A gorgeous, native-feeling Markdown preview for VS Code. Aurora inherits your editor's theme, fonts, and accent color, then adds refined typography — with zero-setup Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX math, syntax highlighting, and export to HTML/PDF.
Open a Markdown file and run Aurora: Open Preview to the Side (
Ctrl/Cmd+K Shift+V), or click the preview icon in the editor title bar.
Install
- In VS Code: open Extensions (
Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+X), search “Aurora Preview”, and click Install. - From the Marketplace: marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=abhishekkumar2021.aurora-preview
- From the command line:
code --install-extension abhishekkumar2021.aurora-preview
Features
- Native theming — blends with your VS Code theme (background, foreground, link color, fonts) by default, so it never looks foreign.
- Themes & customization —
auto,terminal-glass, andsepiapresets, plus settings for accent, fonts, size, line height, and reading width. - Live preview — updates as you type, with bidirectional scroll-sync between editor and preview.
- Syntax highlighting — theme-aware code colors (light/dark) via highlight.js.
- Math — inline
$…$and block$$…$$rendered with KaTeX. - Diagrams — zero-setup Mermaid, themed from your accent; click any diagram to view it full-screen.
- GitHub-style callouts —
> [!NOTE],[!TIP],[!IMPORTANT],[!WARNING],[!CAUTION]. - Polished content — task lists, tables, footnotes, frontmatter cards, code copy buttons, and a click-to-zoom image lightbox.
- Export — self-contained HTML (CSS and fonts inlined) and PDF via the print dialog.
Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
Aurora: Open Preview to the Side |
Open the live preview beside the editor (Ctrl/Cmd+K Shift+V). |
Aurora: Export to HTML |
Save the current preview as a self-contained .html file. |
Aurora: Export to PDF (Print) |
Open the print dialog — choose “Save as PDF”. |
Settings
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
auroraPreview.theme |
auto |
auto (match VS Code), terminal-glass, or sepia. |
auroraPreview.accent |
"" |
Accent color (any CSS color). Empty uses your theme's link color. |
auroraPreview.fontFamily |
"" |
Reading font. Empty uses the VS Code UI font. |
auroraPreview.codeFontFamily |
"" |
Code font. Empty uses the VS Code editor font. |
auroraPreview.fontSize |
0 |
Reading font size in px (0 = default). |
auroraPreview.lineHeight |
0 |
Line height (0 = default). |
auroraPreview.contentWidth |
860 |
Maximum reading column width in px. |
Export notes
- HTML export is fully self-contained (styles and KaTeX fonts inlined), so it renders identically anywhere.
- PDF export uses the print dialog — pick “Save as PDF”. It exports what you see, so switch to the
sepiaor a light theme first if you prefer a light PDF.
Requirements
VS Code 1.90.0 or newer.
Contributing & issues
Issues and PRs welcome. See the repository for the feature showcase in examples/feature-showcase.md.