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Quarto

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by Posit Software, PBC · CLI tool · also known as Quarto CLI

Open-source scientific publishing system from Posit that renders Markdown with executable Python, R, Julia or Observable code to HTML, PDF, Word, slides, websites and books via Pandoc

MIT licenseFreeOpen sourceLocalSelf-hostable
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Link verified Nov 2, 2026

Overview

Quarto is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system developed by Posit and released under the MIT license. It is the multi-language successor to R Markdown: a .qmd document (or a Jupyter notebook) mixes Markdown prose with code cells that are executed by Jupyter (Python, Julia and other kernels), knitr (R), a native Julia engine or Observable JS, and the result is passed to Pandoc to produce HTML, PDF, Word, EPUB, reveal.js and PowerPoint presentations, dashboards, websites, blogs, books and journal-formatted manuscripts from a single source.

Projects group documents with shared configuration, so a website or book renders consistently and can be published to GitHub Pages, Netlify, Posit Connect or Quarto Pub with one command. Cross-references, citations through Pandoc citeproc with CSL styles, equations, callouts, tabsets, code folding, freeze and cache options for expensive computations, and an extension system for custom formats, shortcodes and filters cover most academic needs. Quarto is edited from VS Code, Positron, RStudio, JupyterLab or Neovim, and the CLI runs the same way on macOS, Linux and Windows, which makes it suitable for continuous-integration builds of reproducible reports.

Typical users are researchers and data scientists who want reproducible papers, lecture notes and course sites where figures and tables are regenerated from code. Quarto requires the relevant language runtime and, for PDF, a TeX distribution (it can install a minimal TinyTeX) or Typst, which it also supports as a PDF engine. Builds of large projects can be slow without caching, LaTeX errors still surface for PDF output, and some journal templates exist only as community extensions.

Capabilities

  • Executable documents with Jupyter, knitr, Julia and Observable JS engines
  • Output to HTML, PDF (LaTeX or Typst), Word, EPUB, reveal.js and PowerPoint
  • Websites, blogs, books, dashboards and manuscripts as projects
  • Cross-references, citations (CSL), equations and callouts
  • Freeze and cache for expensive computations
  • Extensions for formats, shortcodes and filters
  • One-command publishing to GitHub Pages, Netlify, Posit Connect, Quarto Pub
  • Visual Markdown editor in RStudio, Positron and VS Code

Typical workflows

  1. Reproducible working paper with regenerated figures and a journal template
  2. Course website with lecture slides rendered from the same sources
  3. Dashboard report rebuilt on a schedule in CI
  4. Technical book published to GitHub Pages

Strengths

  • Language-agnostic: Python, R, Julia and JavaScript in one system
  • MIT-licensed and backed by Posit
  • Same CLI across platforms and CI
  • Rich academic features through Pandoc

Limitations

  • Requires language runtimes and a TeX distribution or Typst for PDF
  • Large projects render slowly without caching
  • PDF output still exposes LaTeX errors
  • Some journal formats depend on community extensions

Prerequisites

  • Quarto CLI
  • Python, R or Julia runtime as needed
  • TinyTeX/TeX Live or Typst for PDF

Who it is for

  • Researchers writing reproducible papers
  • Data scientists producing reports and dashboards
  • Instructors building course sites

Alternatives & comparison

R Markdown is R-centric and remains supported, while Quarto generalizes the same knitr-plus-Pandoc idea to other languages. Jupyter notebooks hold code and output but lack Quarto's publishing formats; Pandoc alone converts documents without executing code. MkDocs targets software documentation sites rather than computational documents.

  • marimo

    Reactive Python notebook stored as a plain .py file that re-runs dependent cells automatically and doubles as a script or web app

    Open sourceOpen source
  • MkDocs

    Python static site generator for project documentation that builds a navigable site from Markdown files and a single YAML configuration

    Open sourceOpen source
  • Observable

    JavaScript data notebooks and the open-source Observable Framework static-site generator for data apps, from the maintainers of D3 and Plot

    MixedFreemium
  • Pandoc

    Universal document converter that translates between Markdown, LaTeX, HTML, DOCX, EPUB, Typst, Jupyter and dozens of other formats, with citeproc and Lua filters

    Open sourceFree
  • Project Jupyter

    Open-source computational notebook ecosystem: the .ipynb format, kernels for Python, R and Julia, JupyterLab and Notebook interfaces and JupyterHub

    Open sourceOpen source
  • R Markdown

    R package that turns Markdown documents with embedded R (and Python or SQL) chunks into HTML, PDF, Word, slides, books and dashboards through knitr and Pandoc

    Open sourceFree
  • Sphinx

    Python documentation generator using reStructuredText or MyST Markdown with cross-referencing, API autodoc and output to HTML, PDF via LaTeX, ePub and man pages

    Open sourceOpen source
  • Typst

    Markup-based typesetting system with an Apache-2.0 compiler written in Rust and a collaborative web app, positioned as a faster, simpler alternative to LaTeX

    MixedFree
Compare Quarto with its alternatives →

Sources & verification

Primary sources consulted for this record. Claims are tied to the fields each source supports; the automated link checker re-verifies every URL on a schedule.

  • License
    quarto-cli COPYING.md

    https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli/blob/main/COPYING.md

    Supports: license_spdx, source_model

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official documentation
    Guide – Quarto

    https://quarto.org/docs/guide

    Supports: capabilities, workflows

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Official site
    Welcome to Quarto

    https://quarto.org/

    Supports: name, summary, capabilities, vendor

    checked Nov 1, 2026
  • Repository
    quarto-dev/quarto-cli

    https://github.com/quarto-dev/quarto-cli

    Supports: repo_url, languages

    checked Nov 1, 2026
Confidence
High
Reviewed
Nov 1, 2026
Links
Verified · Nov 2, 2026

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