Guide

How to preview Markdown files in Finder

macOS will not render Markdown in Quick Look on its own. Four steps fix that, and then pressing Space on any .md file shows the formatted document.

Step by step

1. 1

   Download Glance

   Download the Glance disk image from glance.md. It is 9.8 MB, signed and notarized by Apple, and runs on macOS 14 or later on an Apple Silicon Mac.

2. 2

   Move Glance to Applications

   Open the disk image and drag the Glance app into your Applications folder. Quick Look only loads extensions from apps that live there.

3. 3

   Open Glance once

   Launch Glance a single time. macOS registers its bundled Quick Look extension on first launch, and Glance offers to make itself the default app for .md files. Quit it afterwards if you like; the preview keeps working.

4. 4

   Press Space on a Markdown file

   In Finder, select any .md or .markdown file and press the Space bar. Quick Look shows the rendered document: headings, tables, syntax-highlighted code, images, Mermaid diagrams, and LaTeX math. Press Return to open the file in Glance, where you can edit it.

What renders

The preview is the document, not a stripped-down approximation of it. Tables keep their columns, fenced code blocks carry syntax colors, images load from alongside the file, and Mermaid diagrams and LaTeX equations draw as real graphics. Glance lays the page out with Core Text and Core Graphics, so no browser engine loads and nothing downloads from a CDN while you preview.

Beyond Markdown, pressing Space on a JSON, YAML, or CSV file gives you the same treatment, with JSON pretty-printed and colored.

Once the file is open

Press Return in Quick Look and the file opens in Glance, where the rendered page accepts typing. Click a sentence and fix it, select text to get a formatting toolbar, or click a table cell and press Tab through the row. Glance saves plain Markdown, so the file stays yours. That part is Pro, free for 14 days.

The rest of the window is free: ⌘F searches with every match highlighted, ⌘P prints, ⇧⌘E exports a PDF that matches what you see, ⌘T opens the next document in a tab, and pinching zooms around your pointer.

To see the Markdown itself, press ⌘\. The source opens in a pane beside the rendered page, the two scroll together, and your cursor shows up in both. That pane is Pro as well.

If previews do not appear

Quick Look extensions occasionally need a nudge. Open System Settings, then General, then Login Items & Extensions, then Quick Look, and make sure Glance is switched on. If Finder still shows raw text, log out and back in so macOS reloads its Quick Look registry.

A rival extension may also be winning the file type. macOS picks one renderer per type, and Nova, Bear, Ulysses, Scrivener, and other editors all claim .md. Switch the others off in the same panel.

Glance checks its own registration every launch, and Settings shows the Quick Look status with a button that re-registers the extension for you. Most of this category leaves you running pluginkit and qlmanage by hand.

Where to go next

For the background on Quick Look and Markdown, read the Markdown Quick Look for macOS overview. Replacing an older plugin? See the QLMarkdown comparison. Reviewing files your coding agent wrote? See AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md.