Quick Look preview for Markdown files on macOS. Press Space on any .md file in Finder to see rendered Markdown instead of plain text.
Markdown is everywhere — Obsidian vaults, AI-generated docs, GitHub READMEs, dev notes. Yet macOS shows .md files as plain text in Quick Look. This project fixes that.
- PreviewMarkdown — Quick Look extension that renders Markdown with syntax highlighting, YAML front matter support, and configurable fonts/colors. Built from smittytone/PreviewMarkdown with patches for local builds.
- QLToggle — lightweight menu bar utility to switch between rendered and plain text Quick Look modes.
- macOS 13+
- Xcode 16+ (or Command Line Tools with
xcodebuild)
git clone --recursive https://github.com/ruspg/markdown-quicklook.git
cd markdown-quicklook
./build.shThe script builds both apps, installs them to ~/Applications/, registers the Quick Look extensions, and launches everything. No sudo required.
A menu bar icon appears after install:
- Filled icon — Markdown rendering is active
- Outline icon — Quick Look shows plain text
- Click to toggle between modes or open PreviewMarkdown settings
After toggling, close and reopen Quick Look (press Space twice) on the file to see the change.
After a macOS or Xcode update, re-run:
cd markdown-quicklook
git submodule update --remote
./build.shPreviewMarkdown is a source-available macOS app by @smittytone that provides Quick Look preview and thumbnail extensions for Markdown files. The author sells it on the App Store and intentionally omits certain files from the repo (feedback endpoint, Team ID, assets).
This project provides:
- Minimal stubs for the missing files
- A build script that patches paths, bundle identifiers, code signing, and entitlements for local (ad-hoc signed) builds
- QLToggle — an original utility to enable/disable the extension from the menu bar
rm -rf ~/Applications/PreviewMarkdown.app ~/Applications/QLToggle.app
qlmanage -rQLToggle and build scripts: MIT
PreviewMarkdown: see smittytone/PreviewMarkdown license