What changed

Lede looks at home on macOS Tahoe: a system toolbar, a system popover, a tidier View menu and grouped Settings.

Added

• On macOS 26 the window has a real toolbar with the file's name, Write and Read as a system segmented control (Source joins it while you are in Source), and the Focus button.
• The page popover is a system popover that follows the page, light or dark.
• The View menu keeps what you use while writing at the top and gathers the set-once options in a new Writing Options submenu, with symbols beside the items.
• The slash menu groups its commands until you type, Jump to Heading highlights what you typed, and the welcome window has rounder buttons and grouped recents and tips.
• Settings uses grouped rows and standard steppers.

Fixed

• Every shortcut, setting and file works exactly as before; on macOS 14 and 15 the window keeps its current look.

Your edits are kept when another app changes the file, optional vim keys, and Book Paragraphs.

Added

• When another app changes the file you have open, Lede keeps your version in a copy beside the document instead of showing the could-not-be-autosaved sheet; Show Other Version in the warning bar reveals the copy.
• Optional vim key bindings (Settings > General > Keyboard, off by default): normal, insert and visual modes, operators, counts and dot repeat, with the mode in the status bar.
• View > Book Paragraphs (off by default) indents the first line of prose, closes up blank lines and centres scene breaks, without changing the file.
• Caret blink choices (Standard, Off, Smooth) and footnote text on hover.

Fixed

• Hidden Markdown marks are no longer read aloud by VoiceOver, word counts skip symbols and list numbers, and dimming is stronger when Increase Contrast is on.

A Focus view, fold a heading's section, a reading time in the status bar, footnotes and paired marks, and UTF-16 files open.

Added

• Shift-Command-F opens a Focus view: the title bar, status bar and formatting bar leave, one bar keeps the word count and text settings, the window closes in to the width of the text, and Esc brings everything back. The old Focus switch is now Dim Other Sentences.
• Fold Section, Unfold Section and Unfold All in the View menu (Option-Command-[ and Option-Command-]) hide the text under a heading. Folding changes only what is shown; the file is never touched.
• The status bar says how long the document takes to read, at a speed you set in Settings > Appearance, and counts only the selected text while something is selected.
• Control-Command-N turns the caret position into a footnote reference and takes you to its definition at the end of the document, and back.
• Lede can pair marks and brackets as you type and step over the closer. It is on by default, with a switch in Settings > Writing.

Fixed

• Markdown files saved as UTF-16 now open, and are saved back in the same encoding.

Links and pictures beside your document work in the App Store version, and type goes up to 32 points.

Added

• When a document links to a file in its folder, or shows a picture saved next to it, Lede asks once for access to that folder and remembers it. A picture Lede may not show yet says so and offers the same one-click permission.
• The writing type size now runs from 13 to 32 points, with 22, 24, 28 and 32 added for high-resolution displays.

Fixed

• Relative links that did nothing and pictures that showed only a placeholder in the App Store version, although the files were there.

Reference documents read properly, headings keep their proportions, and Focus view clears the window.

Added

• Relative Markdown links such as ./introduction.md open against the folder of the document you are reading. Empty HTML anchors stay out of sight and still work, indented indexes keep their levels, and an HTML details block becomes a native fold.
• Smart quotes and dashes are a setting (Settings > Writing), and Format > Hard Wrap Paragraph at 80 Columns wraps an ordinary paragraph without touching code, tables, lists or link addresses.
• Focus view hides Lede's own controls as well as dimming every sentence but yours.
• Headings keep the same proportions to your text size in Write and Read, with real space above them, and Read gives paragraphs and lists more room.
• Settings is regrouped: Page and Typography on Appearance, and a General tab for new documents, what an empty launch does and the command line.

Fixed

• The welcome screen's tips describe what is on by default and name the key for Read.
• Large Markdown files avoid syntax work they do not need, so they open and scroll more easily.

Writing aids explain themselves.

Added

• Hover a marked passage for an immediate explanation, and use the visible key in Settings to understand every colour.
• Fresh installs use Duo for writing, Serif for reading, and a bold caret whose colour follows the page.

Fixed

• Right-click actions now appear reliably, so a mark can be replaced, ignored here, always ignored or turned off.
• Sentence-rhythm marks now offer to turn off Sentence Rhythm instead of the unrelated Long Sentences check.
• Existing font and caret choices remain unchanged when updating.

A fuller editor, a clearer start, and safer local files.

Added

• Writing aids, Find and Replace, six heading levels and formatting controls that show on, mixed and off.
• Paste a rectangle from Numbers or Excel as a table, then move rows and columns without rewriting it by hand.
• The welcome screen now introduces Write, Read and Settings while keeping New Document, Open and recent files one click away.
• More Mermaid diagrams are drawn, including class, entity-relationship, Gantt, git graph, mind map, timeline and journey diagrams.

Fixed

• Local heading links and standalone HTML anchors reach the intended section in Read.
• Reading selections survive appearance changes, and formatting commands remain reachable in narrow windows.
• External edits, renamed documents, Unicode text, special attachment names and CRLF line endings are preserved more carefully.

Diagrams, Quick Look, an outline, and a file that follows its AI.

