SoloMD vs Marked

SoloMD is a lightweight, distraction-free Markdown editor for iPad. One file. One window. Just write. Built from the ground up as a focused writing tool - no account, no cloud, no telemetry, no subscription. Your notes stay in plain .md and .txt files on your iPad, readable by any editor on any platform, today and in ten years. CORE EDITING - Live preview - Markdown symbols fade out after the cursor leaves the line. - Rich syntax styling - real big headings, real bold, real monospace for code. - Light and Dark themes that follow iPad system appearance. - Multi-encoding - auto-detects UTF-8, UTF-16, GBK, Big5. - Tabs with dirty indicators. - File tree sidebar, outline view, and global search. MARKDOWN POWER - KaTeX math - inline and block math render instantly. - Mermaid diagrams - flowcharts, sequence diagrams, Gantt charts. - Task lists with clickable checkboxes. - Footnotes, YAML front-matter, text highlighting. - Syntax highlighting for 13 plus languages. - Synced split-pane scroll. - Tap an image or Mermaid diagram to open a pinch-zoomable overlay. BUILT FOR IPAD - 44 pt touch targets across toolbar, outline, and file tree. - Larger default font sizes tuned for iPad screen distance. - Split-view and multitasking friendly. - Works with hardware keyboards. - Portrait and landscape, every orientation. WRITER TOOLS - Focus mode - non-current paragraphs dim for deep work. - Typewriter mode. - Session restore - auto-saves so you never lose a line. - Chinese power tools - simplified/traditional conversion, pinyin, CJK word counts. - Spell check. - Custom CSS. EXPORT - HTML (newsletter quality) - PDF with KaTeX and Mermaid baked in - Word (.docx) with tables preserved - Copy as HTML, plain text, or Markdown PRIVACY FIRST SoloMD collects no personal data. No account. No analytics. No ads. No tracking. All your notes live locally in files you own. SoloMD is open source (MIT). Source: github.com/zhitongblog/solomd

Marked is a Markdown reader and editor designed first as a reading app — think Apple Books for your .md files. Open any Markdown document from Files or iCloud Drive and read it with the calm of a book: classic typography, generous margins, justified text with automatic hyphenation, and Light, Sepia and Dark themes. A READING-FIRST EXPERIENCE • Three reading themes: Light, Sepia and Dark. • Nine curated typefaces: system serif, New York, Georgia, Palatino, Times New Roman, Helvetica Neue, Avenir Next, Iowan Old Style and Charter. • Adjustable font size, line spacing and horizontal margins. • Justified text with automatic hyphenation for a book-like rhythm. • Native rendering of headings, lists, quotes, code blocks, links and tables. • Styled blockquotes with accent bar, soft background tint and a decorative quote glyph. • Wrap-first tables that fit cell text to the screen and only scroll horizontally when wrapping is not enough. SYNTAX HIGHLIGHTING • Fenced code blocks are highlighted with automatic language detection (highlight.js via HighlighterSwift). • The editor colours Markdown markup live — headings, emphasis, code spans, links and lists — without getting in the way of plain-text editing. QUICK EDITING • Built-in plain-text editor with in-place save to the original file. • New documents open straight into the editor. • Jump to any line directly from the table of contents or search results. • Debounced highlighting keeps large files responsive while typing. NAVIGATION • Auto-generated table of contents from the document's headings. • In-document search: per section in reader mode and per line in editor mode. • Recent files list with per-document reading position and progress, Apple Notes–style file count under the title. FAST AND SMOOTH • Documents open asynchronously so the UI never blocks on large files. • Theme and font changes reuse the parsed document and existing section views instead of rebuilding from scratch. • Smart subview reuse keeps scrolling fluid in long documents. WORKS WITH YOUR FILES • Opens .md, .markdown, .mdown and .mkd files from Files, iCloud Drive and "Open with…". • Create new Markdown documents from inside the app. • Security-scoped bookmarks remember where each file lives, so recents keep working after relaunch. PRIVACY BY DESIGN • Everything runs on your device. Marked has no servers. • No accounts, no telemetry, no advertising, no tracking. • Your files stay exactly where you keep them — the app only opens them. Ideal for reading notes, technical documentation, project READMEs, long-form articles or books written in Markdown — and for making quick edits without leaving the reading flow.