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.
• 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 the table and/or when saving.
• 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:

git clone https://github.com/fruh/MarkdownInline.git \
    ~/.config/sublime-text/Packages/MarkdownInline

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

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.

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	5000	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.
heading_rules	true	Draw a thin rule under H1/H2 heading lines.
align_tables_on_leave	true	Align a table's columns automatically when the cursor leaves
↳		it.
align_tables_on_save	false	Align table columns automatically when saving.
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.
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.

Pasting images

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.

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.

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