ABOUT MARKTXT

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marktxt is a plain-text markup language that replaces both markdown and html.

the problem

markdown has traps:

• _underscores_ trigger italic — your file_path_name breaks
• **double stars** trigger bold — shell globs break
• # triggers headings — code comments break
• > triggers blockquote — shell redirects break
• --- triggers horizontal rules — visual separators break

html is unreadable:

tag soup. open tags, close tags, matching names, entity escaping. unreadable in plain text.

the solution

marktxt uses ; as the only trigger. plain text stays plain.

• one trigger character: ;
• three closers: ;. (inline) ;| (block) ;" (attribute)
• no traps — formatting is opt-in, always
• readable rendered AND unrendered
• partial adoption — start with headings + bullets, add more when needed

adoption levels

L1 — structure only

just headings + bullets + plain text. enough for most docs.

L2 — add code

inline code and code blocks. good for technical docs.

L3 — add rich text

bold, italic, blockquotes, checkboxes.

L4 — add media and links

urls, linked text, images, tables, dividers.

L5 — extended

div, span, strikethrough, superscript, subscript, footnotes.
beyond L5: full mtml (elements, attributes, html replacement).

the engine

mt.php is a single-file PHP parser that converts .mt and .txt files to valid HTML.

• drop mt.php + .htaccess on shared hosting
• write your pages as .mt or .txt files
• clean urls: example.com/about serves about.mt (or about.txt if no .mt exists)
• .mt takes priority — if both exist, .txt is ignored
• built-in dark mode (follows system preference)
• zero dependencies

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