---
title: Documentation
in_menu: true
sort_info: 7
---
## Overview

kramdown is first and foremost a library for converting text written in a superset of Markdown to
HTML. However, due to its modular architecture it is able to support additional input and output
formats. The following input and output formats are currently supported:

* Input: [kramdown](parser/kramdown.html) (a superset of Markdown),
  [Markdown](parser/markdown.html), [HTML](parser/html.html)

* Output: [HTML](converter/html.html), [LaTeX](converter/latex.html),
  [kramdown](converter/kramdown.html), [RemoveHtmlTags](converter/remove_html_tags.html) (a special
  converter which removes HTML tags, normally used in conjunction with the LaTeX or kramdown
  converters)

The [kramdown syntax page](syntax.html) describes in detail what is supported and how it differs
from standard Markdown.

## Usage

{:ruby: .language-ruby}

The kramdown package provides two ways for using it:

* **As a library**

  kramdown uses basically the same API as [RedCloth], [BlueCloth] and [Maruku]:

      require 'kramdown'

      puts Kramdown::Document.new(text).to_html
  {:ruby}

  The second parameter to the `new` call is an options hash for (de)activating certain features. For
  example, to disable automatic header ID generation, you can do the following:

      puts Kramdown::Document.new(text, :auto_ids => false).to_html
  {:ruby}

  The default parser used is `kramdown`, however, you can select a different one with the `:input`
  option:

      puts Kramdown::Document.new(text, :input => 'html').to_latex
  {:ruby}

  You can also reuse the created document object to produce multiple outputs:

      doc = Kramdown::Document.new(text, :input => 'html')
      puts doc.to_html
      puts doc.to_latex
  {:ruby}

  More information on how to use or extend kramdown can be found in the [API
  documentation](rdoc/index.html)!

* **As an application**

  Together with the library files a binary called `kramdown` is shipped which can be used to convert
  text in any supported input format to any supported output format. It either reads from the files
  specified as the command line arguments or from the standard input. For example:

      kramdown path/to/kramdown/doc/syntax.page

  The input and output formats as well as all available kramdown options are supported through
  command line switches.


## Tests

kramdown uses various test suites to verify the correct working of the parsers and converters. For
more information, have a look at the [tests document](tests.html).


{include_file: doc/links.markdown}
