Live reload
The open file is watched and re-rendered within a second of changing on disk, so the view stays in sync with whatever editor you're writing in.
macOS • Markdown Viewer • Open Source
PRETTY
MARKDOWN
A markdown viewer that's actually nice to read.
A native macOS app for reading local .md files with clean, book-like typography.
Built with SwiftUI and rendered through WebKit, it ships its own lightweight parser and stylesheet
— no editing, no clutter, just a fast, focused reading experience.
$0 Free & open source
no native-viewer tax
no native-viewer tax
.md
WHY I BUILT IT
Nobody should pay to read a Markdown file
I didn't want anyone to have to buy a native viewer just to read a document. And the Markdown previews in VS Code and other IDEs are… not great. A dedicated, standalone viewer is so nice — it opens instantly, gets out of the way, and this one just happens to be pleasant to look at.
EVERYTHING THAT MAKES READING NICE
Features
Scroll-spy contents
Headings become a sticky sidebar that highlights your position as you scroll. Documents without headings simply hide it.
Light · dark · system
Cycle appearance from the toolbar and the choice is remembered between launches, matching how you like to read.
Adjustable reading size
Zoom the text with ⌘+, ⌘-, and ⌘0 to reset. The scale
is clamped to a comfortable range and persists.
Syntax highlighting
Fenced code blocks are highlighted, with language auto-detection when none is tagged — Swift, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, SQL, and Bash.
Warm, typographic theme
Merriweather Sans, a subtle grid-paper canvas, and a "document on a page" layout that reads comfortably at any width.
SEE IT IN ACTION
Prose, code, and tables — all styled
OPEN FILES ANY WAY YOU LIKE
However you reach for a file, it's already covered
Pretty Markdown gets out of your way. Set it as the Finder handler for .md files and double-click; or reach for whichever habit you already have. It even remembers your
last ten documents in the Open Recent menu.
- ⌘O the toolbar button or keyboard shortcut
- ⏱ the Open Recent menu — last 10 documents
- ⇱ drag & drop a
.mdonto the window - ◎ open from Finder with Pretty Markdown as the handler
UNDER THE HOOD
Technical details
PlatformNative macOS 14+
UISwiftUI
RenderingWebKit
Markdown engineOwn lightweight parser — no external deps
Supported syntaxHeadings, lists, task lists, tables, blockquotes, code, links, rules
HighlightingSwift · JS · TS · Python · Go · SQL · Bash
TypefaceMerriweather Sans
DistributionSigned .app on GitHub Releases
LicenseOpen source
GET IT
Read your Markdown the way it deserves.
Grab the latest signed .app from GitHub Releases, unzip it, and drop it in your Applications
folder. Free, open source, and built because previews shouldn't be this underwhelming.