Unicode Markdown Preview

Overview

A Visual Studio Code extension that transforms markdown formatting into Unicode-styled characters. View your markdown with mathematical alphanumeric symbols for bold and italic text, which you can for example cut and paste into your posts on linkedIn for styling.

You want to use these carefully as they may not be indexed or found in searches !!

Features

• Italic text: Converts *text* or _text_ to Unicode italic characters (𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑡)
• Bold text: Converts **text** or __text__ to Unicode bold characters (𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭)
• Bold-italic text: Converts ***text*** or ___text___ to Unicode bold-italic characters (𝒕𝒆𝒙𝒕)
• Inline code: Converts `code` to Unicode monospace characters (𝚌𝚘𝚍𝚎)
• Code blocks: Converts ```code blocks``` to Unicode monospace characters
• Live preview: Updates automatically as you type
• Side-by-side view: Opens preview beside your editor

Usage

1. Open a markdown file (.md) in VS Code
2. Click the "Open Unicode Markdown Preview" button in the editor title bar, or
3. Open the Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P) and run "Open Unicode Markdown Preview"
4. The preview window will open beside your editor
5. Type markdown with standard formatting syntax and see it transformed to Unicode characters

Example

Markdown input:

This is *italic* text.
This is **bold** text.
This is ***bold and italic*** text.
This is `inline code` text.

Unicode preview output:

This is 𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑐 text.
This is 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐝 text.
This is 𝒃𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒄 text.
This is 𝚒𝚗𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚍𝚎 text.

Important Notes

Code blocks preserve special characters: Asterisks (*), underscores (_), and other characters within inline code or code blocks are preserved and won't be interpreted as markdown formatting:

`my_variable_name`     → 𝚖𝚢_𝚟𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎_𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎 (underscores preserved)
`**not bold**`         → **𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚋𝚘𝚕𝚍** (asterisks preserved)

Code blocks are processed first before any other formatting, ensuring that your code syntax (pointers, function names, operators, etc.) remains intact in the output.

Development Setup

1. Clone this repository
2. Run npm install to install dependencies
3. Run npm run compile to build the extension
4. Press F5 to open a new VS Code window with the extension loaded
5. Open a markdown file and test the preview functionality

Installation

From Source (Development)

1. Clone this repository
2. Run npm install
3. Run npm run compile
4. Press F5 to launch the Extension Development Host

From Marketplace (When Published)

1. Open VS Code
2. Go to Extensions (Cmd+Shift+X / Ctrl+Shift+X)
3. Search for "Unicode Markdown Preview"
4. Click Install

Contributing

This extension is open source, and contributions are welcome! If you have any ideas for new features or improvements, please feel free to submit an issue or a pull request on the GitHub repository.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.