Markdown Guide

May 5, 2026

Markdown Syntax Reference

Headings

Heading 1

Heading 2

Heading 3

Heading 4

Heading 5

Heading 6

Paragraphs & Line Breaks

This is a paragraph. Paragraphs are separated by a blank line.

This is a second paragraph. To create a hard line break,
end a line with two or more spaces, then press Return.

Emphasis

This text is italic using asterisks.
This text is italic using underscores.

This text is bold using asterisks.
This text is bold using underscores.

This text is bold and italic.
This text is also bold and italic.

~~This text has strikethrough.~~

Blockquotes

This is a blockquote.

Blockquotes can span multiple paragraphs.

Just add a > on the blank line between them.

Blockquotes can be nested.

This is a nested blockquote.

And nested even deeper.

Lists

Unordered Lists

Item one
Item two
- Nested item
- Another nested item
  - Deeply nested item
Item three

Asterisks also work
For unordered lists

As do plus signs
Like this

Ordered Lists

First item
Second item
1. Nested ordered item
2. Another nested ordered item
Third item
The actual numbers don’t matter to Markdown
It just needs to start with a number

Task Lists

Write the markdown reference post
Include all syntax elements
Publish to Hugo blog
Share with the world

Code

Inline Code

Use backticks for inline code, like referencing a variable or a function().

Fenced Code Blocks

This is a plain fenced code block with no language specified.

# Bash example
echo "Hello, Hugo!"
for i in 1 2 3; do
  echo "Item $i"
done

// JavaScript example
const greet = (name) => {
  return `Hello, ${name}!`;
};

console.log(greet("World"));

# Python example
def fibonacci(n):
    a, b = 0, 1
    for _ in range(n):
        yield a
        a, b = b, a + b

print(list(fibonacci(10)))

<!-- HTML example -->
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8" />
    <title>Example</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello, World!</h1>
  </body>
</html>

/* CSS example */
body {
  font-family: sans-serif;
  line-height: 1.6;
  color: #333;
}

Indented Code Block

This is an indented code block.
It uses four spaces of indentation.
No language highlighting is applied.

Horizontal Rules

Three or more hyphens:

Three or more asterisks:

Three or more underscores:

Images

Inline Image

Markdown logo

Reference Image

Alt text

Tables

Column One	Column Two	Column Three
Row 1, Col 1	Row 1, Col 2	Row 1, Col 3
Row 2, Col 1	Row 2, Col 2	Row 2, Col 3
Row 3, Col 1	Row 3, Col 2	Row 3, Col 3

Aligned Columns

Left-aligned	Center-aligned	Right-aligned
Left	Center	Right
Text	Text	Text
More text	More text	More text

Footnotes

Here is a sentence with a footnote.¹

And another sentence with a second footnote.²

Definition Lists

(Supported by many Markdown processors and Hugo)

Term One: Definition for term one.
Term Two: First definition for term two.; Second definition for term two.

Escaping Characters

Markdown reserves certain characters. Use a backslash \ to escape them:

* Not italic *
** Not bold **
# Not a heading
[Not a link](https://example.com)
`Not inline code`
> Not a blockquote
- Not a list item
. Not an ordered list

Full list of escapable characters: \ * _ { } [ ] ( ) # + - . !`

HTML in Markdown

Native Markdown allows inline HTML. Hugo may render or sanitize this depending on your config.toml settings.

This text is highlighted using the HTML mark element.

Ctrl + C — keyboard key styling via <kbd>.

Superscript and Subscript via HTML tags.

Putting It All Together

Here’s a short sample that combines multiple elements naturally:

Note: The following is a demonstration combining bold, italic, inline code, and a link.

A table with mixed content:

Feature	Supported	Notes
Headings	✅	Six levels
Bold / Italic	✅	Asterisks or underscores
Tables	✅	GFM-style
Footnotes	✅	Requires Goldmark or extension
Task Lists	✅	GitHub Flavored Markdown
HTML	✅	Enable `unsafe` in config

This is the first footnote. ↩︎
This is a named footnote. Footnote text can span multiple lines
as long as subsequent lines are indented. ↩︎

Lambda