{
    "markdown": "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia\n\n| Markdown |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| [![](https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/48/Markdown-mark.svg/120px-Markdown-mark.svg.png?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=parser&utm_content=thumbnail)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Markdown-mark.svg) |  |\n| [Filename extensions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename_extension) | `.md`, `.markdown`[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-df-2022-1)[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-rfc7763-2) |\n| [Internet media type](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_type) | `text/markdown`[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-rfc7763-2) |\n| [Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Type_Identifier) | `net.daringfireball.markdown` |\n| UTI conformation | `public.utf8-plain-text` |\n| [Magic number](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_format#Magic_number) | None |\n| Developed by | [John Gruber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gruber) |\n| Initial release | March 9, 2004 (22 years ago)[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-markdown-swartz-3)[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-gruber-2004-release-4) |\n| [Latest release](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle) | 1.0.1\nDecember 17, 2004 (21 years ago)[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-md-5) |\n| Type of format | [Open file format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_file_format)[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-license-6) |\n| Extended to | [pandoc](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoc), [MultiMarkdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MultiMarkdown), [Markdown Extra](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown_Extra), [CommonMark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#CommonMark),[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-rfc7764-7) [RMarkdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMarkdown)[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-RMarkdown-8) |\n| Website | [daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) |\n\n**Markdown**[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-philosophy-9) is a [lightweight markup language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language) for creating [formatted text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formatted_text) using a [plain-text editor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editor). [John Gruber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gruber) created Markdown in 2004 as an easy-to-read [markup language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language).[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-philosophy-9) Markdown is widely used for [blogging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog), [instant messaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging), and [large language models](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_language_models),[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-llm-markdown-10) and also used elsewhere in [online forums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_forums), [collaborative software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software), [note-taking software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note-taking_software), [documentation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation) pages, and [README files](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/README).\n\nThe initial description of Markdown[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-11) contained ambiguities and raised unanswered questions, causing implementations to both intentionally and accidentally diverge from the original version. This was addressed in 2014 when long-standing Markdown contributors released [CommonMark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#CommonMark), an unambiguous specification and test suite for Markdown.[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-FutureOfMarkdown-12)[*[better source needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Questionable_sources)*]\n\nMarkdown was inspired by pre-existing [conventions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_(norm)) for marking up [plain text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_text) in [email](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email) and [usenet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet) posts,[[13]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-ArsTechnica2014-13) such as the earlier markup languages [setext](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setext) (c. 1992), [Textile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_(markup_language)) (c. 2002), and [reStructuredText](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReStructuredText) (c. 2002).[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-philosophy-9)\n\nIn 2002, [Aaron Swartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz) created [atx](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atx_(markup_language)) and referred to it as \"the true structured text format\". Gruber created the Markdown language in 2004 with Swartz as his \"sounding board\".[[14]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-Gruber-14) The goal of the language was to enable people \"to write using an easy-to-read and easy-to-write plain text format, optionally convert it to structurally valid [XHTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XHTML) (or [HTML](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML))\".[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-md-5)\n\nAnother key design goal was *readability*, that the language be readable as-is, without looking like it has been marked up with tags or formatting instructions,[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-philosophy-9) unlike text formatted with \"heavier\" [markup languages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language), such as [Rich Text Format](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Text_Format) (RTF), HTML, or even [wikitext](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikitext), each of which have obvious in-line tags and formatting instructions which can make the text more difficult for humans to read.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]\n\nGruber wrote a [Perl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl) script, `Markdown.pl`, which converts marked-up text input to valid, [well-formed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well-formed_document) XHTML or HTML, encoding angle brackets (`<`, `>`) and [ampersands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ampersand) (`&`), which would be misinterpreted as special characters in those languages. It can take the role of a standalone script, a plugin for [Blosxom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blosxom) or [Movable Type](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movable_Type), or of a text filter for [BBEdit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBEdit).[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-md-5)\n\n## Rise and divergence\n\n[[edit](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Markdown&action=edit&section=2)]\n\nAs Markdown's popularity grew rapidly, many Markdown [implementations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implementation) appeared, driven mostly by the need for additional features such as [tables](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_(information)), [footnotes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_(typography)), definition lists,[[note 1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-17) and Markdown inside HTML blocks.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]\n\nThe behavior of some of these diverged from the reference implementation, as Markdown was only characterised by an informal [specification](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specification_(technical_standard))[[17]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-18) and a [Perl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perl) implementation for conversion to HTML.[*[citation needed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed)*]\n\nAt the same time, a number of ambiguities in the informal specification had attracted attention.[[18]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-gfm_on_github-why_spec-19) These issues spurred the creation of tools such as Babelmark[[19]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-babelmark-2-20)[[20]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-babelmark-3-21) to compare the output of various implementations,[[21]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-22) and an effort by some developers of Markdown [parsers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsing) for standardization. However, Gruber has argued that complete standardization would be a mistake: \"Different sites (and people) have different needs. No one syntax would make all happy.\"[[22]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-23)\n\nGruber avoided using curly braces in Markdown to unofficially reserve them for implementation-specific extensions.[[23]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-curlyBraces-24)\n\n| CommonMark |  |\n| --- | --- |\n| [Filename extensions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filename_extension) | `.md`, `.markdown`[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-rfc7763-2) |\n| [Internet media type](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_type) | `text/markdown; variant=CommonMark`[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-rfc7764-7) |\n| [Uniform Type Identifier (UTI)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Type_Identifier) | *uncertain*[[24]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-cm-uti-25) |\n| UTI conformation | public.plain-text |\n| Developed by | [John MacFarlane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_MacFarlane_(philosopher)), open source |\n| Initial release |",
    "_note": "Response truncated for documentation purposes"
}