Extension: escaped_line_breaks

A backslash followed by a newline is also a hard line break. Note: in multiline and grid table cells, this is the only way to create a hard line break, since trailing spaces in the cells are ignored.

Setext-style headers

A setext-style header is a line of text “underlined” with a row of = signs (for a level one header) or - signs (for a level two header):

A level-one header
==================

A level-two header
------------------

The header text can contain inline formatting, such as emphasis (see Inline formatting, below).

ATX-style headers

An ATX-style header consists of one to six # signs and a line of text, optionally followed by any number of # signs. The number of # signs at the beginning of the line is the header level:

## A level-two header

### A level-three header ###

As with setext-style headers, the header text can contain formatting:

# A level-one header with a [link](/url) and *emphasis*

I like several of their flavors of ice cream:
#22, for example, and #5.

Header identifiers

{#identifier .class .class key=value key=value}

# My header {#foo}

## My header ##    {#foo}

My other header   {#foo}
---------------

# My header {-}

# My header {.unnumbered}

See the section on
[header identifiers](#header-identifiers-in-html-latex-and-context).

# Header identifiers in HTML

[Header identifiers in HTML]

[Header identifiers in HTML][]

[the section on header identifiers][header identifiers in
HTML]

[Header identifiers in HTML](#header-identifiers-in-html)

# Foo

[foo]: bar

See [foo]

Extension: blank_before_blockquote

Standard Markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a block quote. Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning of the document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too easy for a > to end up at the beginning of a line by accident (perhaps through line wrapping). So, unless the markdown_strict format is used, the following does not produce a nested block quote in pandoc:

> This is a block quote.
>> Nested.

Indented code blocks

A block of text indented four spaces (or one tab) is treated as verbatim text: that is, special characters do not trigger special formatting, and all spaces and line breaks are preserved. For example,

    if (a > 3) {
      moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
    }

The initial (four space or one tab) indentation is not considered part of the verbatim text, and is removed in the output.

Note: blank lines in the verbatim text need not begin with four spaces.

Fenced code blocks

~~~~~~~
if (a > 3) {
  moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
code including tildes
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~ {#mycode .haskell .numberLines startFrom="100"}
qsort []     = []
qsort (x:xs) = qsort (filter (< x) xs) ++ [x] ++
               qsort (filter (>= x) xs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

<pre id="mycode" class="haskell numberLines" startFrom="100">
  <code>
  ...
  </code>
</pre>

