Inkwell

A fast, native markdown viewer for macOS. Clean, focused, and efficient.

Features

• Native macOS application with full Cocoa integration
• Lightning fast - Opens 14MB files in ~1 second
• File watching for automatic refresh when files change
• Session memory - Remembers last opened file and window position
• Export support - PDF and HTML export
• Command palette (⌘K) for quick actions
• Focus mode - Highlight current paragraph with arrow navigation
• Recent files menu - Quick access to recent documents
• Dark mode support with system preference detection
• Zoom controls - Adjust text size to preference

Installation

Via Homebrew (Recommended)

brew tap cschuman/tap
brew install --cask inkwell

Direct Download

Download the latest DMG from Releases

Build from Source

Requirements:

• macOS 11.0 or later
• Xcode Command Line Tools
• CMake 3.20+
• vcpkg

# Install dependencies
vcpkg install

# Build
cmake -B build -S . -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$VCPKG_ROOT/scripts/buildsystems/vcpkg.cmake
cmake --build build -j$(sysctl -n hw.ncpu)

# Install to /Applications
cmake --install build --prefix /Applications

Usage

Open markdown files:

open -a Inkwell document.md

Or drag and drop markdown files onto the application icon.

Keyboard Shortcuts

File Operations

• ⌘O - Open file
• ⌘S - Save (if editing)
• ⌘W - Close window
• ⌘Q - Quit application

Navigation

• ⌘K - Open command palette
• ⌘. - Toggle focus mode
• ↑/↓ - Navigate paragraphs (in focus mode)
• ⌘F - Find in document
• ⌘G - Find next
• ⌘⇧G - Find previous

View

• ⌘+ - Zoom in
• ⌘- - Zoom out
• ⌘0 - Reset zoom
• ⌘T - Toggle table of contents
• ⌘B - Toggle file browser

Vim-style Navigation

• j/k - Scroll down/up
• h/l - Scroll left/right
• gg - Go to top
• G - Go to bottom

Architecture

Inkwell is built with:

• C++20 for core logic
• Objective-C++ for macOS integration
• NSTextView for text rendering
• md4c for markdown parsing
• FSEvents for file monitoring

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit pull requests.

Philosophy

"The best code is the code you don't write."

Inkwell v1.0.9 represents a major cleanup based on expert review. We removed over 2,000 lines of unnecessary effects code to focus on what matters: fast, reliable markdown viewing.

Project Status

Current Version: 1.0.9 (January 2025)

Recent focus:

• ✅ Removed 2,000+ lines of unnecessary effects code
• ✅ Fixed fundamental features
• ✅ Improved performance and reliability
• ✅ Reduced binary size

See ROADMAP.md for future plans.