<p align="center"> <picture> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: dark)" srcset="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iamgio/quarkdown/project-files/images/tbanner-light.svg"> <source media="(prefers-color-scheme: light)" srcset="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iamgio/quarkdown/project-files/images/tbanner-dark.svg"> <img alt="Quarkdown banner" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/68dfb3bf-9466-44f3-b220-7067322c4887"> </picture> <br> <a href="https://quarkdown.com/wiki"><img alt="Wiki" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/wiki-read-darkcyan"></a> <a href="https://quarkdown.com/docs"><img alt="Docs" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/docs-read-blue"></a> <a href="https://github.com/iamgio/quarkdown/releases/latest"><img alt="Release" src="https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/iamgio/quarkdown?color=mediumseagreen"></a> <a href="https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=quarkdown.quarkdown-vscode"><img alt="Visual Studio Code Extension Version" src="https://img.shields.io/visual-studio-marketplace/v/quarkdown.quarkdown-vscode?label=vscode"></a> <a href="https://pinterest.github.io/ktlint"><img alt="FMT: Ktlint" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/fmt-ktlint-7f52ff?logo=kotlin&logoColor=f5f5f5"></a> <a href="https://www.codefactor.io/repository/github/iamgio/quarkdown"><img alt="CodeFactor" src="https://www.codefactor.io/repository/github/iamgio/quarkdown/badge/main"></a> <br><br> <a href="https://trendshift.io/repositories/13945" target="_blank"><img src="https://trendshift.io/api/badge/repositories/13945" alt="iamgio%2Fquarkdown | Trendshift" style="width: 250px; height: 55px;" width="250" height="55"/></a> <br><br> <strong>Releases</strong> <br> <a href="https://github.com/iamgio/quarkdown/releases/tag/latest">Latest</a> &nbsp; | &nbsp; <strong><a href="https://github.com/iamgio/quarkdown/releases/latest">Stable</a></strong>&nbsp; <br> <hr> </p>

Table of contents

1. About
2. Demo
3. Targets
4. Comparison
5. Getting started
   1. Installation
   2. Quickstart
   3. Creating a project
   4. Compiling
6. Mock document
7. Contributing
8. Sponsors
9. Concept
10. License

 

About

Quarkdown is a modern Markdown-based typesetting system designed for versatility. It allows a single project to compile seamlessly into a print-ready book, academic paper, knowledge base, or interactive presentation. All through an incredibly powerful Turing-complete extension of Markdown, ensuring your ideas flow automatically into paper.

 

<p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iamgio/quarkdown/project-files/images/paged-demo.png" alt="Paper demo"> <p align="center"><em>Original credits: <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762v7">Attention Is All You Need</a></em></p> </p> <br>

Born as an extension of CommonMark and GFM, the Quarkdown Flavor brings functions to Markdown, along with many other syntax extensions.

<br>

This is a function call:

.somefunction {arg1} {arg2}
    Body argument

<br>

Possibilities are unlimited thanks to an ever-expanding standard library, which offers layout builders, I/O, math, conditional statements and loops.

Not enough? You can still define your own functions and variables — all within Markdown. You can even create awesome libraries for everyone to use.

<br>

.function {greet}
    to from:
    **Hello, .to** from .from!

.greet {world} from:{iamgio}

Result: Hello, world from iamgio!

<br>

This out-of-the-box scripting support opens doors to complex and dynamic content that would be otherwise impossible to achieve with vanilla Markdown.

Combined with live preview, :zap: fast compilation speed and a powerful VS Code extension, Quarkdown simply gets the work done, whether it's an academic paper, book, knowledge base or interactive presentation.

 

<p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quarkdown-labs/quarkdown-vscode/refs/heads/project-files/live-preview.gif" alt="Live preview" /> </p>

 

---

<h2 align="center">Looking for something?</h2> <p align="center"> <strong> Check out the <a href="https://quarkdown.com/wiki" target="_blank">wiki</a> </strong> to get started and learn more about the language and its features! </p>

---

 

As simple as you expect...

