ZIMD

A luxury local Markdown viewer for immersive reading.

Designed & developed by Zii.

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ZIMD is a calm, native desktop reader for your local Markdown library. It pairs a Nordic-minimal interface with careful reading typography: a comfortable measure, generous leading, a single restrained accent, and both a daylight and a nightfall theme.

Features

• Folder library — open any folder and browse its Markdown in a collapsible, filterable file tree (folders first, then files).
• Table of contents — auto-generated from headings, scroll-synced, click to jump.
• Rich rendering — syntax-highlighted code (theme-aware) with one-click copy, tables, task lists, KaTeX math, Mermaid diagrams (lazily loaded), and local images resolved relative to each document.
• In-app navigation — command palette (⌘K) for fuzzy file-jump and actions; relative .md links open inside the reader; in-document find (⌘F) with match cycling; per-file reading-position memory.
• Focus mode — dims everything but the passage at your reading line for distraction-free reading.
• Live reload — edit a file in any editor and ZIMD re-renders it instantly; the file tree updates as files are added or removed.
• Reading controls — adjustable text size, sans/serif toggle, light/dark theme, word-count & reading-time, and a slim reading-progress indicator.
• Multi-language UI — English, 繁體中文, 日本語, and Español, auto-detected from your system and switchable anytime from the command palette.
• Quiet by design — soft elevation, hairline borders, gentle motion, and a custom overlay title bar.

Tech

Tauri 2 (Rust) · Svelte 5 · Vite 6 · markdown-it · highlight.js · KaTeX · Mermaid.

Runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux. On macOS the native traffic-light controls sit over an overlay title bar; on Windows and Linux ZIMD draws its own minimal window controls (minimize / maximize / close). Typography and keyboard hints adapt to each platform automatically.

Prerequisites (all platforms)

• Rust (stable ≥ 1.87) via rustup.
• Node.js 18+ (20/22 recommended).

Plus the platform-specific system dependencies below.

macOS

xcode-select --install

Windows

• Microsoft C++ Build Tools (or Visual Studio 2022 with the “Desktop development with C++” workload).
• WebView2 Runtime — preinstalled on Windows 11; on Windows 10 install it from Microsoft’s Evergreen distributable.

Linux

Install the WebKitGTK and build dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu shown):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev build-essential curl wget file \
  libxdo-dev libssl-dev libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev

(For Fedora/Arch, install the equivalent webkit2gtk4.1, openssl, and librsvg2 development packages.)

Run in development

npm install
npm run tauri dev

The first launch compiles the Rust shell, so give it a moment. Subsequent launches are fast.

Try it immediately: once the window opens, click Open a folder and choose the included sample/ folder.

Languages

The interface ships in English, 繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese), 日本語 (Japanese), and Español. On first launch ZIMD matches your OS locale; you can switch anytime via the command palette (⌘K → "Language: …"). The choice is remembered.

To add a language:

1. Copy src/lib/i18n/en.ts to e.g. src/lib/i18n/fr.ts and translate every value (keep the keys identical).
2. Register it in src/lib/i18n/index.ts — add to locales and dictionaries, and (optionally) map it in detect().
3. npm test verifies your new locale defines exactly the English keys.

Testing

Frontend unit tests (Vitest) cover the pure logic — path resolution, the Markdown pipeline (TOC, mermaid routing, task lists, math, highlighting), and reading-position memory, and locale key parity:

npm test          # run once
npm run test:watch

Backend unit tests (Rust) cover the file-tree walker and Markdown detection:

cd src-tauri && cargo test

Build a release app

npm run tauri build

Installers are written to src-tauri/target/release/bundle/:

• macOS — .app and .dmg
• Windows — .msi (WiX) and .exe (NSIS)
• Linux — .deb, .rpm, and .AppImage

Each platform must be built on (or cross-compiled for) that platform.

Continuous integration & releases

• CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) runs on every push to main and every PR: frontend tests + type-check + build, and cargo test / cargo build on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

• Releases (.github/workflows/release.yml) trigger on a version tag and build installers for all three platforms into a draft GitHub Release:

  git tag v0.1.0
  git push origin v0.1.0

  Review the drafted release, then publish it.

Code signing (not yet configured)

Installers are currently unsigned, so macOS Gatekeeper and Windows SmartScreen will warn users on first launch. To ship signed builds, add the relevant secrets to the repository and the tauri-action step will use them:

• macOS: APPLE_CERTIFICATE, APPLE_CERTIFICATE_PASSWORD, APPLE_SIGNING_IDENTITY, APPLE_ID, APPLE_PASSWORD, APPLE_TEAM_ID (Developer ID certificate + notarization).
• Windows: a code-signing certificate configured via Tauri's bundle.windows.certificateThumbprint or a signing secret.

Until then, users can open the app via right-click → Open (macOS) or "More info → Run anyway" (Windows).

Regenerate the icon

The icon set lives in src-tauri/icons/. To regenerate from a 1024×1024 PNG:

npm run tauri icon path/to/icon.png

Project layout

ZIMD/
├── index.html
├── src/                      # Svelte frontend
│   ├── app.css               # Design tokens (light + dark)
│   ├── prose.css             # Reading typography
│   ├── hljs.css              # Theme-aware syntax palette
│   ├── App.svelte            # App shell, layout, shortcuts
│   └── lib/
│       ├── markdown.ts       # markdown-it + math + mermaid + TOC
│       ├── fs.ts             # Tauri bridge (dialog + file reads)
│       ├── stores.ts         # App state (persisted settings)
│       └── components/       # TitleBar, Sidebar, FileTree, TOC, Reader, Welcome
├── src-tauri/                # Rust backend
│   ├── src/lib.rs            # read_tree / read_file commands
│   ├── tauri.conf.json
│   └── capabilities/
└── sample/                   # A demo document to read

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
⌘O	Open folder
⌘K	Command palette
⌘F	Find in document
⇧⌘V	Paste content
⌘B	Toggle sidebar
⌘\	Toggle contents
⌘ + / ⌘ −	Adjust reading size
⌘0	Reset reading size

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_{Designed & developed by Zii · v0.1.0}