Tonedown is a plain text markup language. You'll find it pleasant to read and write Tonedown, especially long-form prose like a wiki entry. The syntax should get out of your way and let you focus on the content of your writing.

It borrows most of its syntax from Markdown, and you should use the .md file extension so that your text editor will give you nice syntax highlighting.

It borrows from the philosophy of Gemtext that it should be easy to process with a small implementation.

A Brief but Tiresome Tour of Tonedown

Paragraphs

Each line of plain writing becomes its own paragraph.

It is late. The window is open.
A machine drones in the distance.

It can't even hold a steady pitch.

↓

<p>It is late. The window is open.</p>
<p>A machine drones in the distance.</p>
<p>It can't even hold a steady pitch.</p>

• Blank lines are ignored.
• It's recommended that you enable Soft Wrap in your editor.

Headings

Tonedown supports three levels of heading, colloquially named as follows.

# Major heading
## Minor heading
### Diminished heading

↓

<h1>Major heading</h1>
<h2>Minor heading</h2>
<h3>Diminished heading</h3>

Lists

Any line beginning with a - or a * will make a list.

- Do Make
- Say Think

↓

<ul>
  <li>Do Make</li>
  <li>Say Think</li>
</ul>

Code

Use a backtick ` to indicate code.

Does `5 x 3` count as code?

↓

Does <code>5 x 3</code> count as code?

You can also use three backticks to make a whole block of code.

```
Vibes.tighten()
```

↓

<pre><code>Vibes.tighten()</code></pre>

Quotes

Prepend each line with > to indicate a block quote.

> The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
> "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in
> this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

↓

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",

"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in

this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

Formatting

Surround a word with:

• * or _ for <em>, which is rendered as italic, or
• ** or __ for <strong>, rendered as bold.

Tonedown is *demure*, like **dirt under my pillow**.

↓

Tonedown is <em>demure</em>, like <strong>dirt under my pillow</strong>.

Links

Tonedown supports two kinds of link.

Use an internal link to link to another wiki page.

Be sure to check out the [[Tonedown]] documentation,
and the [[contributing guide|Contributing]]

↓

Be sure to check out the <a href="/tonedown">Tonedown</a> documentation,
and the <a href="/contributing">contributing guide</a>

Use an external link to link to another website.

The [Future of Coding](futureofcoding.org) community.

↓

The <a href="https://futureofcoding.org">Future of Coding</a> community.

HTML

You can use HTML anywhere.

I've got <span style="font-family: fantasy">weird</span> feelings.

<small>But I'm a good friend.</small>

↓

I've got weird feelings.