markdown-comparison.md

Markdown Flavors

This is a brief document that describes the various flavors of Markdown compared to John Gruber’s original design document. Specifically call-outs will be made for the following:

1. CommonMark (CM)
2. GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM)
3. MultiMarkdown (MMD)
4. Markdown Extra (PHP) (Extra)
5. Pandoc (Pandoc)
6. Kramdown (Kramdown)

Markdown Core

Inline HTML

Block Elements

Paragraphs & Line Breaks

Headers

Adding IDs

BlockQuotes

Lists

Code Blocks

Horizontal Rules

Span Elements

Links

Emphasis

Code

Fenced code ``` or ~~~

Images

Miscellaneous

Backslash Escapes

Automatic Links

Full Extensions

Comparison

Group	Feature	MD	CM	GFM	MMD	Extra	Pandoc	Kramdown
HTML	Inline HTML	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Fenced/Native div	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No
	"[]" Anchors	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	"{}" Special AL	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No
	"{:}" Inline AL	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Block	Paragraphs	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Line Breaks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	"" Line Breaks	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Headers - Setext	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Headers - atx	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Headers - atx closed	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Block Quotes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Unordered Lists	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Ordered Lists	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Task List Items	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Indented Defn. Lists	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Verbatim (Indent Code)	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Fenced Code	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Horizontal Rule	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Pipe Tables	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Table Captions	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Figure Image	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Image (Block) Captions	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Table of Contents	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
Span	Emphasis (Italic)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Strong (bold)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Strikethrough	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Superscript Text	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Subscript Text	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Code	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Code w/escaped "`"	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	CriticMarkup	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	"--" en dash	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
	"---" em dash	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
	"..." ellipsis	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
	"<<>>" guillement	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
	Emoji	No	No	???	No	No	Yes	No
	Dollar Math	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
	Backslash Math	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Images	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Image Height/Width	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Automatic Links	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Backslash Escapes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Links	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Link Titles	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Ref-Style Links	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Footnotes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
	Abbreviations	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
	Glossary	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Citations	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No
Other	Metadata	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No
	Transclusion	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Variables	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No
	Seq. numbered examples	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No