```haskell
qsort [] = []
```

``` {.haskell}
qsort [] = []
```

Extension: line_blocks

A line block is a sequence of lines beginning with a vertical bar (|) followed by a space. The division into lines will be preserved in the output, as will any leading spaces; otherwise, the lines will be formatted as Markdown. This is useful for verse and addresses:

| The limerick packs laughs anatomical
| In space that is quite economical.
|    But the good ones I've seen
|    So seldom are clean
| And the clean ones so seldom are comical

| 200 Main St.
| Berkeley, CA 94718

The lines can be hard-wrapped if needed, but the continuation line must begin with a space.

| The Right Honorable Most Venerable and Righteous Samuel L.
  Constable, Jr.
| 200 Main St.
| Berkeley, CA 94718

This syntax is borrowed from reStructuredText.

Bullet lists

A bullet list is a list of bulleted list items. A bulleted list item begins with a bullet (*, +, or -). Here is a simple example:

* one
* two
* three

This will produce a “compact” list. If you want a “loose” list, in which each item is formatted as a paragraph, put spaces between the items:

* one

* two

* three

The bullets need not be flush with the left margin; they may be indented one, two, or three spaces. The bullet must be followed by whitespace.

List items look best if subsequent lines are flush with the first line (after the bullet):

* here is my first
  list item.
* and my second.

But Markdown also allows a “lazy” format:

* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.

The four-space rule

A list item may contain multiple paragraphs and other block-level content. However, subsequent paragraphs must be preceded by a blank line and indented four spaces or a tab. The list will look better if the first paragraph is aligned with the rest:

  * First paragraph.

    Continued.

  * Second paragraph. With a code block, which must be indented
    eight spaces:

        { code }

List items may include other lists. In this case the preceding blank line is optional. The nested list must be indented four spaces or one tab:

* fruits
    + apples
        - macintosh
        - red delicious
    + pears
    + peaches
* vegetables
    + broccoli
    + chard

As noted above, Markdown allows you to write list items “lazily,” instead of indenting continuation lines. However, if there are multiple paragraphs or other blocks in a list item, the first line of each must be indented.

+ A lazy, lazy, list
item.

+ Another one; this looks
bad but is legal.

    Second paragraph of second
list item.

Note: Although the four-space rule for continuation paragraphs comes from the official Markdown syntax guide, the reference implementation, Markdown.pl, does not follow it. So pandoc will give different results than Markdown.pl when authors have indented continuation paragraphs fewer than four spaces.

The Markdown syntax guide is not explicit whether the four-space rule applies to all block-level content in a list item; it only mentions paragraphs and code blocks. But it implies that the rule applies to all block-level content (including nested lists), and pandoc interprets it that way.

Ordered lists

Ordered lists work just like bulleted lists, except that the items begin with enumerators rather than bullets.

In standard Markdown, enumerators are decimal numbers followed by a period and a space. The numbers themselves are ignored, so there is no difference between this list:

1.  one
2.  two
3.  three

and this one:

5.  one
7.  two
1.  three

#. one
#. two

 9)  Ninth
10)  Tenth
11)  Eleventh
       i. subone
      ii. subtwo
     iii. subthree

(2) Two
(5) Three
1.  Four
*   Five

#.  one
#.  two
#.  three

Definition lists

Term 1

:   Definition 1

Term 2 with *inline markup*

:   Definition 2

        { some code, part of Definition 2 }

    Third paragraph of definition 2.

Term 1

:   Definition
with lazy continuation.

    Second paragraph of the definition.

Term 1
  ~ Definition 1

Term 2
  ~ Definition 2a
  ~ Definition 2b

Numbered example lists

(@)  My first example will be numbered (1).
(@)  My second example will be numbered (2).

Explanation of examples.

(@)  My third example will be numbered (3).

(@good)  This is a good example.

As (@good) illustrates, ...

Compact and loose lists

Pandoc behaves differently from Markdown.pl on some “edge cases” involving lists. Consider this source:

+   First
+   Second:
    -   Fee
    -   Fie
    -   Foe

+   Third

Pandoc transforms this into a “compact list” (with no <p> tags around “First”, “Second”, or “Third”), while Markdown puts <p> tags around “Second” and “Third” (but not “First”), because of the blank space around “Third”. Pandoc follows a simple rule: if the text is followed by a blank line, it is treated as a paragraph. Since “Second” is followed by a list, and not a blank line, it isn’t treated as a paragraph. The fact that the list is followed by a blank line is irrelevant. (Note: Pandoc works this way even when the markdown_strict format is specified. This behavior is consistent with the official Markdown syntax description, even though it is different from that of Markdown.pl.)

Ending a list

What if you want to put an indented code block after a list?

-   item one
-   item two

    { my code block }

Trouble! Here pandoc (like other Markdown implementations) will treat { my code block } as the second paragraph of item two, and not as a code block.

To “cut off” the list after item two, you can insert some non-indented content, like an HTML comment, which won’t produce visible output in any format:

-   item one
-   item two

<!-- end of list -->

    { my code block }

You can use the same trick if you want two consecutive lists instead of one big list:

1.  one
2.  two
3.  three

<!-- -->

1.  uno
2.  dos
3.  tres

Extension: table_captions

A caption may optionally be provided with all 4 kinds of tables (as illustrated in the examples below). A caption is a paragraph beginning with the string Table: (or just :), which will be stripped off. It may appear either before or after the table.

