markdown-reader 0.2.3

Lightweight easy to use Markdown Viewer for Linux, macOS & Windows. Built on Qt5. Blazing-fast, minimal RAM, zero bloat. File navigation, Image caching. GPL v3 open-source

markdown-reader

Lightweight, fast Markdown viewer for Linux, macOS & Windows.

Built on Qt5. Blazing-fast, minimal RAM, zero bloat.

Install

# Install
pipx install markdown-reader

# Execute
markdown-reader /path/to/file.md

Or:

# Install
pip install markdown-reader

# Execute
markdown-reader /path/to/file.md

Features

• Renders Markdown beautifully with mistune
• Fast start, minimal RAM (optimized for older hardware)
• File tree navigation
• Image auto-caching and scaling
• Zoom (50% - 300%)
• Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)
• No bloat

Why I built it?

Existing Markdown viewers were too heavy:

• Electron: 150+ MB, 500+ MB RAM
• WebKit/Chromium: Massive overhead
• Qt WebEngine: Still Chromium

QTextBrowser is the answer. Lightweight HTML renderer, designed for documentation. Perfect for Markdown.

Usage

markdown-reader                    # Open viewer
markdown-reader file.md            # Open file directly

Zoom:

• Ctrl + + : Zoom in
• Ctrl + - : Zoom out
• Ctrl + 0 : Reset

Requirements

• Python >= 3.8
• PyQt5 >= 5.15.0
• mistune >= 3.0.0
• Pillow >= 9.0.0

License

GNU General Public License v3.0 – see LICENSE

---

Philosophy: Keep it simple. One tool, one job, done well.