Parsedown

Better Markdown parser for PHP.

• Demo
• Test Suite

Features

• Fast
• Consistent
• GitHub Flavored
• Tested in PHP 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and hhvm
• Extensible
• Markdown Extra extension ^new
• JavaScript port under development ^new

Installation

Include Parsedown.php or install the composer package.

Example

$Parsedown = new Parsedown();

echo $Parsedown->text('Hello _Parsedown_!'); # prints: <p>Hello <em>Parsedown</em>!</p>

More examples in the wiki.

Questions

How does Parsedown work?
Parsedown recognises that the Markdown syntax is optimised for humans so it tries to read like one. It goes through text line by line. It looks at how lines start to identify blocks. It looks for special characters to identify inline elements.

Why doesn’t Parsedown use namespaces?
Using namespaces would mean dropping support for PHP 5.2. Since Parsedown is a single class with an uncommon name, making this trade wouldn't make much sense.

Who uses Parsedown?
phpDocumentor, Bolt CMS, RaspberryPi.org and more.