Inspired by Typora^diff

Preview markdown inline and extend the capabilities through existing VS Code extensions.

Contents

Features
Extension Settings
Known Issues
Relevant extensions
Typora equivalents
Differences

Headers

URLs

Images

(and gifs!)

Preview on hover

Preview inline

Inline code

LaTeX

$..$ for inline blocks and $$..$$ for multiline blocks.

Live preview

Emphasis

Blockquote

Horizontal rule

HTML tags

List

Task list

Mermaid

Use mermaid as the language specifier in the code block.

Table

Reveal source

The concealed elements near the cursor are auto-revealed.

To show all concealed elements, use the toggle button on the top-right. Alternatively, use the provided Ctrl+Shift+m shortcut. To reveal only the current line, toggle with Ctrl+Shift+space.

Performance

The extension intelligently parses only the visible text for large files and employs caching extensively. Entire rendering takes well under 100ms.

Vim bindings

The implementation uses the native editor instead of Custom UI. All extensions should work as expected including Neo Vim.

Spec compliant

The parser follows the Github Flavoured Markdown (thus Commonmark) spec. It prevents inconsistency with the formats exported with spec compliant renderers.

Extension Settings

Look under Markless section to selectively turn off the eye candies.

Add the following in settings.json for better rendering.

"editor.tokenColorCustomizations": {
    "textMateRules": [
        {
            "scope": "markup.list",
            "settings": {
                "foreground": "#6c7500",
                },
        },
        {
            "scope": "markup.bold",
            "settings": {
                "fontStyle": "bold",
            },
        },
        {
            "scope": "markup.heading",
            "settings": {
                "fontStyle": "bold",
            },
        },
        {
            "scope": "markup.inline.raw",
            "settings": {
                "fontStyle": "bold",
                "foreground": "#707070",
            },
        },
        {
            "scope": "string.other.link.title.markdown",
            "settings": {
                "fontStyle": "underline",
            },
        },
    ],
},

Known Issues

Bracket pair colorizers interfere with the rendering. If you use one, install the patched version which excludes the markdown files.

Relevant extensions

Typora equivalents

FAQ

Q: How to make Images Preview always maximized

Set vscode settings Workbench › Panel: Opens Maximized as always.

DEBUG

Set workspace's setting `markless.debug` to `true`

Then log.debug will log to console.

Differences

	Markless	Typora
Vim bindings	☑
Extensible	☑
Open source	☑
UI Polish	▣	☑
Advanced CSS		☑
iFrame embeds*		☑