By John Gruber, 2004
Markdown Cheat Sheet Reference
The core Markdown syntax for headings, emphasis, lists, links, images, and code, using the characters you actually type.
At a glance
Key factsCreated
Standard
CommonMark specification
Renders to
Clean HTML
Stays readable
As plain source text
Core syntax
14 rows| You type | You get |
|---|---|
| # Heading | Top level heading |
| ## Heading | Second level heading |
| **bold** | Bold text |
| *italic* | Italic text |
| `code` | Inline monospace code |
| - item | Bulleted list item |
| 1. item | Numbered list item |
| [text](url) | A link |
|  | An image |
| > quote | A block quote |
| --- | A horizontal rule |
| ``` | Start or end a code block |
| | a | b | | A table row |
| - [ ] task | A task list checkbox |
Where it comes from
Markdown is a lightweight markup language created by John Gruber in 2004 to let people write formatted text in plain characters that stay readable as source. Because early implementations disagreed on edge cases, the CommonMark specification was written to pin the syntax down precisely, and it is the version most tools now follow. The result is a format that reads cleanly in a text editor and renders to clean HTML in a browser, a README, or a note taking app.
How to use it
Formatting comes from punctuation placed around text. Hashes at the start of a line set heading level, one through six. Wrap text in single asterisks for italic and double for bold. Start lines with a dash for a bullet list or a number and a period for an ordered one. A link is square brackets around the text followed by the URL in parentheses, and an image is the same with a leading exclamation mark. Backticks wrap inline code, and a fence of three backticks wraps a whole code block. Because it is plain text, what you type is what you can read even before it is rendered.
This page is a standing reference at a fixed URL, built to be linked and cited. The data here is compiled from the CommonMark specification, the standard for portable Markdown.