ink-mde

A beautiful, modern, customizable Markdown editor powered by CodeMirror 6 and TypeScript. This is the editor that powers https://octo.app.

Features

• [x] Automatic, dark, or light themes (automatic by default)
• [x] Hybrid plain-text Markdown rendering
• [x] Supports GitHub Flavored Markdown (an extension of CommonMark)
• [x] Syntax highlighting for many common languages (in code blocks)
• [x] Drag-and-drop or paste to upload files
• [x] Inline Markdown image previews
• [x] Configurable and stylable
• [x] An optional formatting toolbar (great for mobile)
• [x] Optionally enable Vim Mode
• [x] Framework agnostic
• [x] Vue wrapper (ink-mde/vue subpath export)
• [x] Svelte wrapper (ink-mde/svelte subpath export)
• [x] Supports Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
• [x] Wrap a native textarea element with the wrap export
• [x] Plugin API (experimental)

Getting Started

With your preferred package manager, add ink-mde to your project.

# npm
npm i ink-mde

# pnpm
pnpm i ink-mde

# yarn
yarn add ink-mde

Import from a CDN

The officially supported CDN for ink-mde is esm.sh. Visit esm.sh/ink-mde and you will be redirected to the latest version. The URL will look something like this.

https://esm.sh/ink-mde@0.22.0

Then, import ink from that URL in your project.

import { ink } from 'https://esm.sh/ink-mde@0.22.0'

Examples for ink-mde

Next, import ink-mde and customize it to fit your needs.

Minimal setup

Mount the component and start writing.

// ./examples/minimal.ts
import { ink } from 'ink-mde'

// The only requirement is an HTML element.
ink(document.getElementById('editor')!)

Wrap a native textarea with wrap

To wrap a native textarea element, use the wrap export.

import { wrap } from 'ink-mde'

wrap(document.querySelector('textarea')!)

Track state changes with hooks

To sync the editor with your app's state, you can use the afterUpdate hook.

// ./examples/hooks.ts
import { defineOptions, ink } from 'ink-mde'

// With hooks, you can keep your state in sync with the editor.
const state = { doc: '# Start with some text' }

// Use defineOptions for automatic type hinting.
const options = defineOptions({
  doc: state.doc,
  hooks: {
    afterUpdate: (doc: string) => {
      state.doc = doc
    },
  },
})

const editor = ink(document.getElementById('editor')!, options)

// You can also update the editor directly.
editor.update(state.doc)

Web Components

// ./examples/web-component.ts#L1-L16
import { ink } from 'ink-mde'
import { LitElement, html } from 'lit'

class InkMde extends LitElement {
  firstUpdated() {
    ink(this.renderRoot.querySelector('#editor')!, {
      doc: '# Hello, World!',
    })
  }

  render() {
    return html`<div id="editor"></div>`
  }
}

customElements.define('ink-mde', InkMde)

Examples for ink-mde/vue

The ink-mde/vue subpath exports a Vue 3 component.

Minimal setup

<script lang="ts" setup>
import InkMde from 'ink-mde/vue'
import { ref } from 'vue'

const markdown = ref('# Hello, World!')
</script>

<template>
  <InkMde v-model="markdown" />
</template>

Custom Options

The Vue component forwards all options that ink-mde supports, and it uses a deep watcher to ensure your options are reactive.

<script lang="ts" setup>
import InkMde from 'ink-mde/vue'
import { reactive, ref } from 'vue'

const markdown = ref('# Hello, World!')
const options = reactive({
  interface: {
    appearance: 'dark',
  },
})
</script>

<template>
  <input v-model="options.interface.appearance" type="radio" value="dark"> dark
  <input v-model="options.interface.appearance" type="radio" value="light"> light
  <InkMde v-model="markdown" :options="options" />
</template>

Examples for ink-mde/svelte

The ink-mde/svelte subpath exports a Svelte component.

Minimal setup

<script lang="ts">
  import InkMde from 'ink-mde/svelte'

  // doc
  let value = '# Hello, world'
</script>

<InkMde
  bind:value
  options={{
    interface: {
      appearance: 'dark'
    }
  }}
/>

Reactive options and the editor instance

<script lang="ts">
  import InkMde from 'ink-mde/svelte'
  import type { Instance } from 'ink-mde'

  // doc
  let value = '# Hello, world'
  // reactive option, if this change, the editor will be reconfigured.
  let isDarkTheme = false
</script>

<input type="checkbox" bind:checked={isDarkTheme} name="isDarkTheme" />

<InkMde
  bind:value
  options={{
    interface: {
      appearance: isDarkTheme ? 'dark' : 'light',
    },
  }}
/>

Further customization

These are the default options, and any of them can be overridden when initializing (or reconfiguring) an instance of ink-mde.

