MD Editor rushabhpasad

editor markdown preview text-editor

Use this command to install MD Editor:

winget install --id=rushabhpasad.MDEditor -e

Lightweight cross-platform desktop Markdown editor with live split-pane preview

MD Editor

A lightweight, cross-platform desktop Markdown editor with a live split-pane preview.

MD Editor screenshot placeholder

Features

Custom title bar — shows the current filename centered; theme-contrast background (darker header in light themes, near-black in dark themes); native window dragging
Split-pane layout — resizable editor and preview side by side; toggle between Edit, Split, and Preview modes per tab
Tabs — open multiple documents simultaneously, each with its own view mode and scroll sync state
Live preview — GitHub Flavored Markdown rendered in real time (150 ms debounce)
Syntax highlighting — editor syntax coloring for Markdown; fenced code blocks highlighted via highlight.js
Formatting toolbar — one-click bold, italic, headings, code blocks, links, images, lists, blockquotes, tables; heading/list buttons correctly apply to selected lines
Keyboard shortcuts — full set of shortcuts for all common actions (see table below)
Four themes — Light, Dark, Solarized Light, Solarized Dark; auto-detects system preference
Persistent settings — font family/size, line height, word wrap, scroll sync, auto-save, and more
Per-tab scroll sync (⇅ Sync) — editor and preview scroll together; toggle independently per tab
File management — open, save, save-as, recent files (last 10), unsaved-changes guard with Save/Discard/Cancel, drag & drop
"Open With" support — set MD Editor as the default app for .md and .markdown files
Session restore — reopens last-open tabs (including untitled documents) on next launch
Export — Export to HTML (standalone file with styles), Print Preview (PDF via system dialog), or Print Raw Markdown
Find in editor — custom find/replace bar (Cmd+F) with match count and Replace / Replace All; identical find bar in Preview pane
Dashboard — welcome screen with New Document, Open File, and Recent Files when no tabs are open
Show Changes — diff view comparing current content against the last-saved version
Multi-window — open files in separate windows
View-only mode — read-only preview without the editor
Auto-save — optional timed auto-save to the current file
Status bar — live word count, character count, cursor position, file encoding
Donate / Sponsor — support open source development via GitHub Sponsors

Tech Stack

Layer	Technology
Framework	Tauri v2 (Rust + WebView)
Frontend	React 18 + TypeScript
Editor	CodeMirror 6
Markdown parser	marked.js (GFM)
Code highlighting	highlight.js
Split pane	allotment
Styling	Tailwind CSS v4
State	Zustand
File I/O	Tauri `fs` + `dialog` plugins

Installation

macOS

Homebrew (recommended)

brew tap rushabhpasad/tap
brew install --cask md-editor

Direct download

Download the .dmg from the Releases page, open it, and drag MD Editor to your Applications folder.

> "MD Editor is damaged and can't be opened" — the app may not yet be code-signed with an Apple Developer ID in older releases. Remove the quarantine attribute with: > > bash > xattr -cr "/Applications/MD Editor.app" > > > Alternatively, right-click the app → Open → click Open in the dialog.

MacPorts (community-maintained, submission pending)

sudo port install md-editor

Windows

winget

winget install rushabhpasad.MDEditor

Scoop

scoop bucket add rushabhpasad https://github.com/rushabhpasad/scoop-bucket
scoop install md-editor

Chocolatey (submission pending)

choco install md-editor

Direct download

Download the .msi or .exe installer from the Releases page.

Linux

apt / deb

curl -LO https://github.com/rushabhpasad/md-editor/releases/latest/download/md-editor_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i md-editor_amd64.deb

AppImage

curl -LO https://github.com/rushabhpasad/md-editor/releases/latest/download/md-editor_amd64.AppImage
chmod +x md-editor_amd64.AppImage
./md-editor_amd64.AppImage

Flatpak (Flathub submission pending)

flatpak install flathub com.rpasad.MDEditor

Snap (Snap Store submission pending)

snap install md-editor

Prerequisites (Building from Source)

Rust (stable, 1.77+)
Node.js 18+
Tauri system dependencies for your platform — see the Tauri prerequisites guide

Getting Started

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/rushabhpasad/md-editor.git
cd md-editor

