MDviewer

Markdown previews are usually cluttered, browser-based, or tied to editors.
MDviewer is a tiny native macOS app that opens any Markdown file as a clean, print-ready document.

Download  ·  Features  ·  Install

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Why MDviewer?

Most Markdown previews are inside editors or browsers.

MDviewer is different:

• Double-click a Markdown file and read it immediately
• Clean typography optimized for printing
• No Electron, no runtime dependencies
• Fully local and secure

Features

• Native macOS — Cocoa + WKWebView, launches instantly, under 1 MB
• Print-ready typography — serif body, clean headings, proper spacing
• PDF export — Cmd+Shift+E to save, Cmd+P to print
• Live reload — re-renders automatically when the file changes on disk
• GitHub Flavored Markdown — tables, task lists, fenced code blocks
• Dark mode — follows your macOS appearance setting
• Secure — HTML sanitized with DOMPurify, strict Content Security Policy
• Finder integration — registers as default .md handler; double-click to open
• Tabbed windows — multiple documents in one window
• Local-first — no network calls, no telemetry, no accounts

Install

Download

1. Grab MDviewer.app.zip from Releases
2. Unzip, drag to /Applications
3. On first launch, macOS will block the app because it's unsigned. To open it:
   • Right-click (or Control-click) the app → click Open → click Open again in the dialog
   • Or run in Terminal: xattr -cr /Applications/Markdown\ Viewer.app
4. After the first open, it launches normally like any other app

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/JackYoung27/mdviewer.git
cd mdviewer
./build.sh          # builds to dist/Markdown Viewer.app
./install.sh        # optional: copies to /Applications and sets as default handler

Requires Xcode Command Line Tools (xcode-select --install).

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
Open file	Cmd+O
Reload	Cmd+R
Print	Cmd+P
Export PDF	Cmd+Shift+E
Close window	Cmd+W

Screenshots

Document view	Code blocks	Checklists

License

MIT