Launched this week
Glance
Preview .md files instantly with quick look
73 followers
Preview .md files instantly with quick look
73 followers
Glance is a fully free native macOS Quick Look extension for Markdown files. Press Space on anymd file in Finder and get an instant, cleanly rendered preview instead of raw syntax. Built for developers working with README files, CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, specs, notes, and AI-generated docs. Supports tables, code blocks, links, images, LaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams, and smart zoom. Works fully offline, weighs only 8.3 MB, and has zero telemetry.
Glance
Hey Product Hunt!
I built Glance after getting tired of opening editors just to read Markdown files.
Markdown is everywhere now: README.md, CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, specs, notes, and AI-generated docs from Claude Code or Codex. But in Finder, .md files are still awkward to preview. You either see raw syntax or need to open Cursor, VS Code, or TextEdit just to read the file properly.
Glance fixes this with a native macOS Quick Look extension.
Press Space on any .md file and get an instant, cleanly rendered preview with clean typography, tables, code blocks, links, images, blockquotes, LaTeX math, and Mermaid diagrams.
It is fully free, works offline, weighs only 8.3 MB, and has zero telemetry.
What features would you like to see next?
This is going to live in my workflow. Quick Look extension is the right surface. Most markdown viewers overshoot by being full apps. Mermaid + LaTeX in 8MB is impressive; lightweight previewers usually strip both. Curious how you're handling the Mermaid rendering at that size.
Glance
@naor_sabag Thanks!
A big part of the size reduction came from removing the entire web stack. I switched Mermaid to BeautifulMermaid, a native Swift port, which let me drop WebView, JavaScript rendering, and several heavy JS dependencies entirely. I also unified the code between the app and the Quick Look extension instead of shipping duplicate copies.
Glance pre-renders every Mermaid diagram and LaTeX equation as soon as a file opens, so the layout is known before the page paints. That avoids layout shifts, flashing, and unnecessary re-renders, making scrolling and zooming feel much smoother.
HasData
Honestly surprised macOS doesn't ship this natively at this point. Opening Cursor or VS Code just to read a README is a small friction I hit ten times a day. Thanks for the product!