MarkdownInline

Inline Markdown preview for Sublime Text.

MarkdownInline renders task checkboxes, local images, tables and heading rules directly in your source file using phantoms, so you keep editing the raw Markdown while seeing the result in place. Tables can be auto-aligned and the bundled dark color scheme dims the noisy markup characters (#, **, `, [], ()).

Repository: https://github.com/fruh/MarkdownInline

Features

• Clickable task lists — - [ ] / - [x] render as a checkbox you can click to toggle.
• Local images — ![alt](path.png) renders inline for PNG, GIF and JPEG (and file:// / relative paths), auto-scaled to fit image_max_width. Remote URLs are not fetched.
• Paste images from the clipboard — save a clipboard image (a screenshot, a file path, or a data: URI) into images/ next to the file and insert a Markdown link. See Pasting images.
• Heading and horizontal rules — a thin rule is drawn under H1/H2 headings and after ---. The rule hides while the cursor is on that line.
• Collapsed links — the URL of [text](url) links folds to …, so only the link text shows. It unfolds while the cursor is on the line. See fold_links.
• Table previews — optionally draw a rendered copy of a table below the raw source (off by default; see render_tables).
• Table auto-alignment — pad and wrap tables into aligned columns when the cursor leaves a table you edited (just reading never changes it) and/or when saving (only tables modified since the last load or save).
• Bundled color scheme — a self-contained dark scheme that dims Markdown markers instead of hiding them.
• Overlay syntax — scopes the table continuation marker (↳) so it can be colored differently.
• Non-blocking — rendering runs asynchronously with a debounce, and is skipped entirely for files longer than max_lines.

Installation

MarkdownInline is not yet on Package Control. To install it manually:

# linux
git clone https://github.com/fruh/MarkdownInline.git \
    "$HOME/.config/sublime-text/Packages/MarkdownInline"

# macos
git clone https://github.com/fruh/MarkdownInline.git \
    "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text/Packages/MarkdownInline"

On macOS the packages directory is ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text/Packages/MarkdownInline, and on Windows %APPDATA%\Sublime Text\Packages\MarkdownInline.

Keep only one copy of the package installed (for example, not both Packages/MarkdownInline and a copy under Packages/User/), otherwise Sublime loads the syntax and plugin twice.

Usage

With auto_enable on (the default), any view whose syntax is Markdown gets the inline preview automatically. Toggle it per view from the command palette with Markdown Inline: Toggle Preview.

Rendered elements are shown only when they are not under your cursor, so you can keep editing. Move the cursor onto a block to see and edit its raw source.

Settings

Settings live in MarkdownInline.sublime-settings (defaults shown below) and can be overridden in your own Packages/User/MarkdownInline.sublime-settings. Open both side by side via Preferences → Package Settings → Markdown Inline → Settings, e.g. to stop aligning modified tables on save:

{ "align_tables_on_save": false }

Setting	Default	Description
auto_enable	true	Enable the inline preview automatically for Markdown views.
apply_color_scheme	true	Apply the bundled "Markdown Inline" color scheme when toggled on.
apply_syntax	true	Use the bundled overlay syntax (colors the table continuation marker).
debounce_ms	150	Delay before re-rendering after an edit.
max_lines	20000	Skip rendering for files longer than this many lines.
image_max_width	600	Pixel width images are scaled to.
render_tables	false	Draw a rendered copy of tables below the raw source.
checkbox_scale	1.6	Checkbox size relative to the line height (1.0 ≈ half a line).
checkbox_mark	"check"	Mark inside a checked checkbox: "check" or "cross".
checkbox_offset_px	0	Pixels checkboxes hang below the text baseline (moves down).
underline_headings	true	Underline all headings (H1-H6) in their heading color.
highlight_tags	true	Underline the tags #todo, #done, #vulnerable, #reported and #falsepositive in their
↳		color.
fold_links	true	Fold link URLs to …; shown while the cursor is on the line.
heading_rules	true	Draw a thin rule under H1/H2 heading lines.
align_tables_on_leave	true	Align a table's columns when the cursor leaves it, only if it was edited.
align_tables_on_save	true	When saving, align tables modified since the last load/save.
table_gap_chars	12	Room reserved when wrapping tables so lines don't soft-wrap; raise it if they still
↳		do.
table_margin_px	40	Horizontal margin, in pixels, left free when sizing rendered tables.
paste_image_on_paste	true	Plain Cmd+V / Ctrl+V pastes a clipboard image when there is no text on the
↳		clipboard.
image_dir	images	Directory (relative to the Markdown file) where pasted images are saved.
image_name_prefix	pasted_	Filename prefix for pasted images.
image_name_format	%Y%m%d_%H%M%S	strftime format for the pasted image filename.
paste_image_command	(empty)	Optional shell command that writes image bytes to stdout, overriding clipboard-tool
↳		auto-detection.

