A new Markdown reader is now available through the Microsoft Store. Sefer It is designed for reading documents, books and notes. Since it is a Markdown reader, it is a versatile application. Markdown is a flexible text format that you’ve probably seen in your daily life without thinking about it.
Sefer is a specialized application that delivers on its promise of being a “silent Markdown reader for Windows.” It renders Markdown files well, presents them in an easy-to-read way, and has some nice design elements that are worth admiring from an application development point of view.
Sefer is now available in the Microsoft Store! A premium focused Markdown reader for Windows, built like a real book. Royal typography. Paper and ink themes. Zero distractions. Just the page. Download: https://t.co/yZv5q9eSJD pic.twitter.com/kIjV2zhidTMay 19, 2026
Sefer comes preloaded with some books: The Odyssey, Little Women, Pride and Prejudice, The Rue Morgue Murders, and Common sense. I admire the collection (Little Women is one of my wife’s favorite books) but they don’t show any sophisticated formatting in the body of the text.
Instead, they show the layout of the application. Sefer has wide margins to simulate the spacing of a printed book, although it also scales when its size is changed. Displays a table of contents on the side of the app, making it easy to jump to a specific part of a book or document.
Sefer will return to a specific page when you reopen a book. You can also rerender a page by editing the source file and saving your changes.
Instead of syncing to the cloud or web, Sefer uploads local .md, .markdown, and .mdown files.
A unique WinUI application
I spoke with Josh, the developer of Sefer, about the app. If you only care about having a good document reader, you can skip this part, but I love learning about what goes into creating applications for Windows.
The Markdown rendering within Sefer is custom, although it is based on Markdig. That allows Josh to choose how different elements are represented.
Generally, WinUI applications are based on RichTextBlock or WebView. RichTextBlock has problems with certain types of content, such as code blocks. WebView uses a Markdown to HTML reader, which does not align with the native nature of Sefer.
While Sefer is a WinUI app, it has some design elements that make it stand out from something simply built with templates. Small touches like the transition from light mode to dark mode feel seamless and add some style to the app.
What is the discount?
Markdown is an open text format used throughout the web. Any README.md file depends on Markdown, making the format ubiquitous on GitHub and other coding platforms.
Many of your favorite messaging apps support formatting to some extent, such as WhatsApp, which lets you bold text by surrounding a word or phrase with asterisks. True Reddit champions can create gorgeous posts packed with beautifully presented information thanks to Markdown.
I used to write all my articles in Markdown. Our old content management system supported this, and I found it faster to learn how to format Markdown than to use the shortcuts built into that old system.
Markdown is also used in offline documents such as essays, books, and magazines. As a Markdown reader, Sefer is designed to provide an optimal reading experience for those types of files.
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