// ./src/store.ts#L12-L65
const options = {
  doc: '',
  files: {
    clipboard: false,
    dragAndDrop: false,
    handler: () => {},
    injectMarkup: true,
    types: ['image/*'],
  },
  hooks: {
    afterUpdate: () => {},
    beforeUpdate: () => {},
  },
  interface: {
    appearance: InkValues.Appearance.Auto,
    attribution: true,
    autocomplete: false,
    images: false,
    lists: false,
    readonly: false,
    spellcheck: true,
    toolbar: false,
  },
  katex: false,
  keybindings: {
    // Todo: Set these to false by default. https://codemirror.net/examples/tab
    tab: true,
    shiftTab: true,
  },
  placeholder: '',
  plugins: [
    katex(),
  ],
  readability: false,
  search: true,
  selections: [],
  toolbar: {
    bold: true,
    code: true,
    codeBlock: true,
    heading: true,
    image: true,
    italic: true,
    link: true,
    list: true,
    orderedList: true,
    quote: true,
    taskList: true,
    upload: false,
  },
  // This value overrides both `tab` and `shiftTab` keybindings.
  trapTab: undefined,
  vim: false,
}

Plugins

The editor can be extended with custom grammars, completions, and more through the Plugin API. Examples coming soon.

Appearance

Many aspects of the editor's appearance can be customized with CSS custom properties (aka CSS variables).

General-purpose styles

CSS Custom Property	CSS Property	Default (Dark)	Override (Light)
--ink-border-radius	border-radius	0.25rem
--ink-color	color	#fafafa	#171717
--ink-font-family	font-family	sans-serif
--ink-flex-direction	flex-direction	column

Block styles

Blocks are used to provide a dynamic user experience. Examples of blocks are images, multiline code blocks, and the toolbar.

CSS Custom Property	CSS Property	Default (Dark)	Override (Light)
--ink-block-background-color	background-color	#121212	#f5f5f5
--ink-block-background-color-on-hover	background-color	#0f0f0f	#e0e0e0
--ink-block-max-height	max-height	20rem
--ink-block-padding	padding	0.5rem

Code styles

These styles are for code blocks and inline code.

CSS Custom Property	CSS Property	Default (Dark)	Override (Light)
--ink-code-background-color	background-color	var(--ink-block-background-color)
--ink-code-color	color	inherit
--ink-code-font-family	font-family	'Monaco', Courier, monospace

Syntax highlighting

You can customize the entire syntax theme too.

CSS Custom Property	CSS Property	Default (Dark)	Override (Light)
--ink-syntax-atom-color	color	#d19a66
--ink-syntax-comment-color	color	#abb2bf
--ink-syntax-emphasis-color	color	inherit
--ink-syntax-emphasis-font-style	font-style	italic
--ink-syntax-heading-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading-font-size	font-size	1em
--ink-syntax-heading-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-heading1-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading1-font-size	font-size	1.6em
--ink-syntax-heading1-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-heading2-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading2-font-size	font-size	1.5em
--ink-syntax-heading2-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-heading3-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading3-font-size	font-size	1.4em
--ink-syntax-heading3-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-heading4-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading4-font-size	font-size	1.3em
--ink-syntax-heading4-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-heading5-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading5-font-size	font-size	1.2em
--ink-syntax-heading5-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-heading6-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-heading6-font-size	font-size	1.1em
--ink-syntax-heading6-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-keyword-color	color	#c678dd
--ink-syntax-link-color	color	#96c0d8
--ink-syntax-meta-color	color	#abb2bf
--ink-syntax-name-color	color	#d19a66
--ink-syntax-name-label-color	color	#abb2bf
--ink-syntax-name-property-color	color	#96c0d8
--ink-syntax-name-property-definition-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-name-variable-color	color	#e06c75
--ink-syntax-name-variable-definition-color	color	#e5c07b
--ink-syntax-name-variable-local-color	color	#d19a66
--ink-syntax-name-variable-special-color	color	inherit
--ink-syntax-number-color	color	#d19a66
--ink-syntax-operator-color	color	#96c0d8
--ink-syntax-processing-instruction-color	color	#444444	#bbbbbb
--ink-syntax-punctuation-color	color	#abb2bf
--ink-syntax-strikethrough-color	color	inherit
--ink-syntax-strikethrough-text-decoration	text-decoration	line-through
--ink-syntax-string-color	color	#98c379
--ink-syntax-string-special-color	color	inherit
--ink-syntax-strong-color	color	inherit
--ink-syntax-strong-font-weight	font-weight	600
--ink-syntax-url-color	color	#aaaaaa	#666666

Support

Your support is appreciated. Here are some ways you can help. ♥️

Leave the Attribution enabled

There is a small powered by ink-mde attribution in the bottom-right corner of all editor instances by default. Being a free, MIT-licensed library under independent development, that attribution helps to increase awareness of this project and my work in general.

Tell us what you think

Your feedback is immensely important for building ink-mde into a library that we all love. Consider starting a discussion under Octo if you have a question or just want to chat about ideas!

Open a Pull Request

If you feel comfortable with an existing issue, please consider opening a Pull Request. I would love to work with you to get it merged!

Become a financial backer

• GitHub Sponsors
• Open Collective
• Patreon
• Ko-Fi
• Buy Me a Coffee

A note about v0 releases

Since ink-mde is a v0 project, you should consider minor version increments to be breaking changes. Semantic Versioning considers all v0 releases to be breaking, but I do my best to make patch releases non-breaking.