Release notes

The main updates to markdown.bz that affect creating, viewing and managing shares, listed newest first.

October 20, 2026

Fixed an issue where Japanese folder and file names in a ZIP created with Compress on a Mac were garbled, so the images in the content could not be found. Also fixed an issue where a ZIP created on Japanese Windows was rejected when a file name contained characters such as 表 or ソ.
Fixed an issue where photos added in Safari, including on iPhone, were converted to large PNG files, which lowered their resolution considerably or made them fail with “The image still exceeds the size limit after compression.” Where WebP is not available, photos are now converted to JPEG.
Fixed an issue where the images in the content could not be found when you dropped a whole folder.
Fixed an issue where writing code wrapped in three backticks at the start of a line (such as ```npm i``` to install) left every image after it out of the share, so those images were missing after publishing.
Fixed an issue where clicking “Upload another file” after publishing left the completion screen as it was.
Fixed an issue where opening a link to a heading (a URL with #) jumped back to the top of the page. Links shared from a heading’s # on a shared page now show that section.
Fixed an issue where Mermaid diagrams were redrawn, shifting the layout, and tables and code you had scrolled sideways jumped back to the left, every time you read past a heading on a shared page or typed in the preview before publishing.
Fixed an issue where clicking ↩ in a footnote did not take you back to where the footnote is referenced.
Fixed an issue where headings containing _ (such as get_user_by_id), images or internal links appeared garbled in the table of contents, and clicking them did nothing.
Fixed an issue where an image opened from a link (such as [description](image.png) or a thumbnail linking to the full-size image) did not appear when clicked 10 minutes or more after opening the shared page.
Formulas that define macros (such as \def or \newcommand) can take too long to render, so they are now shown as TeX instead of being rendered.
Fixed an issue where a share with many images could no longer be downloaded as a ZIP after you added text to its content.
Opening a page that does not exist now shows a notice with the site header and footer, so you can move to other pages.
When a share cannot be shown because of a temporary problem, the page now asks you to reload later instead of saying that the share could not be found.
The fields of the report form and the publishing settings now have names that screen readers announce.

October 19, 2026

Reorganized the links at the bottom of each page into Product, Guides and Legal, and added links to Upload and My shares. The language switch now shows which language is currently displayed.
Fixed an issue where clicking a relative link in the content (such as [steps](docs/guide.md)) took you to a page on this site that usually does not exist. Such links are now shown as marked text, since they cannot be opened on a shared page. Links to other websites, links within the page and links to images included in the share still open as before.
Fixed an issue where images written with an absolute path on your computer (such as /Users/…/figure.png), or written with a folder (images/figure.png) when you added the images one by one, could not be found and were not shown. If exactly one of the added images has the same file name, that image is used.

October 18, 2026

Redesigned four of the design templates: Magazine, Academic, Notebook and Pop. They rely on type, spacing and rules instead of decoration, so they are easier to read. See how they look in Rendering examples.
Shares created with the previous designs keep their current look. When you update the content, the share switches to the new design, and the edit screen tells you beforehand.
Fixed an issue where tables in the preview, both before publishing and on the edit screen, were shown in the Standard style instead of the chosen template.
Links to an image in the content ([caption](images/figure.png) or Obsidian’s [[figure.png]]) now open the image in an enlarged view instead of being links that cannot be opened. Images that are only linked are also included in the share when you add them.
Fixed an issue where images in a ZIP made by compressing a whole folder (such as guide/README.md and guide/images/) could not be found and were not shown.
Fixed an issue where images with parentheses in their file names (such as screen(1).png) were not included in the share and were not shown.
Fixed an issue where writing the closing ::: right after a list or quote, without a blank line, left every box in the document (such as :::info or :::message) unconverted and shown as plain markers. Other boxes are now shown even if one box is left unclosed.
Fixed an issue on narrow smartphones where the header stuck out past the right edge of the screen and the whole page shifted sideways.

October 10, 2026

Images on shared pages now appear faster. All images start loading as soon as the page opens, so they no longer show up late as you scroll.
Shared pages are now easier to read as Japanese text. On desktop, the body text is about 47 Japanese characters per line, the text is one size larger (16px to 17px in the Standard template), and line and letter spacing are slightly wider.
Contents now highlights the heading you are currently reading. Heading levels are also easier to tell apart.
Fixed an issue where text inside boxes in Mermaid diagrams was cut off.
The two bars at the top of shared pages are now combined into one. Contents, Raw Markdown and Download are in the header, the expiry and Updates & history are below the title, and “Report this page” is at the end of the content.
Properties now start collapsed, showing only the number of items, and open when you click them.
Updated the site icon (favicon).
Added an English version. If your browser’s language is not Japanese, the site is shown in English. You can switch at any time with “日本語 / English” in the footer. The content of shared pages is shown in the language its author wrote it in.
Error descriptions from the publishing API (message), and error messages when fetching raw Markdown or downloading, are returned in English when the first preference in Accept-Language is not Japanese (Japanese if the header is not sent). The code values that identify each error are unchanged.

