Markdown
September 30, 2026 · 4 min read
On this page
📝 Basic Syntax
Works in virtually every Markdown renderer.
🔤 Text
Headings
Creates titles and section headers (1 = largest, 6 = smallest)
# Heading 1 page title
## Heading 2 main section
### Heading 3 subsection
#### Heading 4 ...down to ###### Heading 6
alt. Heading 1 (underline with = or -)
=========
e.g. ## Installation
Paragraphs & line breaks
Separates blocks of text
(blank line) starts a new paragraph
two spaces + Enter line break inside a paragraph
<br> line break (HTML, always works)
e.g. First line··
Second line (·· = two spaces)
Emphasis
Makes text bold, italic, or both
*text* _text_ italic
**text** __text__ bold
***text*** bold + italic
e.g. This is **very** *important*
Blockquotes
Quotes or highlights a block of text
> text quote
>> text nested quote
> - item other elements work inside quotes
e.g. > Talk is cheap. Show me the code.
📋 Lists
Unordered lists
Creates bullet points
- item bullet (also * or +)
- item nested bullet (indent 2–4 spaces)
e.g. - Milk
- Eggs
- Free-range
Ordered lists
Creates numbered lists
1. item numbered item
1. item numbers auto-increment, so 1. 1. 1. works
1. item nested (indent to align with text)
e.g. 1. Clone the repo
2. Install dependencies
💻 Code
Inline code
Formats code inside a sentence
`code` inline code
`` code with ` `` use double backticks if code contains `
e.g. Run `ls -la` to see hidden files
Indented code blocks
Creates a code block without fences
code indent every line with 4 spaces
e.g. echo "hello"
🔗 Links & Images
Links
Creates clickable links
[text](url) basic link
[text](url "title") link with hover title
<https://example.com> auto-link a raw URL
[text](#heading-name) link to a heading on the same page
e.g. [Docs](https://example.com/docs)
Reference links
Keeps long URLs out of the text
[text][id] link using a reference
[id]: url define the reference (anywhere in file)
e.g. Read the [guide][1].
[1]: https://example.com/guide
Images
Embeds an image
 image (alt text = description)
 image with hover title
[](url) clickable image
e.g. 
🧱 Structure
Horizontal rule
Draws a dividing line
--- horizontal line (also *** or ___)
leave a blank line above, or --- turns
the text above into a heading
Escaping characters
Shows Markdown symbols as plain text
\* backslash before the symbol
escapable \ ` * _ { } [ ] ( ) # + - . ! |
e.g. \*not italic\*
🧩 Extended Syntax
Supported by GitHub (GFM, GitHub Flavored Markdown) and most modern editors, but not every renderer.
🔤 Text
Strikethrough
Crosses out text
~~text~~ strikethrough
e.g. ~~$50~~ $30
Emoji
Inserts emoji by name
:name: emoji shortcode
e.g. :rocket: :white_check_mark: :warning:
(or just paste the emoji directly 🚀)
Footnotes
Adds a numbered note at the bottom of the page
text[^1] footnote reference
[^1]: note footnote content (anywhere in file)
e.g. Linux was released in 1991[^1].
[^1]: By Linus Torvalds.
💻 Code
Fenced code blocks
Creates a code block with syntax highlighting
```lang open block + language name
code
``` close block
~~~ tildes also work as fences
langs bash, python, js, json, html, css, sql, diff...
e.g. ```python
print("hello")
```
Diff blocks
Shows added and removed lines in color
```diff
+ line added line (green)
- line removed line (red)
```
📊 Tables
Tables
Organizes data in rows and columns
| A | B | header row
|---|---| separator (required)
| 1 | 2 | data row
:--- align left
:---: align center
---: align right
\| pipe character inside a cell
e.g. | Name | Price |
|:------|------:|
| Apple | $1.00|
✅ Lists
Task lists
Creates checkboxes
- [ ] task unchecked
- [x] task checked
e.g. - [x] Write docs
- [ ] Publish
🧰 Extras
Alerts
Creates colored callout boxes (GitHub)
> [!NOTE] blue, useful info
> [!TIP] green, helpful advice
> [!IMPORTANT] purple, key info
> [!WARNING] yellow, needs attention
> [!CAUTION] red, risky action
e.g. > [!WARNING]
> This deletes all data.
Collapsible sections
Hides content until clicked (HTML)
<details>
<summary>Title</summary> clickable label
content leave blank lines around Markdown
</details>
Math
Renders formulas with LaTeX (GitHub, Obsidian, many editors)
$x^2$ inline math
$$ block math
x = \frac{a}{b}
$$
Diagrams
Draws diagrams from text with Mermaid (GitHub, Obsidian, many editors)
```mermaid
graph LR
A[Start] --> B[End]
```
Comments
Hides text from the rendered output
<!-- text --> HTML comment, invisible when rendered
e.g. <!-- TODO: add screenshots -->
Inline HTML
Uses HTML when Markdown can't do it
<kbd>Ctrl</kbd> keyboard key
<sup>2</sup> superscript
<sub>2</sub> subscript
<mark>text</mark> highlight
<img src="" width="200"> image with custom size