Obsidian strives for maximum capability without breaking any existing formats. As a result, we use a combination of flavors of [[Basic formatting syntax|Markdown]].
Obsidian supports [CommonMark](https://commonmark.org/), [GitHub Flavored Markdown](https://github.github.com/gfm/), and [LaTeX](https://www.latex-project.org/).
> [!tip]- Markdown inside HTML
> Obsidian does not render Markdown syntax inside HTML elements. This is an intentional design choice for performance optimization and to keep parser complexity low when managing large documents.
>
> For example, Markdown formatting like `**bold**` or `` `code` `` will not be processed inside `<div>`, `<span>`, `<table>`, or any other HTML tags.
>
> ```md
> <div>
> This **will not** be bold.
> </div>
> ```
### Supported Markdown extensions
| Syntax | Description |
| --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `[[Link]]` | [[Internal links]] |
| `![[Link]]` | [[Embed files]] |
| `![[Link#^id]]` | [[Internal links#Link to a block in a note\|Block references]] |
| `^id` | [[Internal links#Link to a block in a note\|Defining a block]] |
| `[^id]` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Footnotes\|Footnotes]] |
| `%%Text%%` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Comments\|Comments]] |
| `~~Text~~` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Bold, italics, highlights\|Strikethroughs]] |
| `==Text==` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Bold, italics, highlights\|Highlights]] |
| `` ``` `` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Code blocks\|Code blocks]] |
| `- [ ]` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Task lists\|Incomplete task]] |
| `- [x]` | [[Basic formatting syntax#Task lists\|Completed task]] |
| `> [!note]` | [[Callouts]] |
| (see link) | [[Advanced formatting syntax#Tables\|Tables]] |