ASK THE EDITOR
Counsel, Clarifications & Gentle Corrections • Published Weekly
“Confused by markdown? Baffled by browsers? Unsettled by brutalism? Write in, dear reader, and The Editor shall set matters straight.”
General Enquiries
“What exactly is Paperboy? My nephew keeps mentioning it at dinner and I just nod along.”
— Bewildered in Brooklyn, NY
Dear Bewildered: Paperboy is a small set of free tools for working with Markdown — a plain-text way of formatting writing that uses simple symbols instead of toolbar buttons. There is a Chrome side panel for grabbing articles off the web, a command-line edition for the terminal, and an in-browser file converter and markdown viewer for files you already have. Think of it as a portable newsroom for people who prefer their text clean and their corners sharp.
“Is Paperboy free? I've been burned before by 'free' tools that suddenly want my credit card.”
— Cautious in Calgary, AB
Dear Cautious: Free as the morning air. Paperboy is open source — anyone can inspect the code, use it, or improve it. There is no premium tier, no 'Pro' upgrade lurking behind a paywall, and certainly no credit card form. The Editor does not traffic in surprise invoices.
“Does Paperboy collect my data? I do not want my writing stored somewhere else.”
— Paranoid in Portland, OR
Dear Paranoid: Your writing stays on your machine. The file converter and the markdown viewer run in your browser. The Chrome extension reads a page only when you open the side panel. The command-line edition runs on your own computer. Nothing is uploaded to a Paperboy server. Your words remain your own.
“Why does the website look like a newspaper from 1923? Is this a design choice or did something break?”
— Nostalgic in Nashville, TN
Dear Nostalgic: Very much intentional. The modern web has grown plump and compliant — rounded corners, gratuitous gradients, and pop-ups begging for your email at every turn. This design is a deliberate rebellion: sharp borders, honest typography, not a single drop shadow in sight. If it feels like something broke, that is precisely the intended effect.
“I want to turn a document into markdown right now. Where do I start?”
— Impatient in Indianapolis, IN
Dear Impatient: Use the file converter on the front page. Drop a PDF, Word file, spreadsheet, e-book, HTML page, image, or plain text, and the conversion runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. For the terminal, install the command-line edition from npm. For a page already open in Chrome, the side panel extension does the same work.
“Is there a command-line version? I live in my terminal and prefer not to open a browser if I can help it.”
— Terminally in Toronto, ON
Dear Terminally: Yes — the command-line edition installs from npm as @proticom/paperboy-cli. Two main commands carry the load: paperboy-cli convert turns any single file into markdown, and paperboy-cli crawl walks a whole site (via its sitemap) into one combined markdown document. Install globally with `npm install -g @proticom/paperboy-cli` (Node 20 or later). Everything runs offline, deterministically, with --json output for scripting.
Technical Matters
“What on earth is Markdown? People keep saying I should use it but nobody explains what it is.”
— Muddled in Manchester, UK
Dear Muddled: Markdown is a way of formatting text with simple symbols instead of toolbar buttons. A hash mark (#) makes a heading. Asterisks (*) make text bold or italic. A dash (-) makes a bullet point. Even the raw, unformatted text reads clearly — that is the whole idea. Think of it as typesetter's shorthand that any machine can render into a finished page. