Highlight.js is a syntax highlighter written in JavaScript. It works in the browser as well as on the server. It works with pretty much any markup, doesn’t depend on any framework, and has automatic language detection.
The bare minimum for using highlight.js on a web page is linking to the
library along with one of the styles and calling
initHighlightingOnLoad:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/path/to/styles/default.css">
<script src="/path/to/highlight.pack.js"></script>
<script>hljs.initHighlightingOnLoad();</script>This will find and highlight code inside of <pre><code> tags; it tries
to detect the language automatically. If automatic detection doesn’t
work for you, you can specify the language in the class attribute:
<pre><code class="html">...</code></pre>The list of supported languages and corresponding classes.
| Language | Classes | Package |
|---|---|---|
| 1C | 1c | |
| ABNF | abnf | |
| Access logs | accesslog | |
| Ada | ada | |
| ARM assembler | armasm, arm | |
| AVR assembler | avrasm | |
| ActionScript | actionscript, as | |
| Alan | alan, i | highlightjs-alan |
| AngelScript | angelscript, asc | |
| Apache | apache, apacheconf | |
| AppleScript | applescript, osascript | |
| Arcade | arcade | |
| AsciiDoc | asciidoc, adoc | |
| AspectJ | aspectj | |
| AutoHotkey | autohotkey | |
| AutoIt | autoit | |
| Awk | awk, mawk, nawk, gawk | |
| Axapta | axapta | |
| Bash | bash, sh, zsh | |
| Basic | basic | |
| BNF | bnf | |
| Brainfuck | brainfuck, bf | |
| C# | cs, csharp | |
| C++ | cpp, c, cc, h, c++, h++, hpp | |
| C/AL | cal | |
| Cache Object Script | cos, cls | |
| CMake | cmake, cmake.in | |
| Coq | coq | |
| CSP | csp | |
| CSS | css | |
| Cap’n Proto | capnproto, capnp | |
| Clojure | clojure, clj | |
| CoffeeScript | coffeescript, coffee, cson, iced | |
| Crmsh | crmsh, crm, pcmk | |
| Crystal | crystal, cr | |
| Cypher (Neo4j) | cypher | highlightjs-cypher |
| D | d | |
| DNS Zone file | dns, zone, bind | |
| DOS | dos, bat, cmd | |
| Dart | dart | |
| Delphi | delphi, dpr, dfm, pas, pascal, freepascal, lazarus, lpr, lfm | |
| Diff | diff, patch | |
| Django | django, jinja | |
| Dockerfile | dockerfile, docker | |
| dsconfig | dsconfig | |
| DTS (Device Tree) | dts | |
| Dust | dust, dst | |
| Dylan | dylan | highlight-dylan |
| EBNF | ebnf | |
| Elixir | elixir | |
| Elm | elm | |
| Erlang | erlang, erl | |
| Excel | excel, xls, xlsx | |
| Extempore | extempore, xtlang, xtm | highlightjs-xtlang |
| F# | fsharp, fs | |
| FIX | fix | |
| Fortran | fortran, f90, f95 | |
| G-Code | gcode, nc | |
| Gams | gams, gms | |
| GAUSS | gauss, gss | |
| GDScript | godot, gdscript | highlightjs-gdscript |
| Gherkin | gherkin | |
| GN for Ninja | gn, gni | highlightjs-GN |
| Go | go, golang | |
| Golo | golo, gololang | |
| Gradle | gradle | |
| Groovy | groovy | |
| HTML, XML | xml, html, xhtml, rss, atom, xjb, xsd, xsl, plist, svg | |
| HTTP | http, https | |
| Haml | haml | |
| Handlebars | handlebars, hbs, html.hbs, html.handlebars | |
| Haskell | haskell, hs | |
| Haxe | haxe, hx | |
| Hy | hy, hylang | |
| Ini, TOML | ini, toml | |
| Inform7 | inform7, i7 | |
| IRPF90 | irpf90 | |
