---
title: 'Markoff: A Free Markdown Previewer for OS X'
teaser: We are happy to announce Markoff, a lightweight Markdown Previewer for OS
  X.
tags: osx,markdown,app,news
author: Reda Lemeden
published_on: 2016-02-29
---

We are happy to announce that Markoff, a lightweight Markdown previewer for OS
X, is now [available for free on the Mac App Store][App Store].

![Screenshot](https://images.thoughtbot.com/markoff/MarkoffScreenshot.jpg)

We write a lot of Markdown at thoughtbot. Between README's, blog posts, and the
myriad of online services that support the format in their text fields, there is
a high probability that I am writing Markdown when I am not coding or designing.

I don't know about you, but I prefer using my own editor whenever possible. I
spent hours tweaking my colors, plugins, and commands, and I don't want to give
that up for a standalone Markdown editor, regardless of how fancy it might be.
The downside of this, however, is that you need to setup your own previewing
workflow.

There are both free and paid Markdown previewers on OS X, but alas, issues like
slow rendering, feature bloat, and lack of code highlighting and YAML
frontmatter support stood in the way and made my experience less enjoyable.

Markoff is an attempt to provide a bare minimum Markdown previewing workflow
that is fast, reliable, and hassle-free. Features include:

- Uses `cmark`, a [C implementation][cmark] of [CommonMark], for parsing and
  rendering. This is a lot faster than other existing Ruby and JavaScript
  solutions.
- Allows you to select your default editor and open the previewed document in it
  by hitting `Cmd+e`, using the menu item, or clicking the toolbar button.
- Uses [highlight.js] for syntax highlighting.
- Detects YAML frontmatter and renders it as a special code block.
- Auto-reloads the preview whenever the original file is saved. Depending on
  your editor, you might be able to set up auto-save to get an always up-to-date
  preview without manually saving.
- Shows basic information such as word and character count.

Markoff is [open source] and can be downloaded directly from the [App Store].
So, how about you give it a try and let us know what you think?

[CommonMark]: http://commonmark.org
[cmark]: https://github.com/jgm/cmark
[highlight.js]: https://highlightjs.org
[App Store]: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/markoff/id1084713122
[open source]: https://github.com/thoughtbot/Markoff