Colors

The bundled color scheme is built from variables, so you can change a color without editing the package. Open Preferences → Package Settings → Markdown Inline → Color Scheme and put only the variables you want to change in your own file on the right (Packages/User/Markdown Inline.sublime-color-scheme):

{
    "variables": {
        "h1": "#ff6600",
        "h3": "#00aaff"
    }
}

Sublime merges it over the bundled scheme and reloads it right away.

Variable	Default	Used for
h1	#fac761	H1 headings
h2	#f99157	H2 headings
h3	#c594c5	H3 headings
h4	#6699cc	H4 headings
h5_h6	#99c794	H5 and H6 headings
bold	#ffffff	bold text
italic	#c0c8d8	italic text
code	#f0c987	inline code
quote	#a7b0c0	blockquote text
quote_marker	#5fb3b3	the > of a blockquote
strike	#8a93a3	strikethrough text
list_marker	#f99157	list bullets and numbers
tag_todo	#f99157	#todo tag
tag_done	#99c794	#done tag
tag_vulnerable	#ec5f67	#vulnerable tag
tag_reported	#4fd1e0	#reported tag
tag_falsepositive	#8a93a3	#falsepositive tag

The scheme also defines bg, fg, marker, table_border, link and a few more that can be overridden the same way. The checkbox color is drawn by the plugin, so it is not part of the scheme.

Tags

The tags #todo (orange), #done (green), #vulnerable (red), #reported (cyan) and #falsepositive (grey) are colored and bold, with an underline in the same color. The # has to start the word, so # Heading, #anchor in a URL, inline code and code blocks are left alone. The text color comes from the tag_* variables above; turn the underline off with highlight_tags.

Pasting images

In a Markdown file, plain Cmd+V (Linux/Windows: Ctrl+V) pastes an image when the clipboard holds an image and no text, for example after a screenshot. Text is pasted as usual, and when there is no image the normal paste runs; turn this off with paste_image_on_paste.

To paste an image explicitly, or to paste an image file path or data: URI as an image, press Ctrl+Alt+V (macOS: Cmd+Alt+V), or run Markdown Inline: Paste Image from the command palette. The clipboard is inspected for an image and, if one is found, saved into image_dir and inserted as a Markdown link:

![pasted_20261016_221301](./images/pasted_20261016_221301.png)

Three clipboard forms are supported:

• File path / file:// URI — the file is copied into image_dir.
• data: URI — the embedded image is decoded and written to disk.
• Raw clipboard image (e.g. a screenshot) — read via an OS tool, since Sublime's clipboard API is text-only:
  • macOS works out of the box: the image is read with the built-in osascript (falling back to TIFF converted via sips). If pngpaste is installed it is used first.
  • Linux needs wl-paste (Wayland) or xclip / xsel (X11).
  • Windows uses the built-in PowerShell.

Supported image formats are PNG, JPEG and GIF, recognised by their contents rather than the file name. If no image is found, nothing is inserted and the status bar says so. If the required Linux tool is missing, the message names it and hints at installing it. You can also point the feature at your own command with paste_image_command (e.g. "/opt/homebrew/bin/pngpaste -"). The file must be saved first so image_dir has a base directory.

Changing the shortcut

A plugin setting can't change a key binding, so use Sublime's key bindings: open Preferences → Package Settings → Markdown Inline → Key Bindings and add your own entry on the right, for example:

[
    { "keys": ["ctrl+shift+v"], "command": "markdown_inline_paste_image",
      "context": [{ "key": "selector", "operand": "text.html.markdown" }] }
]

To free the default keys, add the same keys with "command": "noop". Plain Cmd+V / Ctrl+V needs no binding; turn it off with paste_image_on_paste.

Commands

Available from the command palette (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + P):

• Markdown Inline: Toggle Preview — turn the inline preview on or off for the current view.
• Markdown Inline: Align Table — align the table under the cursor.
• Markdown Inline: Align All Tables — align every table in the file.
• Markdown Inline: Paste Image — save a clipboard image into images/ and insert a Markdown link (bound to Ctrl/Cmd+Alt+V).
• Markdown Inline: Debug — print syntax, scope, scheme and rendering state to the Sublime console.

Table continuation marker

When the aligner wraps a long cell onto several physical lines, the first cell of each continuation line starts with ↳. table_rows() joins those lines back into a single logical row, so the marker never affects parsing and can be styled independently.

How it looks like