MarkPen - Markdown 2-in-1 Editor & Preview

Markdown editor with live preview. No separate tab. Clean, distraction free and natively integrated.

Editing with Hotkeys

Editing with Right Click

Editing with Toolbar Buttons

The problem with markdown editors in VS Code

Every markdown editor for VS Code makes the same compromise: raw text on the left, rendered preview on the right. You are always looking at two things to write one thing.

The alternative — leaving VS Code for a dedicated editor — means losing your theme, your keybindings, your git sidebar, your extensions, your muscle memory. You leave your entire workspace just to write a document.

MarkPen removes that trade-off.

It renders your markdown as you type — headings look like headings, bold looks bold, tables look like tables — directly inside the editor pane, with no second panel. When you need to edit a word, click it. The raw syntax appears exactly where your cursor lands and disappears when you move on. Everything else stays formatted.

Your VS Code stays whole.

Additional Features

• Instant rendering — no preview pane
• Tables editing with right click menu, hotkeys and toolbar buttons
• Paste images directly from clipboard
• Code blocks with syntax highlighting
• Math, diagrams, and more
• Respects your VS Code theme
• Toggle to raw markdown anytime Press Ctrl+Shift+T to switch between MarkPen and VS Code's default text editor.

Configurable Keyboard shortcuts

All shortcuts are scoped to MarkPen only — they do not interfere with anything else in VS Code.

Formatting

Headings

Lists

Tables

Insert

System

Configuration

Font and size follow your markdown.preview.fontSize and markdown.preview.fontFamily settings — the same values VS Code's built-in preview uses.

Zoom follows window.zoomLevel. If editor.mouseWheelZoom is enabled, Ctrl+Scroll zooms the editor temporarily within the session.

Getting started

1. Install MarkPen from the marketplace
2. Open any .md or .markdown file — MarkPen opens it automatically
3. Start writing. Markdown renders as you type.
4. Press Ctrl+Shift+T at any time to switch to raw text editing and back

To unset MarkPen as your default markdown editor permanently, replace markpen from this settings in your settings.json with default:

"workbench.editorAssociations": {
  "**/*.md": "markpen"
}

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For significant changes please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change. Have a feature request? Open an issue.

License

MIT · Made by Butterops