Markdeep is a technology for writing plain text documents that will look good in any web browser. It supports diagrams, common styling conventions, and equations as extensions of Markdown syntax.
Markdown is free and easy to use. It doesn't need a plugin, or Internet connection. There's nothing to install. Just start writing in Vi, Nodepad, Emacs, Visual Studio, Atom, or another editor! You don't have to export, compile, or otherwise process your document. Here's an example of a text editor and a browser viewing the same file simultaneously:
Markdeep is ideal for design documents, specifications, README files, code documentation, lab reports, and technical web pages. Because the source is plain text, Markdeep works well with software development toolchains.
Markdeep was created by Morgan McGuire at Casual Effects with inspiration from John Gruber's Markdown. The current 0.01 beta release is minified-only to find bugs and get feedback, but a full source version is coming soon after some more code cleanup.
Unique features:
To create a Markdeep document, just open any text editor and
start writing. Paste the following at the bottom of your
document as a single line. Then, save it as plain text with a
filename with extension .md.html.
You can drag your document into a web browser or double click on it to see it with formatting. You can also read the document in a browser when you don't have an Internet connection. If you want to avoid losing formatting when offline, just keep markdeep.min.js in the same folder.
View the plain source of the feature demo to learn the formatting styles that you can use. Markdeep extends Markdown, and to quote John Gruber:
The overriding design goal for Markdown's formatting syntax is to make it as readable as possible. The idea is that a Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it's been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.
To inspect the original text source for a Markdeep document in a
browser, just add ?noformat to the end of its URL.
I created Markdeep because I was no longer willing to choose between design documents that looked good and those that worked well with programming tools. I liked what Markdown did on web servers, so I used that as a starting point and added more styling features and a way to directly view the documents client side in a browser.
HTML is "markup" that extends plain text with formatting. Unfortunately, the formatting tags often make original document source hard to read and write. This is slow and annoying, especially for those of us who use programming tools for document editing or want formatting in documentation files.
John Gruber invented Markdown to address HTML's editing problems. The name "markdown" conveys styling in the opposite direction of the "markup" tag syntax. Markdown beautifies text without explicit tags, based on common practices from ASCII e-mail and plain-text documents.
"Markdeep" is farther "down" from "markdown" on the autostyling and beautification path. Markdeep combines an easy-to-use and browser-friendly packaging with new unique features for diagrams. The code includes some of the best previous Javascript document formatting libraries and links to MathJax for equation typesetting.
Markdeep was created by Morgan McGuire. It extends the work of:
Copyright 2015, Morgan McGuire
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms,
with or without modification, are permitted provided that the
following conditions are met:
1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer.
2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
with the distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND
CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE
DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR
CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF
USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED
AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING
IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF
THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
Markdeep includes markdown.js, so you are also bound by the MIT license
(which is BSD-compatible):
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person
obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation
files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without
restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,
copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or
sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following
conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
...and the highlight.js BSD license:
Copyright (c) 2006, Ivan Sagalaev
All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or
without modification, are permitted provided that the following
conditions are met:
* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
* Neither the name of highlight.js nor the names of its contributors
may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS
IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT
SHALL THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT,
INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF
SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR
BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF
THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGE.
Old releases are archived as
http://casual-effects.com/markdeep/VERSION/markdeep.min.js
You can modify the Markdeep line at the bottom of a document to hardcode to a
specific version instead of the default version of "latest".
You can report bugs to morgan@casual-effects.com by sending a Markdeep document and what you think is wrong about the way that it appears.