Extension: simple_tables

Simple tables look like this:

  Right     Left     Center     Default
-------     ------ ----------   -------
     12     12        12            12
    123     123       123          123
      1     1          1             1

Table:  Demonstration of simple table syntax.

The headers and table rows must each fit on one line. Column alignments are determined by the position of the header text relative to the dashed line below it:³

• If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the right side but extends beyond it on the left, the column is right-aligned.
• If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the left side but extends beyond it on the right, the column is left-aligned.
• If the dashed line extends beyond the header text on both sides, the column is centered.
• If the dashed line is flush with the header text on both sides, the default alignment is used (in most cases, this will be left).

The table must end with a blank line, or a line of dashes followed by a blank line.

The column headers may be omitted, provided a dashed line is used to end the table. For example:

-------     ------ ----------   -------
     12     12        12             12
    123     123       123           123
      1     1          1              1
-------     ------ ----------   -------

When headers are omitted, column alignments are determined on the basis of the first line of the table body. So, in the tables above, the columns would be right, left, center, and right aligned, respectively.

Extension: multiline_tables

Multiline tables allow headers and table rows to span multiple lines of text (but cells that span multiple columns or rows of the table are not supported). Here is an example:

-------------------------------------------------------------
 Centered   Default           Right Left
  Header    Aligned         Aligned Aligned
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
   First    row                12.0 Example of a row that
                                    spans multiple lines.

  Second    row                 5.0 Here's another one. Note
                                    the blank line between
                                    rows.
-------------------------------------------------------------

Table: Here's the caption. It, too, may span
multiple lines.

These work like simple tables, but with the following differences:

• They must begin with a row of dashes, before the header text (unless the headers are omitted).
• They must end with a row of dashes, then a blank line.
• The rows must be separated by blank lines.

In multiline tables, the table parser pays attention to the widths of the columns, and the writers try to reproduce these relative widths in the output. So, if you find that one of the columns is too narrow in the output, try widening it in the Markdown source.

Headers may be omitted in multiline tables as well as simple tables:

----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
   First    row                12.0 Example of a row that
                                    spans multiple lines.

  Second    row                 5.0 Here's another one. Note
                                    the blank line between
                                    rows.
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------

: Here's a multiline table without headers.

It is possible for a multiline table to have just one row, but the row should be followed by a blank line (and then the row of dashes that ends the table), or the table may be interpreted as a simple table.

Extension: grid_tables

Grid tables look like this:

: Sample grid table.

+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Fruit         | Price         | Advantages         |
+===============+===============+====================+
| Bananas       | $1.34         | - built-in wrapper |
|               |               | - bright color     |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Oranges       | $2.10         | - cures scurvy     |
|               |               | - tasty            |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+

The row of =s separates the header from the table body, and can be omitted for a headerless table. The cells of grid tables may contain arbitrary block elements (multiple paragraphs, code blocks, lists, etc.). Alignments are not supported, nor are cells that span multiple columns or rows. Grid tables can be created easily using Emacs table mode.

Extension: pipe_tables

Pipe tables look like this:

| Right | Left | Default | Center |
|------:|:-----|---------|:------:|
|   12  |  12  |    12   |    12  |
|  123  |  123 |   123   |   123  |
|    1  |    1 |     1   |     1  |

  : Demonstration of pipe table syntax.

The syntax is identical to PHP Markdown Extra tables. The beginning and ending pipe characters are optional, but pipes are required between all columns. The colons indicate column alignment as shown. The header cannot be omitted. To simulate a headerless table, include a header with blank cells.

Since the pipes indicate column boundaries, columns need not be vertically aligned, as they are in the above example. So, this is a perfectly legal (though ugly) pipe table:

fruit| price
-----|-----:
apple|2.05
pear|1.37
orange|3.09

The cells of pipe tables cannot contain block elements like paragraphs and lists, and cannot span multiple lines. If a pipe table contains a row whose printable content is wider than the column width (see --columns), then the cell contents will wrap, with the relative cell widths determined by the widths of the separator lines.

Note: pandoc also recognizes pipe tables of the following form, as can be produced by Emacs’ orgtbl-mode:

| One | Two   |
|-----+-------|
| my  | table |
| is  | nice  |

The difference is that + is used instead of |. Other orgtbl features are not supported. In particular, to get non-default column alignment, you’ll need to add colons as above.

Extension: pandoc_title_block

