MD Viewer

A lightweight, standalone Markdown viewer for Linux with a modern UI. Built with Python and pywebview.

Features

Core

• Modern UI - Clean interface with glassmorphism effects and subtle gradients.
• Dark/Light Themes - New Dark theme with Deep Dark (#222831) background and Teal (#76ABAE) accents.
• Lightweight - Single binary executable (~65MB), low memory usage.
• Native Rendering - Uses PyQt5/WebEngine and cmarkgfm for fast, accurate GFM rendering.

Navigation

• Table of Contents - Auto-generated sidebar from h1/h2/h3 headers.
• Smooth Scrolling - Animated scroll with easing when clicking TOC entries.
• Scroll Spy - Active section highlighting in TOC as you scroll.

Content Support

• Full GFM Support - Powered by cmarkgfm for 100% GitHub-compatible rendering.
• Lenient Parsing - Lists can interrupt paragraphs (no blank line required), matching GFM behavior.
• Syntax Highlighting - Monokai-themed code blocks via pygments.
• Task Lists - Functional checkboxes for - [ ] and - [x].
• Copy Buttons - Hover over code blocks or tables to copy content.
• Media Support - Images (PNG, JPG, WebP, SVG, GIF) and Videos (MP4, WebM, OGG).
• Relative Paths - Automatically resolves relative image/media paths.

Customization

• Font Selector - Choose from your installed system fonts.
• CLI & GUI - Open files from terminal or use the built-in file picker.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8+
• pip and venv

Build & Install

# Clone and enter the directory
git clone <repo-url>
cd md_viewer

# Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# Install dependencies
pip install -r src/requirements.txt

# Build and install
./build_app.sh
./install.sh

Usage

Command Line

mdview README.md
mdview /path/to/document.md

Development

Running from Source

source venv/bin/activate
python src/main.py [filename.md]

Running Tests

source venv/bin/activate
python -m unittest discover tests

Project Structure

md_viewer/
├── src/
│   ├── main.py          # Main application entry
│   ├── gui/
│   │   ├── index.html   # UI structure
│   │   ├── style.css    # Modern styling
│   │   └── app.js       # Frontend logic
│   └── requirements.txt
├── tests/               # Test suite for rendering and logic
├── build_app.sh         # PyInstaller build script
├── install.sh           # Installation script
└── README.md

Dependencies

• pywebview - Native webview wrapper
• cmarkgfm - GitHub Flavored Markdown rendering
• pygments - Syntax highlighting
• PyQt5 - Qt backend for webview

Building

./build_app.sh

Output: dist/mdview

License

MIT License