| JSON | json | |
| Java | java, jsp | |
| JavaScript | javascript, js, jsx | |
| Kotlin | kotlin, kt | |
| Leaf | leaf | |
| Lasso | lasso, ls, lassoscript | |
| Less | less | |
| LDIF | ldif | |
| Lisp | lisp | |
| LiveCode Server | livecodeserver | |
| LiveScript | livescript, ls | |
| Lua | lua | |
| Makefile | makefile, mk, mak | |
| Markdown | markdown, md, mkdown, mkd | |
| Mathematica | mathematica, mma, wl | |
| Matlab | matlab | |
| Maxima | maxima | |
| Maya Embedded Language | mel | |
| Mercury | mercury | |
| mIRC Scripting Language | mirc, mrc | highlightjs-mirc |
| Mizar | mizar | |
| Mojolicious | mojolicious | |
| Monkey | monkey | |
| Moonscript | moonscript, moon | |
| N1QL | n1ql | |
| NSIS | nsis | |
| Nginx | nginx, nginxconf | |
| Nimrod | nimrod, nim | |
| Nix | nix | |
| OCaml | ocaml, ml | |
| Objective C | objectivec, mm, objc, obj-c | |
| OpenGL Shading Language | glsl | |
| OpenSCAD | openscad, scad | |
| Oracle Rules Language | ruleslanguage | |
| Oxygene | oxygene | |
| PF | pf, pf.conf | |
| PHP | php, php3, php4, php5, php6 | |
| Parser3 | parser3 | |
| Perl | perl, pl, pm | |
| Plaintext: no highlight | plaintext | |
| Pony | pony | |
| PostgreSQL & PL/pgSQL | pgsql, postgres, postgresql | |
| PowerShell | powershell, ps, ps1 | |
| Processing | processing | |
| Prolog | prolog | |
| Properties | properties | |
| Protocol Buffers | protobuf | |
| Puppet | puppet, pp | |
| Python | python, py, gyp | |
| Python profiler results | profile | |
| Q | k, kdb | |
| QML | qml | |
| R | r | |
| Razor CSHTML | cshtml, razor, razor-cshtml | highlightjs-cshtml-razor |
| ReasonML | reasonml, re | |
| RenderMan RIB | rib | |
| RenderMan RSL | rsl | |
| Roboconf | graph, instances | |
| Robot Framework | robot, rf | highlightjs-robot |
| RPM spec files | rpm-specfile, rpm, spec, rpm-spec, specfile | highlightjs-rpm-specfile |
| Ruby | ruby, rb, gemspec, podspec, thor, irb | |
| Rust | rust, rs | |
| SAS | SAS, sas | |
| SCSS | scss | |
| SQL | sql | |
| STEP Part 21 | p21, step, stp | |
| Scala | scala | |
| Scheme | scheme | |
| Scilab | scilab, sci | |
| Shape Expressions | shexc | highlightjs-shexc |
| Shell | shell, console | |
| Smali | smali | |
| Smalltalk | smalltalk, st | |
| Solidity | solidity, sol | highlightjs-solidity |
| Stan | stan | |
| Stata | stata | |
| Structured Text | iecst, scl, stl, structured-text | highlightjs-structured-text |
| Stylus | stylus, styl | |
| SubUnit | subunit | |
| Supercollider | supercollider, sc | highlightjs-supercollider |
| Swift | swift | |
| Tcl | tcl, tk | |
| Terraform (HCL) | terraform, tf, hcl | highlightjs-terraform |
| Test Anything Protocol | tap | |
| TeX | tex | |
| Thrift | thrift | |
| TP | tp | |
| Twig | twig, craftcms | |
| TypeScript | typescript, ts | |
| VB.Net | vbnet, vb | |
| VBScript | vbscript, vbs | |
| VHDL | vhdl | |
| Vala | vala | |
| Verilog | verilog, v | |
| Vim Script | vim | |
| x86 Assembly | x86asm | |
| XL | xl, tao | |
| XQuery | xquery, xpath, xq | |
| YAML | yml, yaml | |
| Zephir | zephir, zep |
Languages with the specified package name are defined in separate repositories
and not included in highlight.pack.js.
