# Markdown (from [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown)) > **Markdown** is a [lightweight markup language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_markup_language "Lightweight markup language") for creating [formatted text](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formatted_text "Formatted text") using a [plain-text editor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_editor "Text editor"). [John Gruber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gruber "John Gruber") and [Aaron Swartz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz "Aaron Swartz") created Markdown in 2004 as a [markup language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markup_language "Markup language") that is appealing to human readers in its source code form.[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown#cite_note-philosophy-9) Markdown is widely used in [blogging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog "Blog"), [instant messaging](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging "Instant messaging"), [online forums](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_forums "Online forums"), [collaborative software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaborative_software "Collaborative software"), [documentation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentation "Documentation") pages, and [readme files](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/README "README"). ## Reference - [CommonMark](https://commonmark.org) - [cheat sheet](https://commonmark.org/help/) - [spec](https://spec.commonmark.org/) - [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) - [OG announcement by Gruber](https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) (2004) - [Microsoft Docs on Markdown](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/contribute/markdown-reference) - [comparison of markdown flavors](x-devonthink-item://8CD7EB18-FAC5-4624-8EA3-BC58E53D7C10) - [Lightweight Markup: Markdown, reStructuredText, MediaWiki, AsciiDoc, Org-mode](https://hyperpolyglot.org/lightweight-markup) ## Tools ### [pandoc](https://pandoc.org/) If you need to convert files from one markup format into another, pandoc is your swiss-army knife. Pandoc can convert between the following formats: ### [Yarle](https://github.com/akosbalasko/yarle) Convert [[Evernote]] notes to [[markdown]] ### markdown-wasm > Very fast Markdown parser & HTML renderer implemented in WebAssembly. - [source](https://github.com/rsms/markdown-wasm) - [demo](https://rsms.me/markdown-wasm/)