Apostrophe is a free, open-source, and very capable Markdown editor built specifically for the GNOME desktop environment.
As expected, it’s free, open-source, and can be installed on systems that run GNOME and are Flatpak-enabled.
A lot more capable than it looks
Because Apostrophe was designed with simplicity in mind, you would be mistaken to think that it’s one of those WYSIWYG apps. While not over-complicated, this is an elegant Markdown editor that packs a lot of “firepower” under the hood.
For starters, we have to point out that the app supports most popular forms of Markdown. These incude Pandoc’s Markdown, CommonMark, GitHub Flavored Markdown, MultiMarkdown, and other Plan Markdown formats.
It has other nifty features you might expect from a modern app of this sort such as a text editor with full support for spellchecking as well as document statistics. The app allows you to import various formats, but more importantly, it allows you to export your work to formats such as PDF, Word/LibreOffice, LaTeX, EPUB v3, and HTML.
The Preview options are usually what break or make a Markdown Editor. Thankfully, Apostrophe is all about flexibility. The Live Preview panel can be set to full window, as well as be displayed in a separate window.
Everything for your comfort
While it might not look the part, Apostrophe’s GUI is simply wonderful when it comes to functionality. It provides a distraction-free writing environment, enhanced by two very nifty modes: the Hemingway Mode that disables the backspace key and the Focus Mode that highlights the current line, removes the header and the bottom bar.
Another smart feature is that it formats your text automatically. Simply press CTRL+ the section you want to view, and Apostrophe displays a preview with all the links, footnotes, and equations via a simple pop-up.
Conclusion
Apostrophe might not be the only good Markdown editor out there, but it’s definitely one of the best we’ve tested. It doesn’t look the part, but if you decide to give it a shot, you might just find out that it perfectly suits your needs.
