PanWriter is a Markdown writing environment that combines a restrained editor with a view of the document’s printed appearance. It suits authors who want to draft in plain text while checking how their work will occupy a page.
The application provides two distinct publishing routes. Printing the preview preserves its displayed layout, while exporting through Pandoc applies the chosen conversion settings and document template.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Display a paginated preview with visible page boundaries and page breaks.
- Reflect styling and layout adjustments immediately in the preview.
- Print the preview or save it as a PDF through the system print dialogue.
- Import and export document formats through Pandoc, including HTML, DOCX, LaTeX and EPUB.
- Configure format-specific export options through YAML metadata embedded in a document.
- Select export templates, table-of-contents settings and other Pandoc options.
- Choose different PDF conversion methods through document metadata.
- Create shared default YAML settings for reuse across documents.
- Define named document types with their own configuration, such as a letter style.
- Customise document presentation with CSS.
- Render CommonMark alongside supported extensions for tables and strikethrough.
- Preview footnotes, definition lists, subscripts, superscripts and mathematical expressions.
- Use fenced divisions and attributes to describe more structured document content.
- Keep the manuscript in Markdown so it remains accessible to other text-processing tools.
- Open a specified document from the command line for integration with existing workflows.
- Cross-platform support – runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Website: panwriter.com
Support:
Developer: Mauro Bieg
License: GNU General Public License v3.0

PanWriter is written in TypeScript. Learn TypeScript with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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