Markdown | Markdown Tutorial

Markdown is a markup language used to write content on the web. It is similar to latex, which uses specific code to format the text. It is simple and easy compared to latex or other word processing applications. Latex is a high-quality system generally used for technical and scientific documentation. It has various styles and formats to create a document. Markdown has only a limited number of formatting commands, making it a fast and straightforward method. It is also known as a plaintext editor.

Markdown is used for messaging, blogging, documentation, online forums, etc. It was created by Aaron Swartz (an American entrepreneur, programmer) and John Gruber (UI designer technology blogger) in 2004. It was invented to make it as an easy to read and easy to write markup language. It is a type of open file format with the extension '.md' or '.markdown'. We can also convert it to HTML.

Markdown is used by various apps (Microsoft Teams) and websites (GitHub and Reddit) to facilitate user discussions.

We can format the text in a simple way, such as bold, highlight, notes, list, italics, and headers. In this tutorial, we will discuss about all the available formatting styles used for the documentation.

Advantages of Markdown

The advantages of Markdown are as follows:

It is a plaintext formatting style.
It is easy to write.
It reduces distractions.
It does not include any fancy commands.
It increases the productivity due to less focus on fancy styles.
It can be converted to HTML.
It does not use any tags.
It includes clear and precise commands.
It is a free markup language.

Markdown Variants

The various Markdown variants are as follows:

Common Mark
Markdown Extra
LiaScript
Multimarkdown
GitHub flavored Markdown

Common Mark

Common Mark was developed to overcome the uncertainty of the Markdown. The sites such as Github, Reddit, and Stack Overflow have adopted the common mark language. It was developed by an American professor named John MacFarlane. Its first version was released in the year 2014.

Markdown Extra

Markdown Extra is a plaintext markup language based on Markdown with PHP, Python, and Ruby extensions. It is not supported in some of the CMS (Content Management Systems), which is used to create digital content. It includes some extra features as compared to Markdown.

LiaScript

LiaScript was developed to create engaging content for educational purposes. It also includes additional features, such as animation, mathematical formulas, quizzes, and surveys.

Multimarkdown

It is similar to Markdown with some additional features, such as built-in preview, syntax highlighting, typography, math support, and image captions. It also supports some exports formats.

GitHub flavored Markdown

GitHub flavored Markdown (GFM) is supported for the user content on GitHub. It includes some extensions that are not specified in the Common Mark.

Prerequisite

To learn Markdown, you must have an idea or creativity to format the document. It also needs an understanding of basic commands.

Audience

Markdown is mostly used by writers, scientists, mathematicians, authors, academics, etc. It is designed to help beginners and professionals to format their documents using simple commands. It is an easy, fast, and time-saving procedure for writing documents.