Lisible Download

Lisible

Read and edit Markdown on your Mac.

Open a file as a formatted page, edit it like a Word document, and follow links to other notes. Your changes are saved automatically.

Download Lisible 1.14

Free4.1 MBmacOS 14 or laterApple silicon

Signed and notarized by Apple
Lisible in Split view with the Sepia theme: the Markdown of a note on compound interest on the left, the finished page with its formula, table and Python code on the right. Lisible in Reading view: a Kitchen Garden note with its outline in the sidebar, a table of the four beds and a link to another note.
Lisible in 40 seconds. Reading, editing, and a link that opens its own window. Captions are on the video.

Open a file and start reading.

Headings, tables, images and links appear in a formatted page. An outline helps you move through longer documents.

Start here.md
A second brain you can read

A second brain is a collection of notes that helps you pick up where you left off. It can hold project decisions, useful references and the next action you want to take.

Give each note a home

This example uses IPCRA, a five-folder arrangement related to PARA. Here, ongoing areas of responsibility are called roles, and an inbox catches new material.

FolderWhat belongs hereExample
InboxNew material waiting to be sortedAn idea captured during a walk
ProjectsWork with an outcome and an endPublish a short guide
RolesResponsibilities you maintain over timeKeep household records up to date
The same note, as Lisible shows it and as it is saved.

Make a change where you’re reading.

Switch to Editing and type directly into the page. Use the Format menu for headings, bold text and lists.

Lisible saves a second after you stop typing. When another app changes the file, Lisible offers to reload it.

Editing Start here.md
Try this in Lisible
  1. Switch to Editing and change the sentence below.
  2. Pause for a moment to let Lisible save.

My next action is to choose one project and write down what done looks like.

Editing · 35 wordsSaved
MarkdownMy next action is to choose one project and write down what done looks like.

Eleven themes

Choose from eleven themes and adjust the text size, line spacing and page width.

ReadingCompound interest.md
Compound interest

Money left to grow earns interest on its interest. After n years at a yearly rate r, a deposit P becomes

A = P (1 + r)n

Ten years at 5%
YearBalance
01,000.00
11,050.00
51,276.28
101,628.89
The same in Python
def balance(principal, rate, years):
    return principal * (1 + rate) ** years

print(round(balance(1000, 0.05, 10), 2))  # 1628.89

The rate matters less than the time: start early and let the years do the work.

More features and exports

  • Four views

    Reading shows the finished page, Editing lets you type into it, Split puts the source next to the page, and Source is plain Markdown.

  • Tables, math and diagrams

    Tables, footnotes, task lists you can tick, highlighted code, LaTeX math and Mermaid diagrams all render.

  • Outline and find

    An outline of the headings, and find with ⌘F.

  • Export and print

    Export to paginated PDF in A4, Letter or A5, to standalone HTML, or to Word when pandoc is installed. Print with ⌘P.

  • Pasted images

    Paste an image in the source and Lisible saves it in a Captures folder next to the note, then links it.

  • Notes from Obsidian

    Lisible finds your vault from its .obsidian folder and resolves [[wikilinks]] by note name, the way Obsidian does.

    Obsidian details

  • Your files stay where they are

    Lisible opens a file in place and saves it in place. There’s no account and no analytics.

    Where files live

  • Signed updates

    Every update carries my signature, and Lisible won’t install one that doesn’t.

    How updates work

  • Changes from other apps

    When another app changes the file, Lisible offers to reload it.

Try it with a small second brain.

Two linked Markdown notes introduce Inbox, Projects, Roles, Resources and Archives. Open the first, edit a sentence and follow the link to a weekly review.

Download the sample notes Get Lisible for Mac

Unzip the folder, keep both notes together and open Start here.md in Lisible. The examples are fictional and yours to edit.

Why I built it

Claude, ChatGPT and opencode create about 150 Markdown files a week for me. Many link to other files. I wanted to open one, read it comfortably, follow a link and fix a sentence along the way.

I tried Typora, Zettlr, MarkEdit and Obsidian. Some felt too heavy for what I needed. Others were paid, or had me editing raw Markdown. I built Lisible for my own Mac and decided to share it.

Lisible is French for “readable”.

It’s a native Mac app: 4.1 MB to download and 11 MB installed. It opens and saves files where they are. It’s free, with no account, subscription or analytics.

Franck Debane

Installing Lisible

Lisible is signed and notarized by Apple, so macOS opens it like any other app.

  1. Move it to Applications

    Unzip the download, then drag Lisible into your Applications folder.

  2. Open it

    Double-click Lisible. macOS asks once whether to open an app downloaded from the internet: choose Open.

  3. Make it your Markdown app

    Optional: select a Markdown file in the Finder, choose File → Get Info, pick Lisible under Open with, then click Change All.

Keep it in Applications so it can update itself. If Chrome says the file isn’t commonly downloaded, choose Download suspicious file: the warning only means the file is new, and Lisible is notarized by Apple.

A few practical details

Compatibility, your files, updates and everything else.

Download details and file verification

Version 1.14, released October 9, 2026. What’s new

macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on a Mac with Apple silicon. Intel Macs aren’t supported.

Lisible-1.14.zip, 4.1 MB. Free, with no account or subscription.

SHA-256: 87950b1c8bdb64abda417de50a4aeef454506c767da3ad8dc514281b42ff13ae

To verify the download in Terminal:

shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Lisible-1.14.zip
Does it work with notes from Obsidian?

For reading and editing them, yes. Lisible finds your vault from its .obsidian folder and resolves [[wikilinks]] by note name, the way Obsidian does.

Embedded images (![[image.png]]) show up, and an embedded note (![[Note]]) shows as a link. It doesn’t replace Obsidian, though: there’s no file tree, no backlinks and no search across your notes.

How do updates work?

On its second launch, Lisible asks whether it may check for updates. If you say yes, it looks at debane.org once a day and offers to install a new version when there is one, then restarts.

Every update carries my signature, and Lisible won’t install one that doesn’t. It has to be in your Applications folder to update itself, so a copy opened straight from Downloads can’t. You can also check by hand from the Lisible menu. In Settings, under Updates, you can turn the daily check off or let updates install on their own.

Your files stay where they are

Lisible opens a file in place and saves it in place. There’s no account and no analytics.

The app itself talks to one server, debane.org, and only for updates. Anything else comes from your notes, such as images hosted on the web, and HTML exports load their math and code styles from a public CDN.

debane.org counts downloads and update checks per day, by version and country. It doesn’t keep IP addresses.

Make it your default Markdown app

Select a .md file in the Finder and choose File, then Get Info. Under Open with, pick Lisible and click Change All. It never takes over your files on its own.

Can I support Lisible?

If it saves you time, you can. You pick the amount on a Stripe payment page. A donation doesn’t unlock anything, and Lisible stays free for everyone.

Found a bug or have an idea?

Tell me what you were trying to do and what happened. For a bug, include your Lisible and macOS versions. If a sample file helps explain it, remove any private information first.

What is it about?

You can also write to lisible@debane.org.

What’s inside

Lisible renders Markdown with markdown-it and its plugins, KaTeX, Mermaid and highlight.js, and turns your edits back into Markdown with Turndown.

What’s new

Version 1.14

  • A new, simpler icon: the same hash sign, cleaner and easier to spot in the Dock, even at small sizes.
  • Lisible is now signed and notarized by Apple. New copies open with a double-click, without the Open Anyway step in System Settings.

Try it with one of your Markdown files.

Download Lisible 1.14

Free4.1 MBmacOS 14 or laterApple silicon

Version 1.14, released October 9, 2026. What’s new