's approach and features enough that I've paid for it. Alternately, there's a free editor called MarkText that is maybe 85% there as compared to Typora. I use this on my work Windows machine, which is pretty locked down due to corporate policies. References: • https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/ • https://github.com/marktext/marktext#marktext https://github.com/marktext/marktext#marktext
- marban 4y agoiA Writer
- iso1631 4y agoPersonally I'd say vim, but I respect those that will say emacs.
- anotheryou 4y agowith emacs you need to go full org-mode :)
- wruza 4y agoSide-topic: I wish popular markdown renderers used indents and more pronounced v-margins for different levels of headings, and/or some more visual cues. Long md docs are so hard to read and skim through because h4-h6 are indistinguishable from text or are even less visible than it. E.g. https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-session https://www.npmjs.com/package/express-session
- cube2222 4y agoObsidian and Bear are both nice, with Obsidian operating on plain text files and Bear being able to export to such.
- sebow 4y agoI recently discovered Zettlr and frankly I'm pleased enough with it: cross-platform, does the job well-enough. You can always use an extension for VSC or emacs,etc. but when simply wanting to read a markdown file I use this one. Previously I tried Typora and others but I'm not willing to pay for a markdown reader. Maybe for an editor, whenever I'll decide writing (though I'd use emacs 9/10 times)
- twistedcheeslet 4y agoStackEdit has fully taken over all of my Markdown note writing. It's a fabulous free little PWA that keeps things simple and gets the job done.
- minikomi 4y agoOrg mode with markdown export through pandoc
- andreareina 4y agoExport to markdown is available, though depending on the version it's not visible in the export list initially (it shows up after you manually call the export function). 'ob-md-export-{to,as}-markdown
- oxff 4y agoJust use VS Code with a nice theme and some plugins. Or org-mode.
- max_ 4y agoMarkably would be it for me, it's a Progressive Web App, so it works offline. [0]: https://app.markably.io/ https://app.markably.io/
- q3k 4y agovim is pretty beautiful.
- suprjami 4y agoThis. I think wanting a "beautiful" graphical Markdown editor defeats the purpose of the format. It's supposed to be used as plain text while writing. Rendering to HTML when writing is finished is an added bonus.
- neilv 4y agoIf you use Emacs, these face tweaks (and `imenu-list`) I mentioned the other day help aesthetics and readability lot, IMHO: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32716762 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32716762 One thing I forgot to mention is that Emacs's normal `M-q` "filling" works well with `markdown-mode` -- makes the text tidier, and makes nested bullets and enumerations more legible. (And you might want to `M-x customize-variable RET fill-column RET` to 79 or 80, rather than the historical default of 72.)
- anotheryou 4y agoone day I have to rebuild this... https://lepisma.xyz/2017/10/28/ricing-org-mode/ https://lepisma.xyz/2017/10/28/ricing-org-mode/
- Brajeshwar 4y agoI have drawn a blurry line of what constitutes an OK, beauty-ish, well-done tool. Beyond that, all are the same. I tend to continue with the one I got earlier that works fine. These days, I write quite a lot of plaintext/markdown in Obsidian and Sublime Text. However, if I have to flush out an editor focusing on writing, then iA Writer[1] is beautiful. I got my copy long back when they released it and never had to pay additional to use it or a subscription. Have an attachment with iA.net as one of those clean, minimal design companies, and my long-term product design friend used to intern with the company. 1. https://ia.net/writer https://ia.net/writer
- dewey 4y agoOn macOS, iOS I can recommend https://ia.net/writer https://ia.net/writer. There's not really space to be ugly as it's very minimal.
- anotheryou 4y agoI only use editors that render markdown with the markup. I found: Desktop: https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/ Mobile (and Desktop): https://jotterpad.app/ https://jotterpad.app/
- o_enix_o 4y agoI enjoy Obsidian [1] daily. Perhaps more than a minimal editor, but very powerful overall. [1] https://obsidian.md/ https://obsidian.md/
- Orthanc 4y agoNeon 80s theme FTW.