If the file begins with a title block

% title
% author(s) (separated by semicolons)
% date

it will be parsed as bibliographic information, not regular text. (It will be used, for example, in the title of standalone LaTeX or HTML output.) The block may contain just a title, a title and an author, or all three elements. If you want to include an author but no title, or a title and a date but no author, you need a blank line:

%
% Author

% My title
%
% June 15, 2006

The title may occupy multiple lines, but continuation lines must begin with leading space, thus:

% My title
  on multiple lines

If a document has multiple authors, the authors may be put on separate lines with leading space, or separated by semicolons, or both. So, all of the following are equivalent:

% Author One
  Author Two

% Author One; Author Two

% Author One;
  Author Two

The date must fit on one line.

All three metadata fields may contain standard inline formatting (italics, links, footnotes, etc.).

Title blocks will always be parsed, but they will affect the output only when the --standalone (-s) option is chosen. In HTML output, titles will appear twice: once in the document head – this is the title that will appear at the top of the window in a browser – and once at the beginning of the document body. The title in the document head can have an optional prefix attached (--title-prefix or -T option). The title in the body appears as an H1 element with class “title”, so it can be suppressed or reformatted with CSS. If a title prefix is specified with -T and no title block appears in the document, the title prefix will be used by itself as the HTML title.

The man page writer extracts a title, man page section number, and other header and footer information from the title line. The title is assumed to be the first word on the title line, which may optionally end with a (single-digit) section number in parentheses. (There should be no space between the title and the parentheses.) Anything after this is assumed to be additional footer and header text. A single pipe character (|) should be used to separate the footer text from the header text. Thus,

% PANDOC(1)

will yield a man page with the title PANDOC and section 1.

% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals

will also have “Pandoc User Manuals” in the footer.

% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals | Version 4.0

will also have “Version 4.0” in the header.

Extension: yaml_metadata_block

A YAML metadata block is a valid YAML object, delimited by a line of three hyphens (---) at the top and a line of three hyphens (---) or three dots (...) at the bottom. A YAML metadata block may occur anywhere in the document, but if it is not at the beginning, it must be preceded by a blank line. (Note that, because of the way pandoc concatenates input files when several are provided, you may also keep the metadata in a separate YAML file and pass it to pandoc as an argument, along with your Markdown files:

pandoc chap1.md chap2.md chap3.md metadata.yaml -s -o book.html

Just be sure that the YAML file begins with --- and ends with --- or ....)

Metadata will be taken from the fields of the YAML object and added to any existing document metadata. Metadata can contain lists and objects (nested arbitrarily), but all string scalars will be interpreted as Markdown. Fields with names ending in an underscore will be ignored by pandoc. (They may be given a role by external processors.)

A document may contain multiple metadata blocks. The metadata fields will be combined through a left-biased union: if two metadata blocks attempt to set the same field, the value from the first block will be taken.

When pandoc is used with -t markdown to create a Markdown document, a YAML metadata block will be produced only if the -s/--standalone option is used. All of the metadata will appear in a single block at the beginning of the document.

Note that YAML escaping rules must be followed. Thus, for example, if a title contains a colon, it must be quoted. The pipe character (|) can be used to begin an indented block that will be interpreted literally, without need for escaping. This form is necessary when the field contains blank lines:

---
title:  'This is the title: it contains a colon'
author:
- name: Author One
  affiliation: University of Somewhere
- name: Author Two
  affiliation: University of Nowhere
tags: [nothing, nothingness]
abstract: |
  This is the abstract.

  It consists of two paragraphs.
...

Template variables will be set automatically from the metadata. Thus, for example, in writing HTML, the variable abstract will be set to the HTML equivalent of the Markdown in the abstract field:

<p>This is the abstract.</p>
<p>It consists of two paragraphs.</p>

Note: The author variable in the default templates expects a simple list or string. To use the structured authors in the example, you would need a custom template. For example:

$for(author)$
$if(author.name)$
$author.name$$if(author.affiliation)$ ($author.affiliation$)$endif$
$else$
$author$
$endif$
$endfor$

Extension: all_symbols_escapable

Except inside a code block or inline code, any punctuation or space character preceded by a backslash will be treated literally, even if it would normally indicate formatting. Thus, for example, if one writes

*\*hello\**

one will get

<em>*hello*</em>

instead of

<strong>hello</strong>

This rule is easier to remember than standard Markdown’s rule, which allows only the following characters to be backslash-escaped:

\`*_{}[]()>#+-.!

(However, if the markdown_strict format is used, the standard Markdown rule will be used.)

A backslash-escaped space is parsed as a nonbreaking space. It will appear in TeX output as ~ and in HTML and XML as \  or \ .

A backslash-escaped newline (i.e. a backslash occurring at the end of a line) is parsed as a hard line break. It will appear in TeX output as \\ and in HTML as <br />. This is a nice alternative to Markdown’s “invisible” way of indicating hard line breaks using two trailing spaces on a line.

