README.md (2999B)
1 > I also make [Caret](https://caret.io?ref=parsedown) - a Markdown editor for Mac and PC. 2 3 ## Parsedown 4 5 [](https://travis-ci.org/erusev/parsedown) 6 <!--[](https://packagist.org/packages/erusev/parsedown)--> 7 8 Better Markdown Parser in PHP 9 10 [Demo](http://parsedown.org/demo) | 11 [Benchmarks](http://parsedown.org/speed) | 12 [Tests](http://parsedown.org/tests/) | 13 [Documentation](https://github.com/erusev/parsedown/wiki/) 14 15 ### Features 16 17 * One File 18 * No Dependencies 19 * Super Fast 20 * Extensible 21 * [GitHub flavored](https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown) 22 * Tested in 5.3 to 7.1 and in HHVM 23 * [Markdown Extra extension](https://github.com/erusev/parsedown-extra) 24 25 ### Installation 26 27 Include `Parsedown.php` or install [the composer package](https://packagist.org/packages/erusev/parsedown). 28 29 ### Example 30 31 ``` php 32 $Parsedown = new Parsedown(); 33 34 echo $Parsedown->text('Hello _Parsedown_!'); # prints: <p>Hello <em>Parsedown</em>!</p> 35 ``` 36 37 More examples in [the wiki](https://github.com/erusev/parsedown/wiki/) and in [this video tutorial](http://youtu.be/wYZBY8DEikI). 38 39 ### Security 40 41 Parsedown does not sanitize the HTML that it generates. When you deal with untrusted content (ex: user comments) you should also use a HTML sanitizer like [HTML Purifier](http://htmlpurifier.org/). 42 43 ### Questions 44 45 **How does Parsedown work?** 46 47 It tries to read Markdown like a human. First, it looks at the lines. It’s interested in how the lines start. This helps it recognise blocks. It knows, for example, that if a line starts with a `-` then perhaps it belongs to a list. Once it recognises the blocks, it continues to the content. As it reads, it watches out for special characters. This helps it recognise inline elements (or inlines). 48 49 We call this approach "line based". We believe that Parsedown is the first Markdown parser to use it. Since the release of Parsedown, other developers have used the same approach to develop other Markdown parsers in PHP and in other languages. 50 51 **Is it compliant with CommonMark?** 52 53 It passes most of the CommonMark tests. Most of the tests that don't pass deal with cases that are quite uncommon. Still, as CommonMark matures, compliance should improve. 54 55 **Who uses it?** 56 57 [phpDocumentor](http://www.phpdoc.org/), [October CMS](http://octobercms.com/), [Bolt CMS](http://bolt.cm/), [Kirby CMS](http://getkirby.com/), [Grav CMS](http://getgrav.org/), [Statamic CMS](http://www.statamic.com/), [Herbie CMS](http://www.getherbie.org/), [RaspberryPi.org](http://www.raspberrypi.org/), [Symfony demo](https://github.com/symfony/symfony-demo) and [more](https://packagist.org/packages/erusev/parsedown/dependents). 58 59 **How can I help?** 60 61 Use it, star it, share it and if you feel generous, [donate](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=528P3NZQMP8N2).