The Markdown cheat sheet (with a live editor)

A compact Markdown syntax reference: headings, emphasis, lists, links, images, code, blockquotes and tables — with the rendered result beside each rule.

Markdown is the plain-text writing syntax behind GitHub READMEs, static sites, and the prose in Quarto and R Markdown. You can learn the whole practical core in one sitting. Here’s the reference — bookmark it, and try anything live in our Markdown previewer.

Text and headings

You write	You get
# Heading 1	a top-level heading
## Heading 2	a section heading
**bold**	bold
*italic*	italic
`code`	code
~~struck~~	struck

Headings go from # (largest) to ###### (smallest). Leave a blank line between paragraphs — a single line break is usually ignored.

Lists

- Unordered item
- Another item
  - Indented sub-item

1. Ordered item
2. Second item

Links and images

[Link text](https://example.com)
[With a tooltip](https://example.com "Hover title")
![Image alt text](path/to/image.png)

The image syntax is just a link with a leading !. Always write meaningful alt text — it matters for accessibility and SEO.

Code

Inline code uses single backticks: `mean(x)`. For a block, fence it with triple backticks and name the language:

```r
x <- c(1, 2, 3)
mean(x)
```

Blockquotes and rules

> A blockquote for citing a source.

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Three dashes on their own line draw a horizontal rule.

Tables

| Column | Number |
|:-------|-------:|
| Left   |    3.1 |
| Aligned|   42.0 |

Colons in the separator row set alignment: :--- left, ---: right, :---: centre.

Learn it interactively

That’s the entire everyday toolkit. To practise with instant feedback, work through the free interactive Markdown course — every lesson has a live editor — then move on to Learn Quarto to turn Markdown into reproducible reports.

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Building reports or a documentation site in Markdown or Quarto? We design reporting pipelines that go from raw data to a polished document in one command.