Quarkdown
Shares rank 4 of 9 markup languages by recommenders
Markdown extension with user-defined functions for layouts and styling, praised for clean syntax and a polished website. Critics say it adds many new commands to learn and breaks Markdown's simplicity.
Markdown extension with user-defined functions for layouts and styling, praised for clean syntax and a polished website. Critics say it adds many new commands to learn and breaks Markdown's simplicity.
27 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 19
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 70%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 19 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Clean syntax built on functions
“Quarkdown's syntax design looks clean, especially the user-defined functions.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “I appreciate the syntactic purity of "everything is a function"”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “The language spec is amazing and styling is slick.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” Powerful layouts and customization
“You can achieve any layout you want thanks to the .row, .column and .grid function.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “you can achieve almost everything with them”
Comment from 26 May 2026 in “I Bypassed Adobe and Microsoft to Build a Git-Tracked Book Production Pipeline” “Flat learning curve for basic formatting, powerful customizations for the rest.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” Easy to read and write
“Easier to read, easier to write.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “Flat learning curve for basic formatting, powerful customizations for the rest.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” Polished website and branding
“Looks nice, but also the website is really nicely done.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “the website and branding are amazing”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Many new commands to learn
“there's loads of syntax thrown in your face and you're like, man, I need to learn a lot”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “Soon you find yourself looking up all the odd new commands.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” Breaks Markdown's natural feel
“It breaks the whole idea of Markdown - to be as natural as possible.”
Comment from 28 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers” “That extra asterisk is a poor design decision in markdown.”
Comment from 27 Apr 2026 in “Quarkdown – Markdown with Superpowers”
Other markup languages people recommend
The four most recommended other markup languages, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Markdown | 155 | 73 | 68% | 12 | 10 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| AsciiDoc | 38 | 11 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Djot | 21 | 4 | 84% | 7 | — | Approved |
| QuarkdownThis page | 19 | 8 | 70% | 3 | — | — |
| reStructuredText | 19 | 9 | 68% | 8 | — | Approved |
What people said
25 of the 30 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“you can achieve almost everything with them”
“This one is interesting and has potential, for me.”
“I agree with many of the simplifications they've made.”
“Quarkdown's syntax design looks clean, especially the user-defined functions.”
“there's loads of syntax thrown in your face and you're like, man, I need to learn a lot”
“It breaks the whole idea of Markdown - to be as natural as possible.”
“I really hate it when the recommended install method is curl-ing some script directly into a shell”
“The language spec is amazing and styling is slick.”
“I appreciate the syntactic purity of "everything is a function"”
“the website and branding are amazing”
“Or it could kill your product's focus.”
“Flat learning curve for basic formatting, powerful customizations for the rest.”
“the author does not fully understand that knowledge management systems are inherently interactive”
“Easier to read, easier to write.”
“Before you know it we'll have re-invented LaTeX for a new generation.”
“Looks nice, but also the website is really nicely done.”
“Quarkdown is a step in the right direction.”
“That extra asterisk is a poor design decision in markdown.”
“Quarkdown is still a strict upgrade over typing latex directly or whatever”
“You can achieve any layout you want thanks to the .row, .column and .grid function.”
“So glad to see people expanding on it. Nice work!”
“Soon you find yourself looking up all the odd new commands.”
“I don't need `.abstract`, the CSS will format the first paragraph as an abstract without me asking explicitly.”
“It's nice in that it extends markdown rather than reinventing a different syntax.”
“doesn't have the right evaluation model for the job”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.