# Install frontend dependencies
npm install

# Start the development build (hot-reloads both Rust and frontend)
npm run tauri dev

Building for Production

npm run tauri build

Distributable bundles are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	macOS	Windows / Linux
New File (new tab)	Cmd+N	Ctrl+N
New Tab	Cmd+Shift+N	Ctrl+Shift+N
Open (in new tab)	Cmd+O	Ctrl+O
Save	Cmd+S	Ctrl+S
Save As	File menu	File menu
Close Tab	Cmd+W	Ctrl+W
Find / Replace	Cmd+F	Ctrl+F
Bold	Cmd+B	Ctrl+B
Italic	Cmd+I	Ctrl+I
Cycle View (Edit→Split→Preview)	Cmd+Shift+V	Ctrl+Shift+V
Toggle Scroll Sync (per tab)	Cmd+Shift+S	Ctrl+Shift+S
Toggle Preview	Cmd+Shift+P	Ctrl+Shift+P
Toggle Editor	Cmd+Shift+E	Ctrl+Shift+E
Toggle View-only Mode	Cmd+Shift+R	Ctrl+Shift+R
Toggle Theme	Cmd+Shift+T	Ctrl+Shift+T
Increase Font	Cmd++	Ctrl++
Decrease Font	Cmd+-	Ctrl+-
Reset Font	Cmd+0	Ctrl+0
Settings	Cmd+,	Ctrl+,

Project Structure

md-editor/
├── .github/
│   └── workflows/
│       ├── release.yml             # Build &amp; sign all platforms on git tag push
│       └── publish-packages.yml   # Push to Homebrew/winget/Scoop on release publish
│
├── src-tauri/          # Rust / Tauri backend
│   └── src/
│       ├── lib.rs      # App setup, native menu, plugin registration
│       └── main.rs     # Entry point
│
└── src/                # React frontend
    ├── components/
    │   ├── Layout.tsx        # Split-pane shell; renders Dashboard when no tabs open
    │   ├── Dashboard.tsx     # Welcome screen (new doc / open / recent files)
    │   ├── TitleBar.tsx      # Custom title bar with filename + drag region
    │   ├── Editor.tsx        # CodeMirror 6 instance with custom find/replace bar
    │   ├── Preview.tsx       # Live HTML preview with find bar
    │   ├── Toolbar.tsx       # Formatting buttons + mode toggle + sync
    │   ├── TabBar.tsx        # Tab management UI
    │   ├── StatusBar.tsx     # Word/char count, cursor, full path
    │   ├── Settings.tsx      # Preferences modal (sectioned)
    │   ├── RecentFiles.tsx   # Recent files modal
    │   ├── About.tsx         # About dialog (credits + donate)
    │   ├── ExportDialog.tsx  # Export to HTML / Print PDF / Print Raw Markdown
    │   ├── DiffViewer.tsx    # Show changes since last save
    │   └── DragDropOverlay.tsx # Drag &amp; drop handler
    ├── hooks/
    │   ├── useFile.ts        # Open / save / recent file logic
    │   ├── useMarkdown.ts    # Debounced MD → HTML conversion
    │   ├── useTheme.ts       # Theme switching &amp; system detection
    │   └── useScrollSync.ts  # Bidirectional scroll sync
    ├── store/
    │   └── appStore.ts   # Zustand global state + persisted settings
    └── styles/
        ├── themes.css    # CSS custom properties for all themes
        ├── editor.css    # CodeMirror overrides
        └── preview.css   # GitHub-style preview typography

Settings

Open via MD Editor → Settings... or Cmd/Ctrl+,.

Setting	Default
Theme	System
Default View Mode	Split
Font Family	JetBrains Mono (dropdown of 8 choices)
Font Size	14px
Line Height	1.6
Word Wrap	On
Scroll Sync (default for new tabs)	On
Auto Save	Off
Auto Save Interval	30s
Show Line Numbers	On
Spell Check	Off

Sample Files

The samples/ directory contains ready-to-open Markdown files for exploring the editor's features:

File	Contents
`samples/welcome.md`	Feature overview with tables, code blocks, and checkboxes
`samples/code-showcase.md`	Syntax highlighting demo in 6 languages
`samples/writing-sample.md`	Long-form prose demonstrating typography
`samples/features-overview.md`	App-store-style feature sheet

Support

If MD Editor is useful to you, consider sponsoring development — it helps keep the project free and open source.

Credits

Created by Rushabh Pasad · Built with the help of Claude (Anthropic)

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please open an issue before submitting a large pull request.

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch: git checkout -b feat/my-feature
Commit your changes following Conventional Commits
Push and open a pull request

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.