Now Available for Windows & Linux

MDZip Studio

A lightweight Markdown editor with native .mdz support. Available now for Windows and Linux, built on the same web editor stack used by the browser demo.

Download for Windows Download for Linux.deb / AppImage

Windows: includes a File Explorer shell extension with .mdz preview and file-type registration. Linux: .deb (Debian/Ubuntu, registers the .mdz file type) or a distro-agnostic AppImage.

First-time setup can take a few minutes with no visible progress while it installs a required system component — this is normal; let it finish rather than canceling.

Want to try the editor now? Open the browser-based Editor Demo — no install needed.

Download this page as .mdz

MDZip Studio in split view, editing a Markdown document with a live rendered preview alongside the source

MDZip Studio is...

  • A reference application demonstrating native .mdz create and view workflows
  • A simple, performant Markdown editor — even if you don't need .mdz files
  • Available today for Windows and Linux, with macOS planned (Electron + web)

MDZip Studio is NOT...

  • Meant to be a replacement for your favorite Markdown editor (unless you need .mdz support until your editor supports it)
  • A knowledge base system — there are plenty of those already
  • A full word processor — there are plenty of those already
  • Super minimalist, it has buttons but just the useful ones.

Markdown support

  • Editing: CommonMark-based Markdown editing through CodeMirror's @codemirror/lang-markdown support.
  • Preview/rendering: GitHub Flavored Markdown-style rendering through marked with its default GFM mode enabled.
  • Safety: Rendered HTML is sanitized with DOMPurify before display.
  • Code blocks: Fenced code blocks are highlighted with highlight.js when a language is recognized.
  • Diagrams: Mermaid code blocks render inline in the preview.

Features

  • Single document .md and .mdz editing (CommonMark)
  • Convert an .md file to .mdz on demand (e.g. when inserting an image)
  • Basic Markdown formatting controls
  • Image support (images are archived inside the .mdz)
  • Source, preview, and split view modes
  • Drag and drop file rearranging within the archive
  • Archive validation
  • Manifest editing
  • Folder packing
  • Recent files
  • Manual and background update checks
  • Print, with a paginated preview — save to PDF via the system print dialog
  • Windows File Explorer integration (.mdz preview + file-type registration)
  • Linux packaging (.deb and AppImage), with the .deb registering the .mdz file type

Planned features

  • Conversion to and from other formats via Pandoc
  • Table formatting controls
  • Plug-in system to use other renderers (draw.io, etc.)
  • Saved preferences (theme, editor configuration etc.)
  • Templates
  • macOS installer

Out of scope

  • WYSIWYG editing
  • Tabbed or multi-window layouts
  • File manager

This page renders from studio.mdz (MDZip, ~236 KB, updated 2026-09-19) — one self-contained file. Download it, open it in the web editor, or read how these pages are made.