markdown-it

npm install markdown-it --save
bower install markdown-it --save

// node.js, "classic" way:
var MarkdownIt = require('markdown-it'),
    md = new MarkdownIt();
var result = md.render('# markdown-it rulezz!');

// node.js, the same, but with sugar:
var md = require('markdown-it')();
var result = md.render('# markdown-it rulezz!');

// browser without AMD, added to "window" on script load
// Note, there is no dash in "markdownit".
var md = window.markdownit();
var result = md.render('# markdown-it rulezz!');

var md = require('markdown-it')();
var result = md.renderInline('__markdown-it__ rulezz!');

// commonmark mode
var md = require('markdown-it')('commonmark');

// default mode
var md = require('markdown-it')();

// enable everything
var md = require('markdown-it')({
  html: true,
  linkify: true,
  typographer: true
});

// full options list (defaults)
var md = require('markdown-it')({
  html:         false,        // Enable HTML tags in source
  xhtmlOut:     false,        // Use '/' to close single tags (<br />).
                              // This is only for full CommonMark compatibility.
  breaks:       false,        // Convert '\n' in paragraphs into <br>
  langPrefix:   'language-',  // CSS language prefix for fenced blocks. Can be
                              // useful for external highlighters.
  linkify:      false,        // Autoconvert URL-like text to links

  // Enable some language-neutral replacement + quotes beautification
  typographer:  false,

  // Double + single quotes replacement pairs, when typographer enabled,
  // and smartquotes on. Could be either a String or an Array.
  //
  // For example, you can use '«»„“' for Russian, '„“‚‘' for German,
  // and ['«\xA0', '\xA0»', '‹\xA0', '\xA0›'] for French (including nbsp).
  quotes: '“”‘’',

  // Highlighter function. Should return escaped HTML,
  // or '' if the source string is not changed and should be escaped externaly.
  // If result starts with <pre... internal wrapper is skipped.
  highlight: function (/*str, lang*/) { return ''; }
});

var md = require('markdown-it')()
            .use(plugin1)
            .use(plugin2, opts, ...)
            .use(plugin3);

var hljs = require('highlight.js'); // https://highlightjs.org/

// Actual default values
var md = require('markdown-it')({
  highlight: function (str, lang) {
    if (lang && hljs.getLanguage(lang)) {
      try {
        return hljs.highlight(lang, str).value;
      } catch (__) {}
    }

    return ''; // use external default escaping
  }
});

var hljs = require('highlight.js'); // https://highlightjs.org/

// Actual default values
var md = require('markdown-it')({
  highlight: function (str, lang) {
    if (lang && hljs.getLanguage(lang)) {
      try {
        return '<pre class="hljs"><code>' +
               hljs.highlight(lang, str, true).value +
               '</code></pre>';
      } catch (__) {}
    }

    return '<pre class="hljs"><code>' + md.utils.escapeHtml(str) + '</code></pre>';
  }
});

md.linkify.tlds('.py', false);  // disables .py as top level domain

// Activate/deactivate rules, with curring
var md = require('markdown-it')()
            .disable([ 'link', 'image' ])
            .enable([ 'link' ])
            .enable('image');

// Enable everything
md = require('markdown-it')({
  html: true,
  linkify: true,
  typographer: true,
});

make benchmark-deps
benchmark/benchmark.js readme

Selected samples: (1 of 28)
 > README

Sample: README.md (7774 bytes)
 > commonmark-reference x 1,222 ops/sec ±0.96% (97 runs sampled)
 > current x 743 ops/sec ±0.84% (97 runs sampled)
 > current-commonmark x 1,568 ops/sec ±0.84% (98 runs sampled)
 > marked x 1,587 ops/sec ±4.31% (93 runs sampled)