Marked 3

Product Introduction

1. Definition: Marked 3 is a professional-grade, standalone Markdown preview and document conversion application for macOS. It operates as a live preview pane that works in tandem with any text editor, providing real-time rendering, advanced text analysis, and multi-format export capabilities.
2. Core Value Proposition: Marked 3 exists to solve the fragmented workflow of writing in Markdown and previewing elsewhere. It delivers a superior, customizable, and feature-rich live preview experience directly on Mac, eliminating context switching and enhancing productivity for writers, developers, and content creators who rely on Markdown for documentation, blogging, and long-form writing.

Main Features

1. Live Preview with Multi-Processor Support: Marked 3 renders Markdown in real-time as you type in your preferred text editor (e.g., BBEdit, VS Code, Scrivener). It supports multiple parsing engines including CommonMark (with GitHub Flavored Markdown extensions), Kramdown, MultiMarkdown, and Discount, allowing users to match their editor's syntax or project requirements. The preview updates instantly via file system monitoring.
2. Advanced Export Engine: The application provides a powerful export system to convert Markdown into polished final documents. Key technical exports include: DOCX with preserved change tracking and comments; PDF with custom headers, footers, and embedded images; HTML; EPUB with custom CSS styling; and RTF. Export Profiles allow saving and reusing complex export settings.
3. Custom Processors and Rules: This is a developer-level feature that allows for programmatic manipulation of text. Users can build Custom Rules (using JavaScript, AppleScript, shell scripts, or other languages) to perform automated text transformations, run custom commands, or switch the Markdown processor on the fly, enabling highly customized publishing pipelines.
4. Integrated Writing Analysis Tools: Marked 3 includes built-in proofreading tools that go beyond basic spell-check. It analyzes grammar, style, word repetition, and provides document statistics (word count, reading time). Features like Speed Reading (an RSVP-style overlay) and autoscroll based on Words Per Minute (WPM) aid in editing and reviewing long documents.
5. Style Stealer and Custom Theme Builder: The Style Stealer technology can capture CSS styles from any readable website, allowing users to adapt those visual themes for their own Markdown previews. The built-in Style Manager and Custom Style Generator provide beautiful typography presets and full control over CSS for creating completely unique preview and export styles.

Problems Solved

1. Pain Point: The disconnect between writing plain text Markdown in one window and needing to view the formatted output in another program or browser tab, which breaks concentration and slows down the editing process.
2. Target Audience: Technical writers and documentarians; bloggers and content marketers; academics and researchers writing papers; developers creating project documentation (READMEs, API docs); authors using Scrivener or Ulysses for long-form writing; and anyone who uses Markdown as a primary writing format and needs reliable, beautiful previews and exports.
3. Use Cases: Writing a book in Scrivener while seeing a live, styled preview in Marked 3; converting a complex technical document with math (KaTeX/MathJax) and diagrams (Mermaid) from Markdown to a client-ready PDF or DOCX file; maintaining a blog by writing in Markdown and using custom CSS to preview the exact post styling before publishing; extracting clean Markdown from web articles using the Markdownify browser extension for research and content curation.

Unique Advantages

1. Differentiation: Unlike basic preview plugins built into code editors or simple Markdown viewers, Marked 3 is a dedicated, powerful macOS application. It offers deeper system integration, more robust export options (especially professional DOCX and EPUB), and a wider array of writing analysis tools than most alternatives. Its "editor-agnostic" approach means it works seamlessly with any text tool.
2. Key Innovation: The combination of Custom Processors/Rules and Style Stealer. This allows for an unprecedented level of workflow automation and visual customization not found in other Markdown previewers. The ability to script transformations and directly harvest design styles from the web for local use makes it uniquely adaptable to highly specific and professional publishing needs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. What text editors does Marked 3 work with? Marked 3 works with any text editor on macOS that can save files, including Scrivener, Ulysses, BBEdit, Visual Studio Code, TextMate, Nova, and even Microsoft Word when saving as plain text. It monitors the file for changes and updates the preview automatically.
2. Can Marked 3 convert Markdown to Microsoft Word (DOCX) with formatting? Yes, Marked 3 features a robust DOCX export that converts Markdown to a formatted Word document, including support for change tracking conversion, comments, math blocks, and styles, making it ideal for collaborative editing workflows.
3. How does the live preview for Scrivener work? Marked 3 has special integration for Scrivener, allowing it to render a live preview of the entire compiled manuscript or individual documents within a Scrivener project, providing a vital visual check during the writing process.
4. Does Marked 3 support diagrams and mathematical equations? Yes, it includes built-in support for rendering Mermaid.js diagrams and mathematical typesetting via both MathJax 3.0 and KaTeX libraries directly in the preview, which are also preserved in HTML and PDF exports.
5. What is the difference between buying directly and through the Mac App Store? The direct download from the Marked website offers a subscription or a permanent license (intro price), often includes newer updates first, and may offer more flexible licensing. The Mac App Store version provides easy installation and update management through Apple's ecosystem but may have feature delays due to App Store review processes.