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- alienspaces 4y agoWhen all you need for the UI is a text area to input text and a button to render the markdown, I am at a loss as to what would contribute to a beautiful UI. Is the question correct? When not using VSCode + preview, I have found https://dillinger.io/ https://dillinger.io/ pretty good as you can download the result in various formats.
- unrealhoang 4y agoI think you can try out https://apps.apple.com/vn/app/samuwrite/id1629628152 https://apps.apple.com/vn/app/samuwrite/id1629628152. Web version at: https://www.samuwrite.com/ https://www.samuwrite.com/
- jemmyw 4y agoFor Mac, https://ulysses.app/ https://ulysses.app/ looks nice. I use it for writing blog posts.
- dchest 4y agoTextMate has a beautiful flower icon.
- nelsonfigueroa 4y agoI've been using Nota[1] for the past year or so and it's been great. It has a clean UI and is more "beautiful" than Obsidian in my opinion. You can use it for free but it may prompt you to purchase a license from time to time. [1] https://nota.md/ https://nota.md/
- fionntan 4y agoBeen really impressed with Nota http://nota.md http://nota.md (currently in pre-release) Got a good set of features. Not that it does anything super fancy either, it's just really _nice_. The timeline is interesting, they've been working on earlier forms of this app for about 10 years.https://nota.md/about-us.html https://nota.md/about-us.html
- replwoacause 4y agoWhat kind of markdown app takes a decade to make?
- ppradhan 4y agoObsidian https://obsidian.md https://obsidian.md
- dvkndn 4y agoI’m working on https://github.com/thien-do/samuwrite https://github.com/thien-do/samuwrite :D it’s typography from iA Writer + vscode editor (monaco). You can try it on samuwrite.com. It also has a mac app.
- Messier43 4y agohttps://github.com/marktext/marktext https://github.com/marktext/marktext is quite pretty and capable.
- solarkraft 4y agoThe remarkable thing about this is that it's primarily WYSIWYG (and, unlike Typora, FOSS).
- astoilkov 4y agoI'm the founder of a beautiful Markdown editor. Actually, two: Nota - https://nota.md https://nota.md. It's a notes app but a lot of our users use it as a markdown editor. Nota is quite powerful as a markdown editor. It has a lot of smartness built into it. Caret - https://caret.io https://caret.io. We started with this - a beautiful Markdown editor. We aren't implementing new features for it but if you are on Windows or Linux it might be worth trying out. We still have new users coming in. A common feature of the two is that they both are pleasant to use. We've put a lot of hard work into the UX (which is also hard to market and one of the reasons why you probably haven't heard about us).
- replwoacause 4y agoI signed up for the early version of Nota back in 2020 and it was still beta / invite-only way back then. Then, your website said "macOS beta coming in 2021" in 2021, and now in 2022 it says "macOS beta coming in 2022".
- d4rkp4ttern 4y agoI always look for MathJax/latex support with at minimum a live preview pane (split view) and ideally WYSIWYG. By this criterion, MarkText seems to be great. As others said Typora is similar but not OpenSource. Nota is nice but has no side by side preview pane. VSCode + markdown plug-in is good — not sure if it supports math. I also like the Marp plugin for making slides in markdown (it does have math)
- jtthe13 4y agoI've grown to really like Typora (appears to be multi-platform). On the Mac I feel we are spoiled, with Ulysses and IA writer, which are both also great, but cater to different tastes.
- jon9544hn 4y agoThe only option: https://typora.io https://typora.io Nothing else comes close. Maybe VSCode with extensibility and using that for other languages/syntax, but it’s amazing. After beta testing, I paid the $15 without a second thought
- solardev 4y agoMacdown: https://macdown.uranusjr.com/ https://macdown.uranusjr.com/ And here's a huge list: https://github.com/mundimark/awesome-markdown-editors https://github.com/mundimark/awesome-markdown-editors