FrankenMarkdown: zero-dependency Rust engine renders Markdown to self-contained HTML/PDF via WASM
doodlestein · x · 2026-08-31
The author announced a webapp version of FrankenMarkdown (the native app is awaiting Apple review; all 9 planned FrankenApps will target iPhone/iPad/Mac), already quite usable on iPad.
Engine highlights:
- A single zero-dependency Rust core: clean-room parser, LaTeX-grade typesetting, and a hand-rolled PDF writer.
- Turns arbitrary GitHub Flavored Markdown (including LaTeX, Mermaid, code) into polished self-contained HTML, compact tagged PDF, SVG, and more.
- Runs in-browser via WASM (1.8MB gz payload including fonts and the PDF writer); native and WASM outputs are byte-for-byte identical, gated in CI.
- CommonMark conformance floor at 379 specs, only allowed to rise.
- Serverless sharing: documents are deflate-compressed, base64url-encoded into the URL fragment — "the document is the link", nothing uploaded or stored.
Related event: FrankenMarkdown Turns Markdown Into Self-Contained PDF and HTML(2 posts)→
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