Backslash escapes do not work in verbatim contexts.

Extension

If the --smart option is specified, pandoc will produce typographically correct output, converting straight quotes to curly quotes, --- to em-dashes, -- to en-dashes, and ... to ellipses. Nonbreaking spaces are inserted after certain abbreviations, such as “Mr.”

Note: if your LaTeX template or any included header file call for the [csquotes] package, pandoc will detect this automatically and use \enquote{...} for quoted text.

Emphasis

To emphasize some text, surround it with *s or _, like this:

This text is _emphasized with underscores_, and this
is *emphasized with asterisks*.

Double * or _ produces strong emphasis:

This is **strong emphasis** and __with underscores__.

A * or _ character surrounded by spaces, or backslash-escaped, will not trigger emphasis:

This is * not emphasized *, and \*neither is this\*.

feas*ible*, not feas*able*.

Strikeout

This ~~is deleted text.~~

Superscripts and subscripts

H~2~O is a liquid.  2^10^ is 1024.

Verbatim

To make a short span of text verbatim, put it inside backticks:

What is the difference between `>>=` and `>>`?

If the verbatim text includes a backtick, use double backticks:

Here is a literal backtick `` ` ``.

(The spaces after the opening backticks and before the closing backticks will be ignored.)

The general rule is that a verbatim span starts with a string of consecutive backticks (optionally followed by a space) and ends with a string of the same number of backticks (optionally preceded by a space).

Note that backslash-escapes (and other Markdown constructs) do not work in verbatim contexts:

This is a backslash followed by an asterisk: `\*`.

`<$>`{.haskell}

Small caps

To write small caps, you can use an HTML span tag:

<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Small caps</span>

(The semicolon is optional and there may be space after the colon.) This will work in all output formats that support small caps.

Extension: tex_math_dollars

Anything between two $ characters will be treated as TeX math. The opening $ must have a non-space character immediately to its right, while the closing $ must have a non-space character immediately to its left, and must not be followed immediately by a digit. Thus, $20,000 and $30,000 won’t parse as math. If for some reason you need to enclose text in literal $ characters, backslash-escape them and they won’t be treated as math delimiters.

TeX math will be printed in all output formats. How it is rendered depends on the output format:

Markdown, LaTeX, Emacs Org mode, ConTeXt

It will appear verbatim between $ characters.

reStructuredText

It will be rendered using an interpreted text role :math:.

AsciiDoc

It will be rendered as latexmath:[...].

Texinfo

It will be rendered inside a @math command.

groff man

It will be rendered verbatim without $’s.

MediaWiki, DokuWiki

It will be rendered inside <math> tags.

Textile

It will be rendered inside <span class="math"> tags.

RTF, OpenDocument, ODT

It will be rendered, if possible, using unicode characters, and will otherwise appear verbatim.

DocBook

If the --mathml flag is used, it will be rendered using MathML in an inlineequation or informalequation tag. Otherwise it will be rendered, if possible, using unicode characters.

Docx

It will be rendered using OMML math markup.

FictionBook2

If the --webtex option is used, formulas are rendered as images using Google Charts or other compatible web service, downloaded and embedded in the e-book. Otherwise, they will appear verbatim.

HTML, Slidy, DZSlides, S5, EPUB

The way math is rendered in HTML will depend on the command-line options selected:

1. The default is to render TeX math as far as possible using unicode characters, as with RTF, DocBook, and OpenDocument output. Formulas are put inside a span with class="math", so that they may be styled differently from the surrounding text if needed.

2. If the --latexmathml option is used, TeX math will be displayed between $ or $$ characters and put in <span> tags with class LaTeX. The [LaTeXMathML] script will be used to render it as formulas. (This trick does not work in all browsers, but it works in Firefox. In browsers that do not support LaTeXMathML, TeX math will appear verbatim between $ characters.)

3. If the --jsmath option is used, TeX math will be put inside <span> tags (for inline math) or <div> tags (for display math) with class math. The [jsMath] script will be used to render it.

4. If the --mimetex option is used, the [mimeTeX] CGI script will be called to generate images for each TeX formula. This should work in all browsers. The --mimetex option takes an optional URL as argument. If no URL is specified, it will be assumed that the mimeTeX CGI script is at /cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi.

5. If the --gladtex option is used, TeX formulas will be enclosed in <eq> tags in the HTML output. The resulting htex file may then be processed by [gladTeX], which will produce image files for each formula and an HTML file with links to these images. So, the procedure is:

   pandoc -s --gladtex myfile.txt -o myfile.htex
   gladtex -d myfile-images myfile.htex
   # produces myfile.html and images in myfile-images

6. If the --webtex option is used, TeX formulas will be converted to <img> tags that link to an external script that converts formulas to images. The formula will be URL-encoded and concatenated with the URL provided. If no URL is specified, the Google Chart API will be used (http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=).

7. If the --mathjax option is used, TeX math will be displayed between \(...\) (for inline math) or \[...\] (for display math) and put in <span> tags with class math. The [MathJax] script will be used to render it as formulas.

Extension: raw_html

Markdown allows you to insert raw HTML (or DocBook) anywhere in a document (except verbatim contexts, where <, >, and & are interpreted literally). (Technically this is not an extension, since standard Markdown allows it, but it has been made an extension so that it can be disabled if desired.)

