Preview Markdown In Finder With Quick Look

npm install @orbit/queue

macOS has no Markdown previewer, so Space on a .md file shows raw text: # marks, asterisks and pipes. spacebar is a Quick Look extension that fixes that: a free, open-source replacement for Quick Look that renders Markdown properly. See how Quick Look apps compare.

• Edit in placeClick a paragraph and type. It saves as you type.
• Tick tasksA ticked checkbox is saved to the file.
• Watch it changeIt redraws when the file changes, and keeps your place.
• OfflineMermaid diagrams and KaTeX math are bundled.

Install It

Download for Mac

Or paste this in Terminal

$ curl -fsSL https://spacebar.patebryant.com/install.sh | sh Copy

The script downloads the latest notarized release from GitHub, checks its SHA-256 and installs to ~/Applications, no sudo. Read the script.

Press Space

1. README.mdSelect a .md or .markdown file in Finder.
2. SpaceIt opens rendered, in Quick Look or, with the Space helper, spacebar’s window.
3. ↑ ↓Move through the sidebar, opening each file.
4. Space EscClose it. If the sidebar holds the arrows, the first press hands them back.

Turn It On

1. 1

   Install spacebar from the .dmg, or with the Terminal command above, which installs it to ~/Applications and turns the extension on.

2. 2

   Check that spacebar is ticked in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions › Quick Look. On macOS 13 and 14: Privacy & Security › Extensions › Quick Look.

3. 3

   Turn off any other Markdown previewer in that list. spacebar’s Settings shows the ones that are on, with a Turn Off button.

4. 4

   Select a .md file in Finder and press Space.

Space opens spacebar for .md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd and .mkdn files. No helper and no Accessibility needed.

What You’ll See

• GitHub-flavoredTables, task lists and highlighted code
• Mermaid and KaTeXDiagrams and math, bundled, offline
• Front matterAs a table, plus a contents list
• Images and linksLinks to other notes open in place
• Find, Raw, CopyIn the document, or its source
• Anchors and footnotes==highlight== and folded callouts
• Code fencesA language label and Copy
• Six themesEach light and dark
• The whole folderHTML pages, images, code and other file types in the sidebar

Tables, Tasks And Code

spacebar reads GitHub-flavored Markdown. A wide table scrolls on its own instead of squeezing the page. Task lists show real checkboxes. Code fences are highlighted, with their language and a Copy button, and a diff fence shows added lines green and removed lines red.

Diagrams And Math

Put a diagram in a mermaid fence and it is drawn, not shown as code. A diagram that fails to draw shows the reason. KaTeX sets $inline$ and $$block$$ math. Both are bundled with the app, so nothing loads from the web. "mermaid": false or "math": false in settings.json turns either off. More in Mermaid diagrams on Mac.

Front Matter, Contents And Links

• YAML or TOML front matter shows as a table at the top.
• A document with three or more headings gets a table of contents. Headings have anchors, and in-page #links jump to them.
• Footnotes, ==highlight== and folded callouts render.
• Relative images load. One that can’t be found shows a placeholder.
• A link to another Markdown file in the folder opens it in the same panel.
• Word count and reading time are there too, off by default.

Themes And Type

Six themes, Apple, GitHub, Paper, Solarized, Nord and High Contrast, each in light and dark. The Aa button sets the text size, theme, page width and font. Your own CSS goes in a custom theme or custom.css.

Edit It Where You Read It

• Click to editClick a paragraph and type. It saves to the file as you type; Enter or Esc finishes.
• Checkboxes saveTick a task and the file is updated.
• Undo⌘Z puts back an edit, a split, a merge or a task toggle while the file stays open.
• SavedA tick in the toolbar shows each save.

When the file changes on disk, the preview redraws and keeps your place, so a note or a plan stays current beside your editor. If it changes while you are editing, its change stays on disk and a banner lets you keep yours, use the disk version, or copy your text. It is a preview first, not an editor: Open sends the file to your editor. More in Edit Markdown in Quick Look.

Find, Raw And Copy

⌘F finds in the document. Raw switches to the Markdown source for as long as the preview stays open. Copy, at the bottom right, copies the whole file’s text.

The Folder Beside It

The sidebar lists the whole folder in Finder’s order, and the arrow keys move from file to file. ⌥⌘F filters by name, and Names | Contents searches the text of the Markdown, code and text files in every folder under it. A folder of notes opens on its README, index or Home note. Obsidian vaults keep their wikilinks, embeds, callouts and tags.

Safe And Offline

• Markdown is sanitized before it is shown.
• Remote images are off by default, with a one-time load per preview.
• The preview runs in the Quick Look sandbox.
• No account and no analytics. The one request spacebar makes on its own is a daily update check that reads a version number.

With the optional Space helper, which needs Accessibility, Space opens PDFs, photos, CSV and nearly every other file in spacebar.

Still Seeing Plain Text

Another Markdown extension, such as QLMarkdown, may be taking the file. The installer lists any that are on, and spacebar’s Settings can turn each off. See QLMarkdown and spacebar. qlmanage -r resets a stuck preview.

Try the demo first. More: Obsidian vaults and Claude Code’s plans.

Questions