<p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iamgio/quarkdown/project-files/images/code-paper.png" alt="Paper code demo"> <p align="center"><em>Inspired by: <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2025/x-ray-flashes-nearby-supermassive-black-hole-accelerate-mysteriously-0113">X-ray flashes from a nearby supermassive black hole accelerate mysteriously</a></em></p> </p>

 

<h2 align="right">...as complex as you need.</h2> <p align="center"> <img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/iamgio/quarkdown/project-files/images/code-chart.png" alt="Chart code demo"> </p>

Targets

• HTML

  • [X] Plain
    Continuous flow like Notion/Obsidian, perfect for static websites and knowledge management - check out the author's personal website.

  • [X] Paged ^{via paged.js}
    Perfect for papers, articles and books - check out the demo document.

  • [X] Slides ^{via reveal.js}
    Perfect for interactive presentations.

  • [X] Docs
    Perfect for wikis, technical documentation and large knowledge bases - check out Quarkdown's wiki.

• PDF

  • [X] All document types and features supported by HTML are also supported when exporting to PDF.

• Plain text

The desired document type can be set by calling the .doctype function within the source itself:

• .doctype {plain} (default)
• .doctype {paged}
• .doctype {slides}
• .doctype {docs}

Comparison

| | Quarkdown | LaTeX | Typst | AsciiDoc | MDX | |-----------------------|:------------------:|:------------------:|:------------------:|:------------------:|:------------------:| | Concise and readable | :white_check_mark: | :x: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | | Full document control[^control] | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | | Scripting | :white_check_mark: | Partial | :white_check_mark: | :x: | :white_check_mark: | | Book/article export | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | Third-party | | Presentation export | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | Third-party | | Static site export | :white_check_mark: | :x: | Experimental | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | | Docs/wiki export | :white_check_mark: | :x: | :x: | :white_check_mark: | :white_check_mark: | | Learning curve | :green_circle: | :red_circle: | :orange_circle: | :green_circle: | :green_circle: | | Targets | HTML, PDF, TXT | PDF, PostScript | HTML, PDF | HTML, PDF, ePub | HTML |

[^control]: The ability to customize the properties of the document and of its output artifact through the language itself.

<table> <thead> <tr> <th>LaTeX</th> <th>Quarkdown</th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>

\tableofcontents

\section{Section}

\subsection{Subsection}

\begin{enumerate}
    \item \textbf{First} item
    \item \textbf{Second} item
\end{itemize}

\begin{center}
    This text is \textit{centered}.
\end{center}

\begin{figure}[!h]
    \centering
    \begin{subfigure}[b]
        \includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{img1.png}
    \end{subfigure}
    \begin{subfigure}[b]
        \includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{img2.png}
    \end{subfigure}
    \begin{subfigure}[b]
        \includegraphics[width=0.3\linewidth]{img3.png}
    \end{subfigure}
\end{figure}

</td> <td>

.tableofcontents

# Section

## Subsection

1. **First** item
2. **Second** item

.center
    This text is _centered_.

.row alignment:{spacebetween}
    ![Image 1](img1.png)

    ![Image 2](img2.png)
    
    ![Image 3](img3.png)

</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

 

Getting started

Installation

Install script (Linux/macOS)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quarkdown-labs/get-quarkdown/refs/heads/main/install.sh | sudo env "PATH=$PATH" bash

Root privileges let the script install Quarkdown into /opt/quarkdown and its wrapper script into /usr/local/bin/quarkdown.
If missing, Java 17, Node.js and npm will be installed automatically using the system's package manager.

For more installation options, check out get-quarkdown.

Homebrew (Linux/macOS)

brew install quarkdown-labs/quarkdown/quarkdown

Install script (Windows)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/quarkdown-labs/get-quarkdown/refs/heads/main/install.ps1 | iex

Scoop (Windows)

scoop bucket add java
scoop bucket add quarkdown https://github.com/quarkdown-labs/scoop-quarkdown
scoop install quarkdown

GitHub Actions

See [setup-quarkdown](htt