The raw HTML is passed through unchanged in HTML, S5, Slidy, Slideous, DZSlides, EPUB, Markdown, and Textile output, and suppressed in other formats.

Extension: markdown_in_html_blocks

Standard Markdown allows you to include HTML “blocks”: blocks of HTML between balanced tags that are separated from the surrounding text with blank lines, and start and end at the left margin. Within these blocks, everything is interpreted as HTML, not Markdown; so (for example), * does not signify emphasis.

Pandoc behaves this way when the markdown_strict format is used; but by default, pandoc interprets material between HTML block tags as Markdown. Thus, for example, pandoc will turn

<table>
<tr>
<td>*one*</td>
<td>[a link](http://google.com)</td>
</tr>
</table>

into

<table>
<tr>
<td><em>one</em></td>
<td><a href="http://google.com">a link</a></td>
</tr>
</table>

whereas Markdown.pl will preserve it as is.

There is one exception to this rule: text between <script> and <style> tags is not interpreted as Markdown.

This departure from standard Markdown should make it easier to mix Markdown with HTML block elements. For example, one can surround a block of Markdown text with <div> tags without preventing it from being interpreted as Markdown.

Extension: native_divs

Use native pandoc Div blocks for content inside <div> tags. For the most part this should give the same output as markdown_in_html_blocks, but it makes it easier to write pandoc filters to manipulate groups of blocks.

Extension: native_spans

Use native pandoc Span blocks for content inside <span> tags. For the most part this should give the same output as raw_html, but it makes it easier to write pandoc filters to manipulate groups of inlines.

Extension: raw_tex

In addition to raw HTML, pandoc allows raw LaTeX, TeX, and ConTeXt to be included in a document. Inline TeX commands will be preserved and passed unchanged to the LaTeX and ConTeXt writers. Thus, for example, you can use LaTeX to include BibTeX citations:

This result was proved in \cite{jones.1967}.

Note that in LaTeX environments, like

\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}\hline
Age & Frequency \\ \hline
18--25  & 15 \\
26--35  & 33 \\
36--45  & 22 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}

the material between the begin and end tags will be interpreted as raw LaTeX, not as Markdown.

Inline LaTeX is ignored in output formats other than Markdown, LaTeX, and ConTeXt.

Extension: latex_macros

For output formats other than LaTeX, pandoc will parse LaTeX \newcommand and \renewcommand definitions and apply the resulting macros to all LaTeX math. So, for example, the following will work in all output formats, not just LaTeX:

\newcommand{\tuple}[1]{\langle #1 \rangle}

$\tuple{a, b, c}$

In LaTeX output, the \newcommand definition will simply be passed unchanged to the output.

Automatic links

If you enclose a URL or email address in pointy brackets, it will become a link:

<http://google.com>
<sam@green.eggs.ham>

Inline links

An inline link consists of the link text in square brackets, followed by the URL in parentheses. (Optionally, the URL can be followed by a link title, in quotes.)

This is an [inline link](/url), and here's [one with
a title](http://fsf.org "click here for a good time!").

There can be no space between the bracketed part and the parenthesized part. The link text can contain formatting (such as emphasis), but the title cannot.

Email addresses in inline links are not autodetected, so they have to be prefixed with mailto:

[Write me!](mailto:sam@green.eggs.ham)

Reference links

An explicit reference link has two parts, the link itself and the link definition, which may occur elsewhere in the document (either before or after the link).

The link consists of link text in square brackets, followed by a label in square brackets. (There can be space between the two.) The link definition consists of the bracketed label, followed by a colon and a space, followed by the URL, and optionally (after a space) a link title either in quotes or in parentheses. The label must not be parseable as a citation (assuming the citations extension is enabled): citations take precedence over link labels.

Here are some examples:

[my label 1]: /foo/bar.html  "My title, optional"
[my label 2]: /foo
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org (The free software foundation)
[my label 4]: /bar#special  'A title in single quotes'

The URL may optionally be surrounded by angle brackets:

[my label 5]: <http://foo.bar.baz>

The title may go on the next line:

[my label 3]: http://fsf.org
  "The free software foundation"

Note that link labels are not case sensitive. So, this will work:

Here is [my link][FOO]

[Foo]: /bar/baz

In an implicit reference link, the second pair of brackets is empty:

See [my website][].

[my website]: http://foo.bar.baz

Note: In Markdown.pl and most other Markdown implementations, reference link definitions cannot occur in nested constructions such as list items or block quotes. Pandoc lifts this arbitrary seeming restriction. So the following is fine in pandoc, though not in most other implementations:

> My block [quote].
>
> [quote]: /foo

See [my website].

[my website]: http://foo.bar.baz

Internal links

To link to another section of the same document, use the automatically generated identifier (see Header identifiers). For example:

See the [Introduction](#introduction).

or

See the [Introduction].

[Introduction]: #introduction

Internal links are currently supported for HTML formats (including HTML slide shows and EPUB), LaTeX, and ConTeXt.

Extension: implicit_figures

An image occurring by itself in a paragraph will be rendered as a figure with a caption.⁴ (In LaTeX, a figure environment will be used; in HTML, the image will be placed in a div with class figure, together with a caption in a p with class caption.) The image’s alt text will be used as the caption.