Classes can also be prefixed with either language- or lang-.
To make arbitrary text look like code, but without highlighting, use the
plaintext class:
<pre><code class="plaintext">...</code></pre>To disable highlighting altogether use the nohighlight class:
<pre><code class="nohighlight">...</code></pre>When you need a bit more control over the initialization of
highlight.js, you can use the highlightBlock and configure
functions. This allows you to control what to highlight and when.
Here’s an equivalent way to calling initHighlightingOnLoad using
vanilla JS:
document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => {
document.querySelectorAll('pre code').forEach((block) => {
hljs.highlightBlock(block);
});
});You can use any tags instead of <pre><code> to mark up your code. If
you don't use a container that preserves line breaks you will need to
configure highlight.js to use the <br> tag:
hljs.configure({useBR: true});
document.querySelectorAll('div.code').forEach((block) => {
hljs.highlightBlock(block);
});For other options refer to the documentation for configure.
You can run highlighting inside a web worker to avoid freezing the browser window while dealing with very big chunks of code.
In your main script:
addEventListener('load', () => {
const code = document.querySelector('#code');
const worker = new Worker('worker.js');
worker.onmessage = (event) => { code.innerHTML = event.data; }
worker.postMessage(code.textContent);
});In worker.js:
onmessage = (event) => {
importScripts('<path>/highlight.pack.js');
const result = self.hljs.highlightAuto(event.data);
postMessage(result.value);
};You can use highlight.js with node to highlight content before sending it to the browser.
Make sure to use the .value property to get the formatted html.
For more info about the returned object refer to the api docs https://highlightjs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/api.html
// require the highlight.js library including all languages
const hljs = require('./highlight.js');
const highlightedCode = hljs.highlightAuto('<span>Hello World!</span>').value// require the highlight.js library without languages
const hljs = require("highlight.js/lib/highlight.js");
// separately require languages
hljs.registerLanguage('html', require('highlight.js/lib/languages/html'));
hljs.registerLanguage('sql', require('highlight.js/lib/languages/sql'));
// highlight with providing the language
const highlightedCode = hljs.highlight('html', '<span>Hello World!</span>').valueYou can get highlight.js as a hosted, or custom-build, browser script or as a server module. Right out of the box the browser script supports both AMD and CommonJS, so if you wish you can use RequireJS or Browserify without having to build from source. The server module also works perfectly fine with Browserify, but there is the option to use a build specific to browsers rather than something meant for a server. Head over to the download page for all the options.
Don't link to GitHub directly. The library is not supposed to work straight from the source, it requires building. If none of the pre-packaged options work for you refer to the building documentation.
The CDN-hosted package doesn't have all the languages. Otherwise it'd be too big. If you don't see the language you need in the "Common" section, it can be added manually:
<script
charset="UTF-8"
src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/highlight.js/9.15.9/languages/go.min.js"></script>On Almond. You need to use the optimizer to give the module a name. For example:
r.js -o name=hljs paths.hljs=/path/to/highlight out=highlight.jsYou can import Highlight.js as a CommonJS-module:
npm install highlight.js --saveIn your application:
import hljs from 'highlight.js';The default import imports all languages! Therefore it is likely to be more efficient to import only the library and the languages you need:
import hljs from 'highlight.js/lib/highlight';
import javascript from 'highlight.js/lib/languages/javascript';
hljs.registerLanguage('javascript', javascript);To set the syntax highlighting style, if your build tool processes CSS from your JavaScript entry point, you can import the stylesheet directly into your CommonJS-module:
import hljs from 'highlight.js/lib/highlight';
import 'highlight.js/styles/github.css';Highlight.js is released under the BSD License. See LICENSE file for details.
The official site for the library is at https://highlightjs.org/.
Further in-depth documentation for the API and other topics is at http://highlightjs.readthedocs.io/.
Authors and contributors are listed in the AUTHORS.en.txt file.