.md files
.md file
Markdown Document
Plain text with a light formatting convention — headings with #, bold with **.
What opens a .md file
- Windows
- Visual Studio Code, Notepad (built in), Obsidian, Typora
- macOS
- Visual Studio Code, TextEdit (built in), Obsidian, iA Writer
- Linux
- Visual Studio Code, Text Editor (built in), Obsidian, Marker
- In a browser
- GitHub, Dillinger, StackEdit
What a .md file is
John Gruber created Markdown in 2004 so that formatted text would still be readable as raw text. It is the standard for README files, documentation, notes apps and static sites, and GitHub, Reddit and Discord all render a dialect of it. Any text editor opens one; dedicated editors such as Obsidian, Typora and VS Code show the formatted result alongside the source.
Converting it
A .md file is commonly converted to .html, .pdf, .docx, .txt or .epub. It is a plain text format, so any text editor can open and edit it directly.
Details
- Extension
- .md
- Full name
- Markdown Document
- Category
- Documents
- MIME type
- text/markdown
- Created by
- John Gruber
- Format
- Plain text
Common questions
- How do I open a .md file?
- On Windows use Visual Studio Code; on macOS use Visual Studio Code; on Linux use Visual Studio Code. Plain text with a light formatting convention — headings with #, bold with **.
- What is a .md file?
- Markdown Document. John Gruber created Markdown in 2004 so that formatted text would still be readable as raw text. It is the standard for README files, documentation, notes apps and static sites, and GitHub, Reddit and Discord all render a dialect of it.
- Can I convert a .md file?
- Yes. It is usually converted to .html, .pdf, .docx, .txt or .epub, either by exporting from one of the programs listed above or with a format converter.
Related pages
- .pdf — Portable Document Format A fixed-layout document that looks identical everywhere — the format for anythin
- .docx — Word Document (Open XML) The standard Word document since Office 2007 — a zip archive of XML underneath.
- .xlsx — Excel Workbook (Open XML) The standard Excel spreadsheet since 2007, with a million-row limit per sheet.
- .pptx — PowerPoint Presentation (Open XML) The standard PowerPoint deck since 2007.
- .txt — Plain Text File Text with no formatting at all — the format that will still open in fifty years.
- .doc — Word Document (legacy binary) The pre-2007 Word format — still readable, but Microsoft would rather you conver
- .xls — Excel Workbook (legacy binary) The pre-2007 Excel format, limited to 65,536 rows.
- .ppt — PowerPoint Presentation (legacy binary) The pre-2007 PowerPoint format.
- .rtf — Rich Text Format A formatted document format readable by every word processor since 1987.
- .pages — Apple Pages Document Apple's word processor format — Apple devices and iCloud only.
- .odt — OpenDocument Text The open-standard word processor format, native to LibreOffice.
- .eml — Email Message A single saved email, headers and all, in the standard internet message format.
Sources
- Media Types Registry — IANA
- Official vendor product documentation — At One Place