![This is the caption](/url/of/image.png)

If you just want a regular inline image, just make sure it is not the only thing in the paragraph. One way to do this is to insert a nonbreaking space after the image:

![This image won't be a figure](/url/of/image.png)\ 

Extension: link_attributes

Attributes can be set on links and images:

An inline ![image](foo.jpg){#id .class width=30 height=20px}
and a reference ![image][ref] with attributes.

[ref]: foo.jpg "optional title" {#id .class key=val key2="val 2"}

(This syntax is compatible with PHP Markdown Extra when only #id and .class are used.)

For HTML and EPUB, all attributes except width and height (but including srcset and sizes) are passed through as is. The other writers ignore attributes that are not supported by their output format.

The width and height attributes on images are treated specially. When used without a unit, the unit is assumed to be pixels. However, any of the following unit identifiers can be used: px, cm, mm, in, inch and %. There must not be any spaces between the number and the unit. For example:

![](file.jpg){ width=50% }

• Dimensions are converted to inches for output in page-based formats like LaTeX. Dimensions are converted to pixels for output in HTML-like formats. Use the --dpi option to specify the number of pixels per inch. The default is 96dpi.
• The % unit is generally relative to some available space. For example the above example will render to <img href="file.jpg" style="width: 50%;" /> (HTML), \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{file.jpg} (LaTeX), or \externalfigure[file.jpg][width=0.5\textwidth] (ConTeXt).
• Some output formats have a notion of a class (ConTeXt) or a unique identifier (LaTeX \caption), or both (HTML).
• When no width or height attributes are specified, the fallback is to look at the image resolution and the dpi metadata embedded in the image file.

Extension: footnotes

Pandoc’s Markdown allows footnotes, using the following syntax:

Here is a footnote reference,[^1] and another.[^longnote]

[^1]: Here is the footnote.

[^longnote]: Here's one with multiple blocks.

    Subsequent paragraphs are indented to show that they
belong to the previous footnote.

        { some.code }

    The whole paragraph can be indented, or just the first
    line.  In this way, multi-paragraph footnotes work like
    multi-paragraph list items.

This paragraph won't be part of the note, because it
isn't indented.

The identifiers in footnote references may not contain spaces, tabs, or newlines. These identifiers are used only to correlate the footnote reference with the note itself; in the output, footnotes will be numbered sequentially.

The footnotes themselves need not be placed at the end of the document. They may appear anywhere except inside other block elements (lists, block quotes, tables, etc.).

Extension: inline_notes

Inline footnotes are also allowed (though, unlike regular notes, they cannot contain multiple paragraphs). The syntax is as follows:

Here is an inline note.^[Inlines notes are easier to write, since
you don't have to pick an identifier and move down to type the
note.]

Inline and regular footnotes may be mixed freely.

Extension: citations

Using an external filter, pandoc-citeproc, pandoc can automatically generate citations and a bibliography in a number of styles. Basic usage is

pandoc --filter pandoc-citeproc myinput.txt

In order to use this feature, you will need to specify a bibliography file using the bibliography metadata field in a YAML metadata section, or --bibliography command line argument. You can supply multiple --bibliography arguments or set bibliography metadata field to YAML array, if you want to use multiple bibliography files. The bibliography may have any of these formats:

Note that .bib can be used with both BibTeX and BibLaTeX files; use .bibtex to force BibTeX.

Note that pandoc-citeproc --bib2json and pandoc-citeproc --bib2yaml can produce .json and .yaml files from any of the supported formats.

In-field markup: In BibTeX and BibLaTeX databases, pandoc-citeproc parses a subset of LaTeX markup; in CSL YAML databases, pandoc Markdown; and in CSL JSON databases, an HTML-like markup:

<i>...</i>

italics

<b>...</b>

bold

<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">...</span> or <sc>...</sc>

small capitals

<sub>...</sub>

subscript

<sup>...</sup>

superscript

<span class="nocase">...</span>

prevent a phrase from being capitalized as title case

pandoc-citeproc -j and -y interconvert the CSL JSON and CSL YAML formats as far as possible.

As an alternative to specifying a bibliography file using --bibliography or the YAML metadata field bibliography, you can include the citation data directly in the references field of the document’s YAML metadata. The field should contain an array of YAML-encoded references, for example:

---
references:
- type: article-journal
  id: WatsonCrick1953
  author:
  - family: Watson
    given: J. D.
  - family: Crick
    given: F. H. C.
  issued:
    date-parts:
    - - 1953
      - 4
      - 25
  title: 'Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose
    nucleic acid'
  title-short: Molecular structure of nucleic acids
  container-title: Nature
  volume: 171
  issue: 4356
  page: 737-738
  DOI: 10.1038/171737a0
  URL: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v171/n4356/abs/171737a0.html
  language: en-GB
...

(pandoc-citeproc --bib2yaml can produce these from a bibliography file in one of the supported formats.)

Citations and references can be formatted using any style supported by the Citation Style Language, listed in the Zotero Style Repository. These files are specified using the --csl option or the csl metadata field. By default, pandoc-citeproc will use the Chicago Manual of Style author-date format. The CSL project provides further information on finding and editing styles.

To make your citations hyperlinks to the corresponding bibliography entries, add link-citations: true to your YAML metadata.

