Legible
A reader that makes Markdown legible.
No telemetry, ever. Legible sends nothing anywhere, has no account and needs no internet connection. Pictures from the internet are blocked until you allow them, and a document’s scripts never run.
What it is
Notes, reports, meeting minutes and documentation are more and more often written in Markdown, the plain-text format behind GitHub, Teams and many AI tools. Opened in Notepad, a Markdown file is a wall of hashes and asterisks. Opened in Legible, it reads like a document: clear type at a comfortable width, proper headings, tables, lists, code and diagrams, in light or dark as Windows is.
Double-click a .md file and it opens in its own window, at once. Copy it into an email, print it or save it as a PDF, and it still looks right. When it needs a change, edit it in the same window.
What it shows
- Everything GitHub shows: headings, lists, task lists, tables, links, footnotes, quotes, and alerts as coloured boxes
- Code with its colours and a Copy button, and Mermaid diagrams drawn in light and dark
- The details at the top of many notes (front matter) as a neat table you can fold away
- An outline of the headings, find, zoom, three reading widths and Sans or Serif type
- A file that changes while it’s open shows its new version, keeping your place
Copy, print, save as PDF, or edit
- Copy into Outlook, Word or OneNote and it keeps its headings, lists, tables, code, links and pictures; diagrams come as pictures.
- Print or save as PDF in the light theme, with tables, code and diagrams never split across pages.
- View, Split and Edit in the same window. Save writes the file in its own encoding and line endings, and a file changed on disk while you edit is never overwritten: Legible asks.
Ways to get it
Every release on GitHub has these downloads.
| Download | What it is |
|---|---|
legible-<version>-x64.msi | The one most people want. Installs for you alone, with no admin rights, and adds Legible to the Start menu and to the apps that can open Markdown files. |
legible-<version>-portable.zip | Unzip it anywhere, such as a USB stick, and run legible.exe: it changes nothing on the PC unless you ask. |
SHA256SUMS.txt | Each download’s SHA-256, to check it before you run it. |
With Hive Desktop
Hive Desktop’s agents write Markdown: plans, shared notes and handovers. Legible is how you read them outside Hive, or send one on by email.
Before you use it
- Microsoft Edge WebView2 shows the documents. It’s part of Windows 10 and 11; if a PC doesn’t have it, Legible says so and offers Microsoft’s download page.
- Not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may warn about the downloads: check each against
SHA256SUMS.txt, then choose More info → Run anyway.
Open source
Legible is free and open source under the MIT License.
© 2026 Darren Marshall. Legible is independently developed and isn’t affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by Microsoft. Microsoft, Windows, Outlook, Word and OneNote are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.