Settings

Open Settings with ⌘, or from the Peekdown menu. Settings are organized into seven tabs:

General

Configure where and how Peekdown windows appear.

  • Position — Choose where new windows appear (center, upper-right, lower-right, upper-left, lower-left)
  • Size — Default size for new windows (small, medium, large)
  • Reopen windows on launch — Reopen previously open documents on launch
  • Expand window when opening files — Automatically resize the window to fit content
  • Show dropzone — Show the drag-and-drop dropzone window at launch and when closing the last document
  • Window tabs — How new files open: automatic (system preference), always as tabs, or always in new windows

Quick Look

Control how markdown files look when you press Space in Finder. These settings are separate from the app's own preview.

  • Rendering — How Quick Look renders markdown:
    • Full preview — Render using GitHub-flavored markdown
    • Formatted source — Show syntax-highlighted markdown source
    • Plain text — Show markdown as plain monospace text
  • Appearance — Whether Quick Look previews render light or dark:
    • System — Follow the system light or dark setting
    • Light — Always render Quick Look light, even in Dark Mode
    • Dark — Always render Quick Look dark, even in Light Mode
  • Show annotations — Display annotation highlights when previewing files in Finder

Preview

Control how the preview in Peekdown's own window looks and behaves.

  • Appearance — Whether documents render light or dark in the app:
    • System — Follow the system light or dark setting
    • Light — Always render documents light, even in Dark Mode
    • Dark — Always render documents dark, even in Light Mode
  • Dark mode background — The preview's background color in dark mode: Plum (the default), Graphite, Espresso, Midnight, GitHub dark or Black
  • Light mode background — The preview's background color in light mode: White (the default), Solarized Light, Rosé Pine Dawn, Mist, Paper or Gruvbox Light
  • Custom color — The rainbow swatch at the end of either row opens the color picker, and the preview changes as you drag. The text stays readable on any color you pick: a color too light for dark mode (or too dark for light mode) is darkened or lightened just enough, and "adjusted for readability" shows under the swatches
  • Toggleable checkboxes — Allow toggling task list checkboxes in the preview. A toggle is a regular edit: ⌘Z undoes it
  • Auto-save on checkbox toggle — Automatically save the file after toggling a checkbox (requires Toggleable checkboxes). Undo only reverts the document — the file keeps what was auto-saved until you save again
  • Enable annotations — Show and capture annotations in the preview window
  • When a file changes externally — Show a notice (a banner offering Update and Show Changes) or reload automatically. With unsaved edits, you always get a notice instead of a silent reload.

Editor

Customize the editing experience.

  • Syntax highlighting — Enable or disable syntax coloring in the editor
  • Dark mode theme — The editor's theme in dark mode: Match Preview (the default), which gives the editor the preview's background color, or GitHub Dark, GitHub Light, Dracula, Monokai, Solarized Light, Solarized Dark, One Dark or Nord
  • Light mode theme — The editor's theme in light mode: Match Preview (the default) or any of the same eight themes
  • Font — Choose a monospace font (SF Mono, JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Menlo, Monaco, and more)
  • Font size — Adjust from 9pt to 32pt
  • Editor position — Place the editor on the left or right side of the split view
  • Spell checking — Enable or disable spell checking
  • Auto-pair brackets — Automatically close brackets and quotes as you type

Rendering

Control what gets rendered.

  • Copy code buttons — Show a copy button on fenced code blocks in the preview and Quick Look
  • Display JSX components in .mdx files — Show JSX syntax as code blocks in the preview and Quick Look
  • Render math (LaTeX) — Show $$…$$, \(…\), and ```math blocks as equations in the preview. Quick Look always renders math
  • Enable single-$ inline math — Also treat $…$ as math, in the preview and Quick Look. Off by default, since it can mistake dollar amounts for math
  • Render Mermaid diagrams — Turn ```mermaid blocks into flowcharts and diagrams in the preview. Quick Look always renders diagrams

Sidebar

Control when the sidebar appears and which sections it shows.

  • Show sidebar — Choose whether new windows open with the sidebar visible: Remember from last session, Always, or Never. This sets the starting state only — you can always open or close the sidebar with ⌃⌘S
  • Fit width to content — Automatically resizes the sidebar to its widest item as its contents change. Off by default; with it off you can still fit the sidebar once by double-clicking its divider
  • Show Favorites — Show or hide the pinned Favorites section in the sidebar (can also be hidden by right-clicking the section header in the sidebar)
  • Show Recents — Show or hide the pinned Recents section in the sidebar (can also be hidden by right-clicking the section header in the sidebar)
  • Keep folders on top — Sort folders above files in the sidebar
  • Show space backgrounds — Show or hide the tinted card behind each open space. When off, a space's color still tints its title and icon

Folders

Peekdown runs in a secure macOS sandbox. To display images referenced in your markdown files, Peekdown needs permission to access the folders containing those images.

  • Common folders — Toggle access to Desktop, Documents, and Downloads
  • Add Folder… — Grant access to any folder on your Mac
  • Remove — Revoke access to a previously granted folder

Once a folder is granted access, Peekdown remembers the permission across launches using security-scoped bookmarks. The preview reloads automatically when access is granted.