October 8, 2026

New features

Design templates: Right above the pre-publish preview, you can now choose from 7 designs for your shared page (Standard, Business, Magazine, Academic, Technical, Notebook and Pop). Not just the colors but the typeface and the style of headings, tables and callouts all change, and the preview updates as soon as you pick one. You can also set it with theme in the publishing API. See how they look in Rendering examples.
Obsidian callouts: Titles written after the marker, as in > [!note] Title, types that GitHub does not have, such as [!abstract], [!question] and [!bug], and collapsible callouts marked with - or + are now displayed.
Zenn, Qiita and Docusaurus boxes: :::message, :::details, :::note warn, :::tip Title and similar are displayed as colored boxes or collapsible blocks.
Obsidian internal links, image embeds and highlights: [[#Heading|Display name]] is displayed as a link to a heading on the page, ![[image.png]] as an image, and ==text== as a highlight. Internal links and tags in Properties are also easier to read.
Image captions and code file names: An italic paragraph right after an image is shown below the image as its caption, and file names such as ```ts:app.ts are shown as the code block’s header. Code can be copied with a button, and headings now have a link to their section.

Improvements

Refreshed the look of the body text on shared pages. Heading sizes and dividers now make the hierarchy clear, and tables, checklists, quotes, footnotes, horizontal rules and more have new styling. A closing “— speaker” line in a quote is shown right-aligned as its source.
Fixed an issue where badges and other images placed inline in text were stacked vertically, one per line.

October 1, 2026

Fixed an issue when editing in My shares where, after pressing the update button, you could not see the result or tell whether the update had gone through. The button now shows when it is sending and when it is done, and the new version number with links to the shared page and the changes, or the reason for a failure, appears right above the button.

September 30, 2026

Content editor: When you enter content on the Upload page or edit it in My shares, the editor now shows your text close to how it will look once published, as you write (headings, bold, links, bulleted lists, checklists, quotes and callouts, tables, code, images, math, Mermaid diagrams and Properties; the line with the cursor stays as plain Markdown). Switch to “Preview” to see exactly how it will look once published. In bulleted lists and checklists, pressing Enter adds the marker on the next line automatically, and you can click a checkbox to toggle it.
Fixed an issue where a “Syntax error” diagram appeared at the bottom of the page for shares with a mistake in a Mermaid diagram.

September 23, 2026

New features

Updating content after publishing: From My shares, you can now update the content and title while keeping the same URL. Once updated, the shared page shows an “Updates & history” link, and anyone who knows the URL can see the differences before and after each update. If there is content you want removed, delete the share instead of updating it.
Slide view: Write type: slide in the frontmatter at the top, and the content is split at lines containing only --- and shown one slide at a time (the same syntax as HackMD). Move between slides with the arrow keys or by swiping, and view them full screen in supported browsers.
GitHub callout blocks: Quotes that start with > [!NOTE], [!TIP], [!IMPORTANT], [!WARNING] or [!CAUTION] are displayed with the same colors and titles as on GitHub.
HackMD syntax: Colored boxes such as :::info and :::spoiler collapsible blocks are displayed. [TOC] is removed from the body, since you can navigate the headings from the Contents menu on the viewing page.
My shares: Added a page where you can list and delete the shares you have created. No sign-in is needed; your shares are remembered in the browser you created them in.
Sign in with Google: Once you sign in, you can list and delete your shares from other devices too. Shares you created in this browser before signing in can also be added to your account.
Deleting shares created with the API: Shares created with the publishing API can now be deleted with the deletion token returned when they are created (API docs).

Security

Tightened the limit on password attempts for password-protected shares.
Strengthened the protection of the unlocked state after the password is entered on password-protected shares.
Link preview images for shares are no longer cached for long periods, so old images are less likely to linger after a share is deleted or expires.

September 2, 2026

Line breaks in pasted text are now displayed as line breaks (similar to how answers look in ChatGPT and similar tools).
Made heading sizes and list markers in the body easier to tell apart.
Fixed an issue where the pre-publish preview overflowed horizontally on smartphones.

August 21, 2026

Increased the number of images a single share can contain from 30 to 200.
Added a light shadow to images so that even those with a white background stand apart from the body text.
Made the fixed bar at the top of shared pages match the look of the header.

August 11, 2026

YAML frontmatter, such as Obsidian properties, is now neatly displayed as “Properties” instead of as a horizontal rule and body text. If you do not enter a title, the title property is used first.

August 3, 2026

You can now get the raw Markdown by adding /raw to the end of a share URL or by opening it with Accept: text/markdown. This is handy for passing the original text to AI tools and the like.
Search engine indexing can now be chosen for each share. By default, shares do not appear in search results (password-protected shares cannot be indexed).
Fixed an issue where external images (HTTPS) in Markdown were not displayed.
Fixed an issue where link previews on social media and in chat apps sometimes did not show each share’s title and other details. For shares without a password, the first image in the body is used as the preview image.
Shares with no expiry no longer show an unnecessary expiry notice.
For Markdown without images, the image check is skipped so you can go straight to the publish settings.
Changed the creation limit of the publishing API to 600 per minute from the same source.

August 2, 2026

Added “No expiry” as an expiry option and made it the default. You can also choose 3, 7, 30, 60 or 100 days.

August 1, 2026

Added a publishing API that publishes Markdown content with a single POST and returns the finished share URL (API docs).
Shared pages and link preview images now load faster.

July 30, 2026

Fixed an issue where moving to another page kept the scroll position of the previous page.
The Upload page no longer shows unneeded image controls for documents without images.

July 8, 2026

You can now keep editing pasted content until you publish.
You can now publish even if referenced images cannot be found. A placeholder showing that the image is missing appears where it would have been.
When the title is filled in from the file name, the file name is now used as is, including extensions such as .md.
Shares without a table of contents now display the body at the full width of the screen.
Tidied up the layout of the Upload page and the page shown after a share is created.