Citations go inside square brackets and are separated by semicolons. Each citation must have a key, composed of ‘@’ + the citation identifier from the database, and may optionally have a prefix, a locator, and a suffix. The citation key must begin with a letter, digit, or _, and may contain alphanumerics, _, and internal punctuation characters (:.#$%&-+?<>~/). Here are some examples:

Blah blah [see @doe99, pp. 33-35; also @smith04, chap. 1].

Blah blah [@doe99, pp. 33-35, 38-39 and *passim*].

Blah blah [@smith04; @doe99].

pandoc-citeproc detects locator terms in the CSL locale files. Either abbreviated or unabbreviated forms are accepted. In the en-US locale, locator terms can be written in either singular or plural forms, as book, bk./bks.; chapter, chap./chaps.; column, col./cols.; figure, fig./figs.; folio, fol./fols.; number, no./nos.; line, l./ll.; note, n./nn.; opus, op./opp.; page, p./pp.; paragraph, para./paras.; part, pt./pts.; section, sec./secs.; sub verbo, s.v./s.vv.; verse, v./vv.; volume, vol./vols.; ¶/¶¶; §/§§. If no locator term is used, “page” is assumed.

A minus sign (-) before the @ will suppress mention of the author in the citation. This can be useful when the author is already mentioned in the text:

Smith says blah [-@smith04].

You can also write an in-text citation, as follows:

@smith04 says blah.

@smith04 [p. 33] says blah.

If the style calls for a list of works cited, it will be placed at the end of the document. Normally, you will want to end your document with an appropriate header:

last paragraph...

# References

The bibliography will be inserted after this header. Note that the unnumbered class will be added to this header, so that the section will not be numbered.

If you want to include items in the bibliography without actually citing them in the body text, you can define a dummy nocite metadata field and put the citations there:

---
nocite: |
  @item1, @item2
...

@item3

In this example, the document will contain a citation for item3 only, but the bibliography will contain entries for item1, item2, and item3.

For LaTeX or PDF output, you can also use [natbib] or [biblatex] to render bibliography. In order to do so, specify bibliography files as outlined above, and add --natbib or --biblatex argument to pandoc invocation. Bear in mind that bibliography files have to be in respective format (either BibTeX or BibLaTeX).

For more information, see the pandoc-citeproc man page.

Extension: lists_without_preceding_blankline

Allow a list to occur right after a paragraph, with no intervening blank space.

Extension: hard_line_breaks

Causes all newlines within a paragraph to be interpreted as hard line breaks instead of spaces.

Extension: ignore_line_breaks

Causes newlines within a paragraph to be ignored, rather than being treated as spaces or as hard line breaks. This option is intended for use with East Asian languages where spaces are not used between words, but text is divided into lines for readability.

Extension: east_asian_line_breaks

Causes newlines within a paragraph to be ignored, rather than being treated as spaces or as hard line breaks, when they occur between two East Asian wide characters. This is a better choice than ignore_line_breaks for texts that include a mix of East Asian wide characters and other characters.

Extension: tex_math_single_backslash

Causes anything between \( and \) to be interpreted as inline TeX math, and anything between \[ and \] to be interpreted as display TeX math. Note: a drawback of this extension is that it precludes escaping ( and [.

Extension: tex_math_double_backslash

Causes anything between \\( and \\) to be interpreted as inline TeX math, and anything between \\[ and \\] to be interpreted as display TeX math.

Extension: markdown_attribute

By default, pandoc interprets material inside block-level tags as Markdown. This extension changes the behavior so that Markdown is only parsed inside block-level tags if the tags have the attribute markdown=1.

Extension: mmd_title_block

Enables a MultiMarkdown style title block at the top of the document, for example:

Title:   My title
Author:  John Doe
Date:    September 1, 2008
Comment: This is a sample mmd title block, with
         a field spanning multiple lines.

See the MultiMarkdown documentation for details. If pandoc_title_block or yaml_metadata_block is enabled, it will take precedence over mmd_title_block.

Extension: abbreviations

Parses PHP Markdown Extra abbreviation keys, like

*[HTML]: Hypertext Markup Language

Note that the pandoc document model does not support abbreviations, so if this extension is enabled, abbreviation keys are simply skipped (as opposed to being parsed as paragraphs).

Extension: autolink_bare_uris

Makes all absolute URIs into links, even when not surrounded by pointy braces <...>.

Extension: ascii_identifiers

Causes the identifiers produced by auto_identifiers to be pure ASCII. Accents are stripped off of accented latin letters, and non-latin letters are omitted.

Extension: mmd_link_attributes

Parses multimarkdown style key-value attributes on link and image references. This extension should not be confused with the link_attributes extension.

This is a reference ![image][ref] with multimarkdown attributes.

[ref]: http://path.to/image "Image title" width=20px height=30px
       id=myId class="myClass1 myClass2"

Extension: mmd_header_identifiers

Parses multimarkdown style header identifiers (in square brackets, after the header but before any trailing #s in an ATX header).

Extension: compact_definition_lists

Activates the definition list syntax of pandoc 1.12.x and earlier. This syntax differs from the one described above under Definition lists in several respects:

• No blank line is required between consecutive items of the definition list.
• To get a “tight” or “compact” list, omit space between consecutive items; the space between a term and its definition does not affect anything.
• Lazy wrapping of paragraphs is not allowed: the entire definition must be indented four spaces.⁵