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Comparison of document markup languages

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The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of document markup languages. Please see the individual markup languages' articles for further information.

General information

{{See also | Lightweight markup language }}

Basic general information about the markup languages: creator, version, etc.

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%; border: gray solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; width: 100%;"
style="background: #ececec"

! style="width:15em" | Language

! First public release date

! Creator

! Editor

! Viewer

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | AsciiDoc

| 2002

| Stuart Rackham

| Text editor

| Output to XHTML, HTML, DocBook (which can convert to PDF, EPUB, DVI, LaTeX, roff, and PostScript)

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Computable Document Format

| 2010

| Wolfram Research

| Wolfram Language & Mathematica

| CDF Player; CDF format can also be embedded in web pages viewable with conventional browsers.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Creole

| 2007

|

| Text editor

| Output to HTML, RTF, LaTeX, others; renderers for MFC, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

| 2005

| IBM, OASIS

| Text/XML editor

| Output to HTML, PDF, CHM, javadoc, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | DocBook

| 1992

| The Davenport Group, OASIS

| XML editor

| Output to HTML, PDF, CHM, javadoc, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

| 1998

| Berkeley Project

| Text editor

| Web browser

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)

| 2000 (January 26)

| W3C

| Text/XML editor, HTML editor

| Web browser

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | [https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/halibut/ Halibut]

| 1999

| Simon Tatham

| Text editor

| Output to ASCII text, HTML, PDF, PostScript, Unix man pages, GNU Info, Windows Help (.CHM files), Windows WinHelp (old .HLP files)

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

| 1993

| Tim Berners-Lee

| Text editor, HTML editor

| Web browser

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | LilyPond

| 1996

| Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen

| Text editor, Scorewriter

| Output to DVI, PDF, PostScript, PNG, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Maker Interchange Format (MIF)

| 1986

| Frame Technology acquired by Adobe Systems in 1995

| Text editor, FrameMaker

| FrameMaker

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | MakeDoc

| 2000

| Carl Sassenrath

| Text editor

| Web browser (XHTML or HTML output)

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Markdown

| 2004

| John Gruber

| Text editor, E-mail client

| Web browser (XHTML or HTML output), preview in gedit-markdown-plugin

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Math Markup Language (MathML)

| 1999 (July)

| W3C

| Text/XML editor, TeX converter

| Web browser, Word processor

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | The Music Encoding Initiative (MEI)

| 1999

| The MEI Community

| XML editor

| Verovio

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Music Extensible Markup Language (MusicXML)

| 2002

| Recordare

| Scorewriter

| Scorewriter

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | [https://mystmd.org/ MyST Markdown]

| 2019

| ExecutableBooks team

| Text editor

| Output to Word processor, LaTeX, PDF, Markdown.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Office Open XML (OOXML)

| 2006

| Ecma International, ISO/IEC

| Office suite

| Office suite

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | OpenDocument Format (ODF)

| 2005

| OASIS, ISO/IEC

| Office suite

| Office suite

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Open Mathematical Documents (OMDoc)

| 2000

| Michael Kohlhase

| Text/XML editorAn Emacs mode and a Mozilla extension are available.

| Output to XHTML+MathML, TeX, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Org-mode

| 2003

| Org-mode project

| Emacs, text editor

| Emacs. Output to HTML, PDF, DocBook, FreeMind, OpenDocument Format (ODF), others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | reStructuredText

| 2001{{cite web|url=http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html#history|title=An Introduction to reStructuredText|website=docutils.sourceforge.net|date=2 April 2022 }}

| David Goodger

| Text editor

| Output to HTML, LaTeX, PDF, Unix man pages, ODT, S5 (HTML Slide Shows), XML, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

| 2004

| W3C

| Vector graphics editor

| Web browser, etc.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Script
GML

| data-sort-value="1968" | 1968
1971

| IBM

| Text editor

| GDDM, AFP viewer

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | TeX
LaTeX

| data-sort-value="1978" | 1978
1984

| Donald Knuth
Leslie Lamport

| Text editor

| DVI or Portable Document Format (PDF) converter

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Texinfo

| 1986

| Richard Stallman

| Text editor

| output to DVI, Portable Document Format (PDF), HTML, DocBook, others.

