zenmarked 0.3.0

Standalone markdown editor with live preview and image support

zenmarked

A snappy offline-first markdown editor featuring:

• live preview via marked.js
• images support: add with drag-and-drop or paste from clipboard
• syntax highlighting via CodeMirror
• user-friendly shortcuts

It runs as a local web server, you access it in your browser.

ZenMarked being used to update its own README

Installation

You can install with:

pip install zenmarked

If you use uv, you can install it with:

uv tool install zenmarked

Or skip installation and just use it through uvx like so: uvx zenmarked

Usage

zenmarked [FILE.md] [options]

Argument	Description
FILE.md	Optional. File to open on start (created if it doesn't exist). Its directory becomes the working directory.

Option	Description
--port PORT	Port to listen on (default: auto-assign)
--image-dir PATH	Directory for uploaded images (default: images/ inside working dir)
--no-autosave	Disable auto-save (use Ctrl+S only)
--theme THEME	Color theme: light or dark (default: dark)
--no-browser	Don't auto-open browser on start

Examples

# Open CWD — sidebar shows all .md files, create/edit freely
zenmarked

# Open a specific file
zenmarked notes.md

# Light theme, custom port
zenmarked journal.md --theme light --port 8080

# Custom image directory, no autosave
zenmarked docs/readme.md --image-dir docs/assets/imgs --no-autosave

Screenshots

Dark mode

Features

• 3-column layout: sidebar (file list + image gallery) + editor + live preview
• Markdown syntax highlight via CodeMirror
• Live preview via marked.js, updates as you type
• Auto-save enabled by default, Ctrl+S to save manually at any time
• Image support: drag-and-drop, click drop zone, or paste from clipboard
• Image insertion modal: alt text, caption, alignment, custom width
• Click image in preview to edit its properties
• Rename image right-click image in the gallery to rename it
  • references are updated automatically across all .md files in the working dir
• Smart URL paste: select text in editor, paste a URL → auto-creates a markdown link
• Light / Dark themes

Image paths

Images are stored in ./images/ (relative to the working directory) by default, and inserted into markdown as ./images/filename.png.

The image target directory can be overriden through option --image-dir PATH

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save current file
Alt+N	Create new file
Escape	Close modals
Ctrl+B	Bold
Ctrl+I	Italic
Ctrl+E	Inline code
Ctrl+K	Insert link
Ctrl+Shift+7	Ordered list
Ctrl+Shift+8	Unordered list
Ctrl+Shift+.	Blockquote