Markdown is a lightweight plain-text formatting syntax created by John Gruber in 2004. It allows writers to add formatting (headings, bold, lists, links) using simple characters like # and *, without writing raw HTML. It is widely used in documentation, README files, blogging platforms, forums, and note-taking apps.

This editor supports standard CommonMark Markdown including headings (# to ######), bold (**text**), italic (*text*), links ([text](url)), images (), ordered and unordered lists, blockquotes (>), inline code (`code`), fenced code blocks (```), and horizontal rules (---).

Markdown is a human-readable formatting shorthand that gets converted to HTML for display. Writing # Heading in Markdown produces <h1>Heading</h1> in HTML. Markdown is much faster to write and easier to read as plain text, while HTML provides more precise control over appearance and structure.

The preview pane shows the rendered visual result. If you need the underlying HTML source, most Markdown parsers (including this one) produce standard HTML that you can inspect. For many use cases, pasting the rendered content directly is sufficient, as formatted text from the preview panel retains structure when pasted into document editors.

Standard CommonMark Markdown does not include tables, but the popular GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) extension does. GFM tables use pipes (|) and dashes to define columns and rows. Many editors and rendering tools support GFM extensions. Check the specific Markdown flavor supported by your target platform.