LeanMD
The native Markdown editor for Windows. One file. Zero dependencies. Complete offline privacy.
Dark theme shown. LeanMD also supports Light and System themes, plus high-contrast.
The native Markdown editor for Windows. One file. Zero dependencies. Complete offline privacy.
Dark theme shown. LeanMD also supports Light and System themes, plus high-contrast.
Built for writers and developers who value speed, reliability, and control over their documents.
Deploy LeanMD.exe. No installers, no runtimes, no WebView2. Everything ships with Windows.
Never phones home. No telemetry, no update checks, no remote content. Links open only when you click them.
Writes are atomic. External changes are detected. Crash recovery captures every tab continuously.
Rendered with DirectWrite and Direct2D. No browser engine. Fast, predictable, and beautiful.
Up to 128 documents. Per-tab view, undo, scroll, and outline state. Session recovery built in.
System, Light, or Dark themes. High-contrast support. Per-monitor DPI aware. Accent color follows Windows.
Designed for people who write Markdown daily and want an editor that gets out of the way.
Native C++ with RichEdit. Syntax coloring and preview updates stay responsive even on large documents.
Atomic writes, external change detection before overwrite, and continuous crash recovery for every open tab.
Syntax coloring, smart completion, format commands (headings, lists, bold, links), and Clean Source whitespace normalization.
Source, Preview, or Split view. Heading outline for navigation. Find & Replace works in both panes.
Print with preview styling or export self-contained HTML with strict Content-Security-Policy.
Full keyboard access, high contrast, screen reader names on controls, and restored window placement.
One parser for preview, print, and HTML export. Predictable and consistent.
| Element | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Headings | Yes | # to ###### with anchors |
| Bold, Italic, Strikethrough | Yes | Nesting up to 8 levels |
| Inline code & fenced blocks | Yes | Exact contents preserved |
| Lists & block quotes | Yes | Flat lists, single-line quotes |
| Links | Yes | http, https, mailto, #anchor only |
| Tables, images, nested lists | Literal | Shown as source text (deliberate scope) |
Raw HTML is always shown as text, never interpreted.
Windows 10 version 1703 (Creators Update) or later, including Windows 11. x64 only.
Single executable • No installer • ~few MB • Requires Windows 10 1703+ x64
Supports UTF-8, UTF-16, CRLF/LF/CR • Up to 8 MiB documents • 128 tabs
LeanMD is developed by iCube Development (Calgary) Ltd. (ICUBEDEV CGY).
Built as a focused, reliable tool for Markdown writing on Windows. Version 0.10.0 brings a modern GUI, full dark mode, improved find/replace, and refined reliability.
Author: Matthew Kinderwater
Publisher: iCube Development (Calgary) Ltd. (ICUBEDEV CGY)
Questions or feedback? support@icubedev.com