Markdown Cheatsheet
A printable reference covering every common Markdown construct — headings, lists, tables, code and more.
Quick answer: Markdown Cheatsheet: a printable reference covering every common Markdown construct — headings, lists, tables, code and more. Runs entirely in your browser, free, no signup.
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Markdown started as one person's shorthand for writing HTML by hand, and that heritage still shows: the syntax deliberately mirrors how people already format plain-text emails. Underlining a line with equals signs makes an H1, asterisks around a word make it bold, and a greater-than sign starts a blockquote. Because the rules are so few, most of what trips people up is whitespace — a list needs a blank line before it, and a hard line break needs two trailing spaces (or a backslash in newer parsers).
The single biggest source of confusion is that there is no one Markdown. This reference targets GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM), which adds tables, task lists, strikethrough and automatic URL linking on top of the original CommonMark spec. Plain CommonMark, the version used by many static-site generators, does not understand pipe tables or - [ ] checkboxes, so a snippet that renders perfectly in a GitHub issue can look broken in a different tool.
Keep a couple of escape rules handy. To show a literal asterisk, underscore or backtick rather than have it interpreted, put a backslash in front of it. To embed code that itself contains backticks, wrap it in a longer run of backticks than the code uses. When you are ready to move past a static reference and actually draft something, the live Markdown editor shows your rendered output side by side, and the table generator handles the one construct that is genuinely tedious to type by hand.
Frequently asked questions
- Is the cheatsheet free?
- Yes — free with no signup.
- Which flavor does it cover?
- GitHub-flavored Markdown — the de-facto standard.
- Can I print it?
- Yes — use your browser's print dialog. The layout is friendly to A4 and Letter sizes.
- Are my keystrokes saved?
- Nothing here is interactive beyond browsing — there's nothing to save.
- Where can I learn more?
- GitHub's docs and the CommonMark spec are excellent next reads.