Markdown is a widely used lightweight markup language for creating formatted text. While it’s designed to be readable in its raw form, sometimes you need more control over formatting, specifically how line breaks are handled. This tutorial explains how to create line breaks in Markdown.
Understanding Markdown’s Approach to Line Breaks
By default, Markdown treats multiple consecutive lines as a single paragraph. A single newline character in your Markdown source file won’t typically result in a line break in the rendered output. This is intentional, making Markdown files cleaner and more readable.
Methods for Creating Line Breaks
Here are the common ways to insert line breaks in Markdown:
1. Two or More Spaces at the End of a Line
The most portable and widely supported method is to end a line with two or more spaces, followed by a newline. This signals Markdown to insert a <br> (HTML line break) tag.
This is the first line.
This is the second line.
Renders as:
This is the first line.
This is the second line.
2. The Backslash Character
You can use a backslash (\) at the end of a line to force a line break. This is often convenient for shorter lines.
First Line sentence \
Second Line sentence
Renders as:
First Line sentence
Second Line sentence
Important Note: While often functional, the backslash method is less consistently supported across all Markdown parsers and renderers. It’s best used when portability isn’t a primary concern.
3. HTML <br> Tag
You can directly insert the HTML line break tag <br> into your Markdown. This is the most explicit way to create a line break, and it will generally work in any Markdown renderer that supports HTML.
paragraph First Line <br> Second Line
Renders as:
paragraph First Line
Second Line
4. Empty Lines for Paragraphs
To create a new paragraph (which inherently includes a line break), simply leave a blank line between text blocks. This is the standard way to separate paragraphs in Markdown.
This is the first paragraph.
This is the second paragraph.
Renders as:
This is the first paragraph.
This is the second paragraph.
5. Non-Breaking Spaces (For Specific Cases)
In certain contexts, particularly within R Markdown documents, you can use non-breaking spaces ( ) to create visual spacing and simulate line breaks. This is less common for general Markdown use.
I want 3 new lines:
End of file.