markdown

Project Overview

Python-Markdown is a Python implementation of John Gruber's Markdown, almost completely compliant with the reference implementation. It converts Markdown text to HTML, ships the common syntax elements, and offers a rich extension mechanism — tables, footnotes, a table of contents, and code highlighting are all available through extensions.

One function call turns Markdown text into standard HTML.

Key Features

• Core conversion: markdown.markdown converts text to HTML in one step
• Extension mechanism: official extensions for tables, footnotes, a TOC, attribute lists, and more
• Third-party ecosystem: community extensions cover code highlighting, task lists, and beyond
• CLI tool: the markdown_py command converts files right after installation
• Flexible API: custom output formats and custom extension registration are supported
• High compatibility: behavior closely matches the Markdown reference implementation

Target Audience

• Web developers rendering Markdown
• Documentation site and blog builders
• Teams building note-taking or content management tools
• Engineers who need custom Markdown syntax

Quick Start

1. Install

pip install markdown

2. Convert text

import markdown

html = markdown.markdown('# Hello')

3. Enable extensions such as tables and footnotes

html = markdown.markdown(text, extensions=['tables', 'footnotes'])

Core Advantages

• Standard compliant: output stays reliable by matching the reference implementation
• Extensions on demand: the core stays lean while enhancements stack via extensions
• Mature ecosystem: long maintained and widely used, with complete docs and extensions

System Requirements

Notes

• No sanitizing built in: the library does not filter HTML, pair it with a sanitizer to prevent XSS from user content
• Extensions must be enabled: tables, footnotes, and similar are not default syntax, load them explicitly