Pure Markdown

A simple, fast, cross-platform markdown editor built with Tauri (Rust + HTML/CSS/JS).

Screenshots

Mode	View	Image
Light	Preview Only
Light	Split View
Light	Editor Only
Dark	Preview Only
Dark	Split View
Dark	Editor Only

Features

• Split view with three modes: editor only, split, and preview only
• Tabs with session persistence -- unsaved tabs and content survive app restarts
• Collapsible sidebar with recent files list
• Auto-save with 2-second debounce for files saved to disk
• Syntax highlighting in code blocks via highlight.js (auto-detection and language hints)
• KaTeX math rendering for inline ($...$) and display ($$...$$) expressions
• Dark/light theme that follows system preference
• Font size zoom (in/out/reset) with persistence across sessions
• Scroll sync between editor and preview panes
• Draggable splitter between editor and preview
• Word and character counter in the status bar
• Native macOS menu bar with all shortcuts visible
• Custom app icon
• File associations for .md, .markdown, .mdown, and .mkd
• Relative image resolution in preview (paths resolve relative to the open file)
• CLI support -- open files by passing a path as an argument

Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts use Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows/Linux.

File Operations

Shortcut	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + N	New file
Cmd/Ctrl + O	Open file
Cmd/Ctrl + S	Save file
Cmd/Ctrl + W	Close tab

Editing

Shortcut	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + Z	Undo
Cmd/Ctrl + Y or Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Z	Redo
Cmd/Ctrl + B	Bold
Cmd/Ctrl + I	Italic
Cmd/Ctrl + E	Inline code
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + E	Code block
Cmd/Ctrl + K	Insert link
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + K	Insert image
Cmd/Ctrl + L	Select line
Cmd/Ctrl + D	Duplicate line
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Up	Move line up
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + Down	Move line down
Tab	Indent
Shift + Tab	Dedent
Shift + Backspace	Dedent current line

View

Shortcut	Action
Cmd/Ctrl + 1	Editor only
Cmd/Ctrl + 2	Split view
Cmd/Ctrl + 3	Preview only
Cmd/Ctrl + \	Toggle sidebar
Cmd/Ctrl + =	Zoom in
Cmd/Ctrl + -	Zoom out
Cmd/Ctrl + 0	Reset zoom

Requirements

All platforms need:

• Rust (stable) -- https://rustup.rs
• Node.js (LTS) -- https://nodejs.org or via nvm

macOS

• Xcode Command Line Tools:

  xcode-select --install
  

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian)

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \
  libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

Fedora

sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1-devel openssl-devel curl wget file \
  libappindicator-gtk3-devel librsvg2-devel

Arch

sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1 base-devel curl wget file openssl \
  appmenu-gtk-module libappindicator-gtk3 librsvg

Windows

• Microsoft Visual Studio C++ Build Tools -- install the "Desktop development with C++" workload
• WebView2 -- pre-installed on Windows 10 (1803+) and Windows 11

Install Rust and Node.js

macOS / Linux

# Rust
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
source "$HOME/.cargo/env"

# Node.js (via nvm)
curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.1/install.sh | bash
source ~/.bashrc   # or source ~/.zshrc on macOS
nvm install --lts

Windows

Download and run the installers:

• Rust: https://rustup.rs
• Node.js: https://nodejs.org

Build

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Development (hot reload)
npm run tauri dev

# Production build
npm run tauri build

Build output by platform

macOS

Format	Location
.app	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/macos/PureMarkdown.app
.dmg	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/dmg/PureMarkdown_0.1.0_aarch64.dmg

To build only the .app:

npx tauri build --bundles app

To build the .dmg installer:

npx tauri build --bundles dmg

To install, drag PureMarkdown.app into /Applications, or open the .dmg and drag from there.

Linux

Format	Location
.deb	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/deb/pure-markdown_0.1.0_amd64.deb
.rpm	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/rpm/pure-markdown-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm
.AppImage	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage/pure-markdown_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage

To install:

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i pure-markdown_0.1.0_amd64.deb

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo rpm -i pure-markdown-0.1.0-1.x86_64.rpm

# AppImage (any distro, no install needed)
chmod +x pure-markdown_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage
./pure-markdown_0.1.0_amd64.AppImage

The .deb and .rpm packages register the .desktop file with MimeType=text/markdown, so .md files can be opened with Pure Markdown from the file manager.

Windows

Format	Location
.msi	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/msi/PureMarkdown_0.1.0_x64_en-US.msi
.exe (NSIS)	src-tauri/target/release/bundle/nsis/PureMarkdown_0.1.0_x64-setup.exe

To install, run the .msi or .exe installer. Both register the file association for .md files in the Windows registry.

Project Structure

PureMarkdown/
├── package.json                  # npm scripts and dependencies
├── src/                          # Frontend (HTML/CSS/JS)
│   ├── index.html
│   ├── styles/
│   │   ├── main.css              # Layout and theme (light/dark)
│   │   ├── editor.css            # Editor textarea
│   │   └── preview.css           # Rendered markdown
│   ├── js/
│   │   ├── app.js                # Bootstrap, shortcuts, event listeners
│   │   ├── state.js              # Central app state
│   │   ├── tabs.js               # Tab management
│   │   ├── editor.js             # Editor input, auto-save, splitter
│   │   ├── preview.js            # Markdown rendering (marked.js + highlight.js + KaTeX)
│   │   ├── fileops.js            # Open/save/create via Tauri APIs
│   │   └── sidebar.js            # Recent files list
│   └── vendor/
│       ├── marked.min.js         # Markdown parser
│       └── highlight.min.js      # Syntax highlighting
└── src-tauri/                    # Backend (Rust)
    ├── Cargo.toml
    ├── tauri.conf.json           # App config, bundle, file associations
    ├── capabilities/default.json # Security permissions
    └── src/
        ├── main.rs
        └── lib.rs                # Tauri commands, session, file-open events

License

MIT