source: simon willison: markdown-svg-renderer
level: technical
simon willison released a tool called markdown-svg-renderer. it lets users view and render formatted markdown content with a live preview. you can paste markdown directly or load it from a raw url or github gist. the tool supports standard markdown formatting, tables, and code blocks. it also has interactive svg previews with a tabbed display. you can toggle between an editor and a full-screen viewer mode to focus on the rendered output.
the tool is slightly customized for markdown rendering. it gives special treatment to fenced code blocks that contain svg. it renders the svg image and provides a tab to switch to the code view. this makes it easy to see both the visual output and the underlying code. the tool works with cors-enabled markdown files or gists. an example shows it loading a markdown file full of llm pelican logs for opus 4.8.
the tool is useful for anyone working with markdown that includes svg graphics. it simplifies the process of previewing and editing such documents. the tabbed interface keeps the code accessible without cluttering the view. it can be used for documentation, bug reports, or sharing llm output. the live preview helps catch formatting errors quickly.
why it matters: it helps data scientists and developers quickly preview markdown with embedded svg, useful for sharing llm outputs or technical documentation.