Markdown Cheat Sheet — Syntax With Live Preview

One to six # followed by a space. Use one # heading per document and do not skip levels; screen readers and tables of contents rely on the order.

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4

The older "setext" style; only levels 1 and 2. A line of --- under a paragraph makes it a heading, which surprises people expecting a horizontal rule: leave a blank line before ---.

Heading 1
=========

Heading 2
---------

A blank line separates paragraphs. A single line break inside a paragraph is joined into one line (except where noted under line breaks).

First paragraph, which can wrap
across several source lines.

Second paragraph after a blank line.

For a line break without a new paragraph, end the line with two spaces or a backslash. GitHub comments, Obsidian (by default), Slack and Discord treat every newline as a break instead.

Two trailing spaces  
make a break.
A trailing backslash\
works too.<br>So does an HTML br.

Asterisks work inside words; underscores do not (snake_case_names stay literal), which is why most style guides prefer *.

**bold** or __bold__

*italic* or _italic_

***bold italic***

in**side**word works with *, not with _

Start each line with >. Quotes can contain any other Markdown, including lists and code.

> Quoted text.
> Still quoted.
>
> > Nested quote.

-, * or + all work; do not mix them in one list (a different marker starts a new list).

- Item
- Item
  - Nested (indent 2 spaces)
- Item

The first number sets the start; later numbers are ignored, so "1." on every line renumbers itself when you reorder items.

1. First
1. Second
1. Third

3. Starts at three
4. Four

Indent extra content to line up with the first character of the item text (3 spaces after "1. ").

1. Install:

   ```sh
   npm install marked
   ```

2. Indent continuation lines
   to the item text.

Markdown inside backticks is not interpreted.

Run `npm test` now.

Use ``double `backticks` `` when the code contains one.

Three backticks (or ~~~) on their own lines. The word after the fence names the language for syntax highlighting on GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian and Discord.

```js
const answer = 42;
console.log(answer);
```

const answer = 42;
console.log(answer);

The original syntax. Fences are clearer and allow a language; indented code is the only form old Reddit understands.

Paragraph.

    four spaces of indent
    make a code block

four spaces of indent
make a code block

Three or more -, * or _ on a line of their own, with a blank line above.

Above

---

Below (also *** or ___)

The angle-bracket form is CommonMark's autolink. Spaces in a URL must be written %20 or the URL wrapped in <…>.

[Link text](https://freetoolsforweb.com)

[With a title](https://freetoolsforweb.com "Hover text")

[Relative link](/tools/regex-cheat-sheet)

<https://example.com>

Keeps long URLs out of the text. Definitions can sit anywhere in the document and are not displayed.

Read the [spec][cm] and the [GFM spec].

[cm]: https://spec.commonmark.org/
[GFM spec]: https://github.github.com/gfm/

On GitHub and GitLab every heading gets an automatic id: lower-cased, spaces to hyphens, punctuation removed ("## Install & Run" becomes #install--run). Obsidian uses [[#Heading]] instead.

[Jump to tables](#md-tables)

Like a link with ! in front. The text in [ ] is the alt text: describe the image for people who cannot see it. Markdown has no size syntax; use HTML <img width="200"> where HTML is allowed.

![Site logo](/brand/favicon.svg "Optional title")

[![Clickable image](/brand/favicon.svg)](/tools)

A backslash makes any ASCII punctuation literal: \ ` * _ { } [ ] ( ) # + - . ! |

\*not italic\*  \# not a heading  1\. not a list

Allowed by CommonMark. GitHub and GitLab keep a safe subset (no script, style or event handlers); Slack, Discord, Reddit and Notion show it as text.

Press <kbd>Ctrl</kbd> + <kbd>C</kbd>, H<sub>2</sub>O, x<sup>2</sup>.

An HTML comment is kept in the source but not displayed wherever HTML is allowed.

Visible.

<!-- Not rendered: notes for editors -->

Also visible.

The second line is required; colons set alignment. Columns need not line up in the source. Escape a literal pipe as \|. No merged cells or multi-line cells (use <br> inside a cell on GitHub).

Where: GFM, GitLab, Obsidian, Reddit; Notion on paste

| Left | Centre | Right |
| :--- | :----: | ----: |
| a    |   b    |     1 |
| `c`  | **d**  |    22 |

On GitHub and GitLab the boxes are clickable in issues and pull requests and update the source.

Where: GFM, GitLab, Obsidian; Notion via the [] shortcut

- [x] Write the draft
- [ ] Review
- [ ] Publish

Two tildes everywhere; GitHub also accepts one. Slack uses ~single~ tildes, Jira -hyphens-.

Where: GFM, GitLab, Obsidian, Discord, Reddit, Notion

~~no longer true~~

GFM turns bare URLs and www. addresses into links. In plain CommonMark they stay text unless wrapped in <…>.

Where: GFM, GitLab, Obsidian, Slack, Discord, Reddit

Visit https://freetoolsforweb.com or www.example.com.

The definition can go anywhere; footnotes are numbered in order of reference and listed at the end. Obsidian also has inline footnotes: ^[like this].

Where: GFM, GitLab, Obsidian (not CommonMark)

Markdown was created in 2004.[^1]

[^1]: By John Gruber, with Aaron Swartz.

Sets the anchor yourself. Supported by Pandoc, PHP Markdown Extra, Hugo, Jekyll (kramdown), MkDocs and Docusaurus; GitHub and GitLab ignore it and show the braces, using automatic ids instead.

Where: Pandoc, Hugo, Jekyll, MkDocs, Docusaurus; not GitHub or GitLab

### Install {#setup}

Colon-wrapped names. Typing a colon in GitHub, Slack, Discord or Notion opens an emoji picker. Pasting the emoji itself works everywhere.

Where: GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Discord; not Obsidian (without a plugin) or CommonMark

Ship it :rocket: :+1: :tada:

TeX between $ signs inline, $$ for a display block. GitHub also accepts $`…`$ and a ```math block; GitLab supports the same forms. Notion uses $$…$$ for inline equations.

Where: GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, Notion (own syntax)

Inline: $E = mc^2$

$$
\sum_{i=1}^{n} i = \frac{n(n+1)}{2}
$$

A code block with the language mermaid becomes a diagram: flowcharts, sequence, class, state, Gantt and ER diagrams.

Where: GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, Notion (Mermaid code block)

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  A[Write] --> B{Review}
  B -->|ok| C[Publish]
  B -->|changes| A
```

GitHub has five types: NOTE, TIP, IMPORTANT, WARNING, CAUTION. GitLab (17.10+) accepts the same syntax. Obsidian has many more types, custom titles (> [!tip] Title) and folding (> [!faq]-).

Where: GitHub, GitLab 17.10+, Obsidian; a plain quote elsewhere

> [!NOTE]
> Useful information.

> [!WARNING]
> Critical content that needs attention.

HTML, but widely supported. Leave blank lines around the Markdown inside, or it is not parsed.

Where: GitHub, GitLab, Obsidian, most static-site generators

<details>
<summary>Click to expand</summary>

Hidden **Markdown** content.

</details>

Obsidian and some editors (Typora, iA Writer); GitHub shows the equals signs. Use <mark> where HTML is allowed.

Where: Obsidian, Typora; not GitHub

This is ==highlighted== text.