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | TeXmacs format

| 1998

| Joris van der Hoeven

| Text editor/TeXmacs editor

| PDF or PostScript files. Converters exist for TeX/LaTeX and XHTML+Mathml

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Textile

| 2002{{cite web|url=http://textism.com/tools/textile/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021226035527/http://textism.com/tools/textile/|url-status=dead|archive-date=26 December 2002|title=Textism › Tools › Textile|date=26 December 2002}}

| Dean Allen

| Text editor

| Web browser (XHTML or HTML output), reference and tester (uses latest PHP-Textile version 3.5.5)

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

| 1990

| Text Encoding Initiative Consortium

| Text/XML editor

| Web Browser (using XHTML), PDF, Word Processor (using ODF) or EPUB

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | troff (typesetter runoff), groff (GNU runoff)

| 1973

| Joe Ossanna

| Text editor

| groffer, or output to PostScript

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Wireless Markup Language (WML)

| 1999

| WAP Forum

| Text/XML editor

| Mobile browser

style="background: #ececec" class="sortbottom"

! Language

! First public release date

! Creator

! Editor

! Viewer

Note: While Rich Text Format (RTF) is human readable, it is not considered to be a markup language and is thus excluded from the table.

Characteristics

Some characteristics of the markup languages.

{{Definition needed|What is the difference between control code and tag?|date=June 2020}}

class="wikitable sortable" style="font-size: 85%; border: gray solid 1px; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; width: 100%; table-layout: fixed;"
style="background: #ececec"

! style="width:15em;" | Language

! Major purpose

! Based on

! Markup type

! Structural markup

! Presentational markupMany markup languages have purposely avoided presentational markups. For markup languages based on SGML and XML, CSS is used as a presentation layer.

! Open format

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | AsciiDoc

| Multi-purpose

|

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Computable Document Format

| Interactive technical documents, infographics, blogs[http://www.wolfram.com/cdf/uses-examples/infographics.html Uses and Examples of the Computable Document Format (CDF)], Wolfram.com.

| Wolfram Language

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)

| Technical documents

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}Includes basic presentational content and SVG and MathML markup, officially supported in [http://docs.oasis-open.org/dita/dita/v1.3/dita-v1.3-part3-all-inclusive.html version 1.3]. In select XML editors and management systems, the images and content can be viewed as rendered, through CSS mostly.

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | DocBook

| Technical documents

| SGML / XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}Presentational content is supported through SVG and MathML markup. In select XML editors, the images can be viewed as rendered.

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Encoded Archival Description (EAD)

| Finding aids

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)

| Hypertext documents

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}Presentational markup is deprecated as of XHTML 1.0 and no longer allowed as of XHTML 1.1

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | FictionBook

| Multi-purpose

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | [https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/halibut/ Halibut]

| Technical documents

|

| Control code

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | HyperText Markup Language (HTML)

| Hypertext documents

| SGML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}Presentational markup is deprecated as of HTML 4.0

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Lilypond

| Music notation

|

| Control code

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Maker Interchange Format (MIF)

| Technical documents

|

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Markdown

| Formatted Technical documents, Hypertext documents, E-mail

| Text E-mail conventions

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Math Markup Language (MathML)

| Mathematical documents

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}MathML comes in two mark-up syntaxes: a semantic and a presentational.

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | The Music Encoding Initiative (MEI)

| Music notation

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Music Extensible Markup Language (MusicXML)

| Music notation

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Office Open XML (OOXML)

| Multi-purpose

| XML / ZIP

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | OpenDocument Format (ODF)

| Multi-purpose

| XML / ZIP

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Open Mathematical Document (OMDoc)

| Mathematical documents

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}uses Content MathML, OpenMath or other formats for formulae

| {{yes}}Exact presentation of symbols can be specified in OMDoc; these specifications are used when transforming OMDoc to a presentational format.

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Org-mode

| Multi-purpose (notes, project management, publishing, literate programming)

| Text outliner

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | reStructuredText

| Technical and Multi-purpose documents{{cite web|url=http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html#goals|title=An Introduction to reStructuredText|website=docutils.sourceforge.net|date=2 April 2022 }}

| Structured Text and Setext

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}uses CSS

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

| 2D Vector graphics

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Script
GML

| Multi-purpose

| RUNOFF

| Control code

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | TeX
LaTeX

| Academic documents
Multi-purposeWhile Donald Knuth wrote TeX for Academic publications and Leslie Lamport wrote LaTeX for similar purpose, packages are available from Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN) for nonacademic purposes, e.g., writing scripts.

|

| Control code

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Texinfo

| Technical documents

| TeX, Scribe

| Control code

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | TeXmacs format

| Academic documents

| tree

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Textile

| Hypertext documents

| AsciiDoc (based on some similarities and dates of release)

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

| Academic, linguistic, literary and technical documents

| SGML / XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{no}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | troff (typesetter runoff), groff (GNU runoff)

| Technical documents

| RUNOFF

| Control code

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="text-align:left; background: #ececec;" | Wireless Markup Language (WML)

| Hypertext documents

| XML

| Tag

| {{yes}}

| {{yes}}

|

style="background: #ececec" class="sortbottom"

! Language

! Major purpose

! Based on

! Markup type

! Structural markup

! Presentational markup

! Open format

Notes

{{reflist}}

See also

Document markup languages

*Comparison of document markup languages

{{HTML editors}}

{{Ebooks}}