QuickMD is the fastest, most elegant Markdown viewer for macOS. Double-click any .md file and instantly see beautifully rendered content. No Electron bloat, no loading screens—just pure native macOS performance.
Perfect for developers, writers, students, and anyone who works with Markdown daily. Think of it as the Preview.app equivalent for Markdown files.
- Opens in milliseconds—no loading screens
- Native SwiftUI app—lightweight (~2MB)
- Instant rendering of even large documents
- ✅ Headers, bold, italic, strikethrough
- ✅ Tables with proper column alignment
- ✅ Code blocks with syntax highlighting
- ✅ Task lists with checkboxes (
- [ ]/- [x]) - ✅ Nested lists (ordered and unordered)
- ✅ Images (local and remote URLs)
- ✅ Links (inline, reference-style, autolinks)
- ✅ Nested blockquotes with level indicators
- ✅ Horizontal rules
- Find in document (
⌘F) with match count and per-word navigation - Word-level highlighting across all block types (text, code, tables, blockquotes)
- Table of Contents sidebar (
⌘⇧T) — auto-generated from headings - Copy entire document (
⌘⇧C) or individual sections (hover heading → copy icon) - Export to PDF (
⌘⇧E) and Print (⌘P)
- 7 built-in themes: Auto, Solarized Light/Dark, Dracula, GitHub, Gruvbox Dark, Nord
- Settings panel (
⌘,) with color previews - Theme persists across app restarts
- Syntax highlighting for 10+ languages (Swift, Python, JavaScript, Go, Rust, etc.)
- Perfect for README files and documentation
- Handles AI-generated markdown perfectly
- Dark mode that follows system settings (or choose a fixed theme)
- No analytics, no tracking
- Works completely offline (except for remote images)
- Your files stay on your device
- Open source—see exactly what the code does
Available on the Mac App Store.
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/b451c/quickmd.git
cd quickmd/QuickMD
# Open in Xcode
open QuickMD.xcodeproj
# Build and run (⌘R)Requirements:
- macOS 13.0 (Ventura) or later
- Xcode 15.0+
- Swift 5.9+
- Right-click any
.mdfile in Finder - Select Get Info (⌘I)
- Under Open with, select QuickMD
- Click Change All...
Now all your Markdown files will open instantly with QuickMD!
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
⌘O |
Open file |
⌘W |
Close window |
⌘F |
Find in document |
⌘G / ⇧⌘G |
Next / previous match |
⌘⇧C |
Copy Markdown source |
⌘⇧T |
Toggle Table of Contents |
⌘⇧E |
Export to PDF |
⌘P |
|
⌘, |
Settings (theme picker) |
- Language: Swift 5.9
- Framework: SwiftUI
- Minimum OS: macOS 13.0 (Ventura)
- Architecture: Native Apple Silicon + Intel
- Custom Markdown parser with block-level parsing and reference link pre-pass
- Regex-based syntax highlighting for code blocks
- 7 color themes with
@AppStoragepersistence AsyncImagefor remote image rendering- Per-block PDF export with multi-page pagination
- Native SwiftUI components for performance
QuickMD/
├── QuickMD/
│ ├── QuickMDApp.swift # App entry point + menu commands
│ ├── MarkdownDocument.swift # FileDocument model
│ ├── MarkdownView.swift # Main document view + support buttons
│ ├── MarkdownBlock.swift # Block type enum
│ ├── MarkdownBlockParser.swift # Line-by-line block parser
│ ├── MarkdownRenderer.swift # Inline markdown → AttributedString
│ ├── MarkdownTheme.swift # 7 color themes, regex patterns
│ ├── MarkdownExport.swift # PDF export + print support
│ ├── TipJarManager.swift # StoreKit 2 IAP (App Store only)
│ ├── TipJarView.swift # Tip Jar UI (App Store only)
│ ├── Views/
│ │ ├── CodeBlockView.swift # Syntax-highlighted code blocks
│ │ ├── TableBlockView.swift # Table rendering with alignment
│ │ ├── ImageBlockView.swift # Local + remote image rendering
│ │ ├── BlockquoteView.swift # Nested blockquotes
│ │ ├── SearchBar.swift # Find in document (⌘F)
│ │ ├── TableOfContentsView.swift # ToC sidebar (⌘⇧T)
│ │ └── ThemePickerView.swift # Theme settings (⌘,)
│ └── Assets.xcassets/ # App icon + assets
├── CHANGELOG.md # Version history
└── demo.md # Demo file for testing
# Open in Xcode
open QuickMD/QuickMD.xcodeproj
# Run with ⌘RGitHub version (default — donation links, no Tip Jar):
xcodebuild -project QuickMD/QuickMD.xcodeproj -scheme QuickMD -configuration Release archiveOr simply build in Xcode with ⌘B.
App Store version (Tip Jar IAP):
xcodebuild -project QuickMD/QuickMD.xcodeproj -scheme QuickMD -configuration Release \
OTHER_SWIFT_FLAGS="-DAPPSTORE" archiveSee QuickMD/AppStore-Metadata.md for detailed submission instructions.
QuickMD is free and open source. If you find it useful, consider supporting development:
- Export to PDF (
⌘⇧E) and Print (⌘P) - Syntax highlighting for code blocks
- Find & search within document (
⌘F) - Nested blockquotes with level indicators
- Table of Contents sidebar (
⌘⇧T) - Reference-style links (
[text][id]) - Custom color themes (7 built-in)
- Copy to clipboard (whole file + sections)
- LaTeX math support
- Mermaid diagram rendering
Have a feature request? Open an issue!
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.
- Fork the repository
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature) - Commit your changes (
git commit -m 'Add amazing feature') - Push to the branch (
git push origin feature/amazing-feature) - Open a Pull Request
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.
QuickMD respects your privacy. See our Privacy Policy for details.
TL;DR: No data collection, no analytics, no tracking. Everything runs locally on your device.
Built with ❤️ using Swift and SwiftUI
⭐ Star this repo if you find QuickMD useful!
