View .md files
Instantly
Native editor for markdown files
Mermaid, LaTeX, tables, code, beautifully rendered
Free to read, Pro to edit · v0.3.0 · 15.0 MB
Open a whole folder
Every note in a sidebar, saved as you type
Quick Look done right
Press space in Finder
Find in file
⌘F, every match highlighted
Smart zoom into anything
Pinch to zoom around your pointer
Code and config files
Syntax colors and line numbers
Inline formatting
ProSelect text, pick a style
Edit tables
ProInsert columns, edit cells in place
Edit diagrams
ProTweak the Mermaid source, ⌘↩ to update
Source side by side
Pro⌘\ shows the Markdown next to the page
Tiny by design
15.0 MB binary, Offline only
Read for free, edit with Pro
Free to read, forever
Folders, Mermaid, LaTeX, code, and Quick Look previews
Pro unlocks editing
Type on the page or in the source beside it, Glance saves clean Markdown
14 days to try it
No card/sign-up, when trial ends, Glance goes back to a viewer
What people are saying
This is going to live in my workflow. Quick Look extension is the right surface. Most markdown viewers overshoot by being full apps. Mermaid + LaTeX in 8MB is impressive; lightweight previewers usually strip both.
Honestly surprised macOS doesn't ship this natively at this point. Opening Cursor or VS Code just to read a README is a small friction I hit ten times a day. Thanks for the product!
Very cool. Love it.
LOVE IT! thanks!
Downloaded!
FAQ
Download the DMG above and drop Glance into /Applications. Open it once so macOS picks up the Quick Look preview.
Preview doesn't render markdown, and TextEdit shows you raw asterisks and pound signs. Glance renders the page.
Reading is free forever, with no account to create. Editing is Glance Pro: a 14-day trial, then $9.99 once. You own that license for good.
Yes, with Glance Pro. You click text on the page and type, or press ⌘\ to edit the Markdown source next to the page. Glance saves clean Markdown back to the same file.
Your trial starts the first time you edit something: 14 days, no card, no sign-up. After that, Glance goes back to being a viewer and your files stay as you left them. Buy a license whenever you want to keep editing. One license covers three Macs.
Any .md or .markdown file, plus the rarer .mdown, .mkd, and .mkdn. Source code, JSON, YAML, CSV, logs and plain text open in a code view with syntax colors and line numbers.
Yes. Open a folder with ⌘O, or drop it on the Dock icon, and its Markdown files appear in a sidebar. Notes save as you type, and files you change in other apps update in place. Glance adds nothing to the folder: no index, no config files.
Glance makes two calls, both narrow: it checks glance.md for updates, and if you own a Pro license it verifies that license with Polar at launch. Neither carries anything about you or your files. If a document links to an image on the web, Glance downloads the image. There's no analytics and no tracking, and you can turn update checks off in Settings.
macOS 14 (Sonoma) and later, on an Apple Silicon Mac. There's no Intel build, and no iPad or iOS version, with none planned.
