MarkdownImagePaste

A Sublime Text 4 plugin for Windows that pastes clipboard images directly into Markdown files.

How it works

Press Ctrl+V while editing a Markdown file:

• Clipboard has an image → saves it to .images/ next to your file and inserts ![](.images/image_<timestamp>.png) at the cursor
• Clipboard has text → normal paste, unchanged

Works with screenshots (Win+Shift+S, Snipping Tool) and images copied from browsers or other applications.

Requirements

• Sublime Text 4 (build 4000+)
• Windows

Installation

Via Package Control (recommended)

1. Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Run Package Control: Install Package
3. Search for MarkdownImagePaste

Manual

Copy the MarkdownImagePaste/ folder into your Sublime Text packages directory:

%APPDATA%\Sublime Text\Packages\

Important: Make sure to include the .python-version file. ST4 uses it to select Python 3.8; omitting it will cause import errors.

Configuration

Open Preferences → Package Settings → MarkdownImagePaste → Settings:

{
    // Directory where images are saved (relative to the open Markdown file)
    "image_dir": ".images",

    // When true: cursor lands between [] after paste so you can type alt text
    // When false (default): cursor lands after the closing )
    "prompt_alt_text": false
}

Note: image_dir is used as a path component relative to your Markdown file. Do not set it to an absolute path or a value containing ...

How images are saved

Images are saved as image_<unix_ms>.png (e.g. image_1742749200123.png) inside the configured image_dir, relative to the open file. The directory is created automatically if it doesn't exist.

Supported clipboard formats (in priority order):

1. CF_PNG — already a PNG, saved directly
2. CF_DIB / CF_DIBV5 — raw Device Independent Bitmap, converted to PNG using pure Python (struct + zlib)

Design notes

• No subprocess spawning (Carbon Black / endpoint-security safe)
• No external dependencies — pure Python stdlib + ctypes
• Multi-cursor aware: inserts at each cursor position

License

MIT