Dawn vs MarkDown Reader

Dawn is the calm, beautiful place to read Markdown on iPhone and iPad. And now, to edit it right where you read. Your AI assistant answers in Markdown: headings, lists, code, tables. On a phone, that usually shows up as a wall of raw symbols. Open it in Dawn and it becomes a page worth reading: clean margins, real hierarchy, a comfortable line length, and type set the way a good book is. And it isn't only AI. Your notes, your READMEs, your documents — any .md file reads beautifully here. EDIT ON THE PAGE • Double-tap any line to start writing exactly there — no separate editor, no raw symbols • Bold, italic, headings, lists, checklists, links, quotes, and code from a slim bar above the keyboard • Add formulas and diagrams, and see them render as you type • Changes save back to the same file in Files or iCloud, front matter and all • If a file changed somewhere else, Dawn asks before anything is overwritten WHAT DAWN RENDERS • Full CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown • Syntax-highlighted code blocks that collapse out of the way • Tables that scroll sideways instead of breaking • Math, written in LaTeX and set with KaTeX • Diagrams, drawn from Mermaid • Task lists, nested quotes, footnotes, and frontmatter — folded into a tidy Properties strip BUILT FOR READING • Pinch to size the text exactly how you like it • Light, dark, and automatic themes • An outline you can open to jump between headings • A slim progress line so you always know where you are • A measured column width that keeps long lines easy on the eyes ON IPAD AND IPHONE DUO • Your library and the page side by side, with the outline beside them when there's room • Keyboard shortcuts for editing and formatting • Open documents in their own windows to read two at once • On iPhone Duo, the library and the page meet at the fold, and your place is kept as you open, fold, or turn it YOUR FILES, YOUR WAY • Open Markdown straight from the Files app or iCloud Drive • Send a web link from Safari and Dawn fetches and renders it • Recent documents group themselves by Today, Yesterday, and This Week • Pin the ones you keep coming back to, and search across names and contents SHARE BEAUTIFULLY Select any passage and share it as plain text, as Markdown, or as a polished image card with syntax highlighting — ready for Messages, X, or anywhere else. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account, no sign-in, no tracking. Your files stay on your device, and nothing you read or write is sent anywhere. Everything renders on-device, so Dawn works with or without a connection. Requires iOS 17 or later on iPhone, or iPadOS 17 or later on iPad.

MarkDown Reader is a free, lightweight viewer for Markdown files. Double-click any .md file and read it beautifully rendered — no editor chrome, no distractions, just your document. It also turns a checklist into somewhere to work. Tick a task and the change is written straight back to the file, one character, instantly. Add a note to any item and it is saved as an ordinary indented bullet, so every other Markdown tool still reads it. On the Mac, drag a file onto an item to attach it, and click the chip to open it again later. Nothing is locked in a database. Everything this app writes is plain Markdown you can read in any editor. - Clean rendering of headings, tables, code blocks, and images, in colour, light or dark - Several documents in one window as tabs; drag Markdown files in from the Finder, and drag tabs between windows (macOS) - Your windows and tabs come back when you reopen the app (macOS) - Collapsible answers, superscripts, highlights and other HTML formatting tags - LaTeX math, typeset offline: $…$ inline and $$…$$ display - Interactive task lists: click a checkbox and the .md file updates instantly - Notes on any checklist item, saved as plain Markdown - Attach files to checklist items by dragging them in (macOS) - Clickable file references: a path in a code span opens in your editor (macOS) - Show Source: the file's raw text with line numbers, one keystroke away; on the Mac, edit it in place with a live preview beside the text - Table of contents sidebar for long documents, highlighting the section you are reading; hide it, or the tabs, per window (macOS) - Full-text search with match navigation - Live reload — edit the file elsewhere and the view keeps up - Safe saving: a tick or note never overwrites changes made in another app - Use the full window width for wide documents (macOS) - Zoom, print, and export to PDF; exported PDFs are always light - Light or Dark on your terms: follow the system, or pin the reader to either - Copy the document's path or reveal it in the Finder (macOS) - Opens .md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd, and .mkdn files - Sandboxed and private: no accounts, no analytics, no data collection - Free, with an optional tip jar that unlocks nothing