The Markdown reader macOS never shipped.
Double-click to read, spacebar to preview. Nothing more.
- Read-only. No edits, no auto-formatting. Your files stay untouched.
- Quick Look. Spacebar on any .md in Finder. Rendered, not raw.
- Lightweight. Native Swift. Opens in under a second, stays out of your way.
- Syntax highlighting. 19 languages auto-detected, or specify the language on your code fence.
- Math rendering. Inline (
$x^2$) and display ($$\int f\,dx$$) TeX equations via KaTeX, fully offline. - Mermaid diagrams. Flowcharts, sequence diagrams, pie charts, and more.
- Dark mode. Follows your system appearance, or pick Light or Dark from the View menu.
- Default reader. One click to replace Xcode or TextEdit as your .md handler.
On first launch, Readdown offers to become your default Markdown reader and walks you through Quick Look. If you skipped either, here are the manual steps.
Default reader: right-click any .md file in Finder, then Get Info > Open With > Readdown > Change All.
Quick Look:
- Open System Settings > General > Login Items & Extensions
- Click i next to Quick Look
- Toggle Readdown on
Get the latest release from GitHub Releases. See what's new in the changelog.
Requires macOS 13 Ventura or later.
- Clone the repo
- Open
ReadDown.xcodeprojin Xcode - Build and run (requires macOS 13+)
Something not working? Most answers are in the FAQ. Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue.
Want to send a fix? Read CONTRIBUTING.md first. Security issues go through SECURITY.md, not the public tracker.
Source-available. You may view, study, and contribute, but redistribution is not permitted. See LICENSE for details.
Readdown is free, with no ads and no account. If it's useful to you, you can support it, once, monthly, or as a founding member. Everyone who helps is on the thanks wall.
Each Readdown release can be sponsored, with a credit on the website, in the GitHub release notes, and here. To become a release sponsor, reach out at hello@readdown.app.