View markdown files offline

Question

Is there a way to display .md files offline so we know what it will look like once it's uploaded in Github? I'm referring to showing the README.md file as it would come out in Github, and not as for editing purposes.

Needs to work on Mac and Windows since I use both.

Answer 1

I wrote Grip a while ago to do exactly this. It renders exactly like it does on GitHub and provides several additional options too:

• In addition to READMEs, Grip can renders GitHub comments and issues
• Click through local links to render other .md files
• An API to use in your own projects
• Export to an HTML file

Install with pip:

pip install grip

Then go to the directory that contains your README file and run:

grip

Pass -h for additional help and options.

Here's a screenshot of Grip rendering Grip's README:

Check it out here.