Comparison of document markup languages

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of document markup languages. Please see the individual markup languages' articles for further information.

General information

Basic general information about the markup languages: creator, version, etc.

Language	Creator	First public release date	Editor	Viewer
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)	OASIS	2005	Text/XML editor	Output to HTML, PDF, CHM, javadoc, others.
DocBook	The Davenport Group, OASIS	1992	XML editor	Output to HTML, PDF, CHM, javadoc, others.
Encoded Archival Description (EAD)	Berkeley Project	1998	Text editor	Web browser
Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)	W3C	2000 (January 26)	Text/XML editor, HTML editor	Web browser
HyperText Markup Language (HTML)	Tim Berners-Lee	1993	Text editor, HTML editor	Web browser
LilyPond	Han-Wen Nienhuys, Jan Nieuwenhuizen	1996	Text editor, Scorewriter	Output to DVI, PDF, PostScript, PNG, others.
Maker Interchange Format (MIF)	Frame Technology acquired by Adobe Systems in 1995	1986	Text editor, FrameMaker	FrameMaker
Markdown	John Gruber and Aaron Swartz	2004	Text editor, E-mail client	Web browser (XHTML or HTML output), preview in gedit-markdown-plugin
Math Markup Language (MathML)	W3C	1999 (July)	Text/XML editor, TeX converter	Web browser, Word processor
Music Extensible Markup Language (MusicXML)	Recordare	2002	Scorewriter	Scorewriter
Office Open XML (OOXML)	Ecma International, ISO/IEC	2006	Office suite	Office suite
OpenDocument Format (ODF)	OASIS, ISO/IEC	2005	Office suite	Office suite
Open Mathematical Documents (OMDoc)	Michael Kohlhase	2000	Text/XML editor[1]	Output to XHTML+MathML, TeX, others.
reStructuredText	David_Goodger	2001[2]	Text editor	Output to HTML, LaTeX, PDF, Unix man pages, ODT, S5 (HTML Slide Shows), XML, others.
Rich Text Format (RTF)	Microsoft	1987	Text editor, Word processor	Word processor
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)	W3C	2004	Vector graphics editor	Web browser, etc.
TeX	Donald Knuth	1978	Text editor	DVI or Portable Document Format (PDF) converter
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)	Text Encoding Initiative Consortium	1990	Text/XML editor	Web Browser (using XHTML), PDF, Word Processor (using ODF) or EPUB
troff (typesetter runoff), groff (GNU runoff)	Joe Ossanna	1973	Text editor	groffer, or output to PostScript
Wireless Markup Language (WML)	WAP Forum	1999	Text/XML editor	Microbrowser
Language	Creator	First public release date	Editor	Viewer

Characteristics

Some characteristics of the markup languages.

Language	Major purpose	Based on	Markup type	Structural markup	Presentational markup[3]
Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA)	Technical documents	XML	Tag	Yes	No
DocBook	Technical documents	SGML / XML	Tag	Yes	No
Encoded Archival Description (EAD)	Finding aids	XML	Tag	Yes	No
Extensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)	Hypertext documents	XML	Tag	Yes	Yes[4]
HyperText Markup Language (HTML)	Hypertext documents	SGML	Tag	Yes	Yes[5]
Maker Interchange Format (MIF)	Technical documents		Tag	Yes	Yes
Markdown	Formatted Technical documents, Hypertext documents, E-mail	Text E-mail conventions	Tag	Yes	Yes
Math Markup Language (MathML)	Mathematical documents	XML	Tag	Yes	Yes[6]
Music Extensible Markup Language (MusicXML)	Music notation	XML	Tag	Yes	Yes
Office Open XML (OOXML)	Multi-purpose	XML / ZIP	Tag	Yes	Yes
OpenDocument Format (ODF)	Multi-purpose	XML / ZIP	Tag	Yes	Yes
Open Mathematical Document (OMDoc)	Mathematical documents	XML	Tag	Yes[7]	Yes[8]
reStructuredText	Technical and Multi-purpose documents[9]	Structured Text and Setext	Tag	Yes	Yes[10]
Rich Text Format (RTF)	Formatted documents	TeX	Pattern parsing	Yes	Yes
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)	2D Vector graphics	XML	Tag	Yes	Yes
TeX	Academic documents		Control code	Yes	Yes
Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)	Academic, linguistic, literary and technical documents	SGML / XML	Tag	Yes	No
troff (typesetter runoff), groff (GNU runoff)	Technical documents	RUNOFF	Control code	Yes	Yes
Wireless Markup Language (WML)	Hypertext documents	XML	Tag	Yes	Yes
Language	Major purpose	Based on	Markup type	Structural markup	Presentational markup

Notes

1. ^ An Emacs mode and a Mozilla extension are available.
2. ^ http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html#history
3. ^ Many markup languages have purposely avoided presentational markups. For markup languages based on SGML and XML, CSS is used as a presentation layer.
4. ^ Presentational markup is deprecated as of XHTML 1.0 and no longer allowed as of XHTML 1.1
5. ^ Presentational markup is deprecated as of HTML 4.0
6. ^ MathML comes in two mark-up syntaxes: a semantic and a presentational.
7. ^ uses Content MathML, OpenMath or other formats for formulae
8. ^ Exact presentation of symbols can be specified in OMDoc; these specifications are used when transforming OMDoc to a presentational format.
9. ^ http://docutils.sourceforge.net/docs/ref/rst/introduction.html#goals
10. ^ uses CSS

See also

• List of document markup languages
• Comparison of Office Open XML and OpenDocument
• Comparison of OpenXPS and PDF
• Comparison of e-book formats
• Comparison of data serialization formats

External links

• Comparison of XML schema for narrative documents (biased towards author's BNML schema and associated tools)
• Comparison of Static FBML and iFrames as markup language for Facebook