A terminal markdown viewer built with ncurses. Renders markdown files with styled headers, bold/italic text, code blocks with syntax highlighting, tables, lists, and more.
- Headers (h1-h6) with colored formatting
- Inline styles: bold, italic, inline code, links
- Code blocks with per-character syntax highlighting
- Tables with aligned columns
- Lists (unordered)
- Horizontal rules
- Word wrapping with proper Unicode/wide-character support
- Keyboard navigation with scrolling
Code blocks are highlighted instantly using a built-in tokenizer for C, Python, Shell, and JavaScript/TypeScript. If pygmentize is installed, mdread upgrades the colors asynchronously in the background -- the document appears immediately and richer highlighting fills in without blocking.
- C compiler (gcc)
- ncursesw (wide-character ncurses)
pygmentize(optional, for enhanced syntax highlighting)
On Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential libncursesw5-dev pkg-config
sudo apt install python3-pygments # optionalmakesudo make installInstalls to /usr/local/bin by default. Override with PREFIX:
make PREFIX=~/.local installmdread <file.md>| Key | Action |
|---|---|
j / s / Down |
Scroll down |
k / w / Up |
Scroll up |
Space / Page Down |
Page down |
b / Page Up |
Page up |
g / Home |
Go to top |
G / End |
Go to bottom |
q / Esc |
Quit |
MIT