Added

• Mermaid diagrams are drawn in Read and in PDF and HTML exports: flowcharts, sequence, state and pie charts, with no web view.
• Press Space on any Markdown file in Finder to preview it on Lede's page.
• View > Outline (Shift-Command-O) jumps to any heading.
• Edit > Copy as Rich Text pastes formatted into Mail or Docs; Paste as Markdown turns a copied web page or doc into Markdown.
• Front matter shows small and grey in Write and as a small box in Read, instead of as a heading.
• A file that grows on disk, such as a log or a report an AI tool is writing, stays scrolled to its end.
• Tables can align columns, and Chinese, Japanese and emoji line up.

Fixed

• Reloading a file changed by another app no longer ends in a question about saving.
• After a reload, Write keeps its formatting instead of showing raw Markdown.
• Typing in large files is much faster.

Writing is calmer: a gliding typewriter, sentence focus, and a caret of your own.

Added

• Typewriter mode glides the page under a still line instead of jumping.
• Focus dims everything but the sentence you are writing, and eases across as you move on.
• The caret can be a line, a block or an underline, in three thicknesses and five colours picked for each page.
• Duo, a duospace font made for drafts, for writing, and Charter for reading.
• Click Untitled in the title bar to name a new document and save it; new documents save as Markdown or plain text.
• Settings rebuilt with a live preview of your page.

The Write/Read switch stays visible with window tabs.

Fixed

• The Write/Read switch no longer hides under the tab bar when you use window tabs. Mac App Store only; the 1.0.6 disk image includes it.

Smoother switching, better links, and a more reliable window.

Added

• A smooth sliding animation when switching between Write and Read, with support for Reduce Motion.

Fixed

• Addresses a window-update issue behind a reported macOS 27 crash.
• Links in Read mode open more reliably, including links within the document.
• Find stays within the active document, and page settings and mode controls have clearer accessibility labels.

The slash menu takes the mouse, and the heading you are in has a name.

Added

• Command-1, Command-2 and Command-3 go to Write, Read and Source from wherever you are. Shift-Command-S and Shift-Command-R still toggle, but they relabel themselves depending on the mode you are in, so there was no key that always meant Write.
• The status bar names the block your cursor is in, so a heading says whether it is a Heading 1 or a Heading 3. Write mode hides the markers, which is the point of it, and took the only signal of the level with it. Ordinary prose says nothing.

Fixed

• The slash menu can be clicked. Its rows were keyboard-only, so a command you could see was one you could not press; the whole row is now a target, hovering moves the highlight, and a click runs exactly what Return would have run.
• The warning that a file changed under you looks like something you can act on. Reload and Keep mine were two words in link blue on a band with no background; they are buttons now, on the caution colour, drawn to the spec.

Export, print, tables, pictures and maths, plus a Settings window with six faces.

Added

• Export as PDF and as HTML, and Print on Command-P. The PDF is drawn with the system's own text engine; the HTML is one file in the colours of your page with every picture and equation embedded, so it can be sent anywhere and fetches nothing.
• Tables behave. Inside a table, Tab moves to the next cell, Shift-Tab goes back and Return adds a row; Format Table lines the pipes up, and rows and columns come and go from the Format menu.
• Pictures, pasted or dropped. A screenshot or a file lands beside the document in a folder named after it, with a relative link written into the text. Nothing is overwritten and nothing is deleted.
• Maths. LaTeX between dollar signs is drawn in Read mode and in both exports, inline or on its own line. A price is still a price.
• Focus and Typewriter modes, both in the View menu and both off by default. Focus dims everything but the paragraph you are in, in the page's own grey.
• A formatting bar, off by default, that lights the block your cursor is in and fades with the rest of the chrome while you type.
• Command-B and Command-I toggle bold and italic, and know that one asterisk is a prefix of two.
• Settings, on Command-comma: the system appearance, a face to write in and a face to read in from six that are already on your Mac, the chrome, the line numbers, and what an empty launch does.
• A welcome screen. Launch Lede with nothing to open and it offers a new document, the Open panel and the last five files, on your page colour, and it grows into the document you choose rather than being replaced by it. If you would rather land on a blank page or straight in the panel, that is a setting.
• Links in Read mode show a pointing hand across their whole width, and a click opens them.
• Write to Read dissolves rather than cuts, and so does one page colour into the next. Nothing moves while it happens, and Reduce Motion turns it off.

Fixed

• A screenshot thumbnail dropped on the page is filed like any other picture. It used to arrive as an invisible placeholder character that was then written into the file.
• The Black page no longer lags. Scrolling, clicks and even keyboard shortcuts on Black landed a second or more late while the other three pages were instant. The window was being pinned to a dark appearance while the Mac was in Light mode; the appearance now lives on the content instead, and Black is as quick as the rest.
• The Open panel that greets an empty launch no longer holds the whole app: it used to be modal, so a document opened behind it could not be scrolled or clicked until the panel was dismissed.

A front door, and a file that changes without a whisper.

Fixed

• Launching Lede with nothing to open now opens the Open panel rather than nothing at all.
• A file edited elsewhere while it is open in Lede is picked up quietly when there is nothing unsaved, and asked about when there is.

One file, one window, and a page worth looking at.