Markdown Syntax at a Glance

Every element in one table. The sections below have a copy button and a rendered preview for each.

Start a line with one to six # characters and a space. More # characters make a smaller heading. The space is required: #Heading stays plain text.

# Heading 1

## Heading 2

### Heading 3

#### Heading 4

##### Heading 5

###### Heading 6

Heading 2
---------

Wrap text in asterisks or underscores. Strikethrough is a GFM extension, and Markdown has no underline syntax at all.

**bold text**

*italic text*

__bold__ and _italic_

***bold and italic***

~~strikethrough~~

<ins>underlined</ins>

Put the link text in square brackets and the URL in parentheses, with no space between them.

[Link text](https://example.com)

[Link text](https://example.com "Title")

<https://example.com>

https://example.com

<email@example.com>

[Reference link][1]

[1]: https://example.com

[Jump to Tables](#tables)

Same as a link with a ! in front. The text in brackets is the alt text screen readers announce.

![Alt text](image.jpg)

![Alt text](image.jpg "Title")

[![Alt text](image.jpg)](https://example.com)

<img src="image.jpg" alt="Alt text" width="300">

Start lines with -, *, or + for bullets, or a number and a period for steps. To nest, indent the item to line up with the parent's text: 2 spaces under -, 3 under 1.

- Apple
- Banana
- Cherry

1. First step
2. Second step
3. Third step

- Fruits
  - Apple
  - Banana
- Vegetables
  - Carrot

1. First step
   - A detail
2. Second step

A GFM extension: [ ] for open, [x] for done. On GitHub the boxes are clickable in issue and pull request comments and read-only in a rendered .md file.

- [x] Write documentation
- [x] Push to GitHub
- [ ] Deploy to production
- [ ] Celebrate 🎉

Start each line with >. Lines in one quote join into a single paragraph, so use an empty > line to start a new one.

> This is a quote.

> "The only way to do great work
> is to love what you do."
>
> — Steve Jobs

> Note: Important information
>> Warning: Be careful here

Backticks for code inside a sentence, three backticks (or three tildes) on their own lines for a block. The word after the opening fence names the language for syntax highlighting.

`const x = 42;`

``Use `code` here``

```javascript
function greet(name) {
  return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}
```

function greet(name) {
  return `Hello, ${name}!`;
}

```python
def greet(name):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"
```

def greet(name):
    return f"Hello, {name}!"

```
No language specified
Plain code block
```

No language specified
Plain code block

A GFM extension. The row of dashes under the header is required, colons in it set alignment, and a literal pipe inside a cell is written \|.

| Name    | Role      |
|---------|-----------|
| Alice   | Developer |
| Bob     | Designer  |

| Left   | Center  | Right  |
|:-------|:-------:|-------:|
| L      |    C    |      R |
| Text   |  Text   |   Text |

Three or more -, *, or _ on a line by themselves. Leave a blank line above ---, or the text above it becomes a heading.

---

***

___

In CommonMark and GFM files a single Enter does not start a new line. End the line with a backslash or two spaces, or leave a blank line for a new paragraph.

Line one
Line two

Line one\
Line two

Line one··
Line two

Paragraph one.

Paragraph two.

Line one<br>Line two

Put a backslash in front of any ASCII punctuation character to show it literally instead of formatting with it.

\*not italic\*

\# Not a heading

\[Not a link\](url)

1986\. A great year.

Not part of CommonMark or the GFM spec. Each one renders only in the apps named; everywhere else the characters show up as plain text.

Here is a sentence with a footnote.[^1]

[^1]: This is the footnote.

==highlighted text==

### My Heading {#custom-id}

Term
: Definition of the term

H~2~O and X^2^

:tada: :+1:

Beyond CommonMark and GFM, GitHub renders footnotes, emoji shortcodes, and the features below. In issues, pull requests, and comments a single Enter is a line break; in .md files it is not.

> [!NOTE]
> Useful information readers should know.

<details>
<summary>Click to expand</summary>

Hidden content with **Markdown**.

</details>

The area is $\pi r^2$.

H<sub>2</sub>O and x<sup>2</sup>

@octocat can you review #123?

Common Mistakes

The six slips behind most "my Markdown isn't working" questions, checked against the CommonMark and GFM specs.

#Heading

# Heading

Some text
---

Some text

---

Line one
Line two

Line one\
Line two

1. Step
  - Detail

1. Step
   - Detail

H~2~O

H<sub>2</sub>O

| a | b |
| 1 | 2 |

| a | b |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |

Frequently Asked Questions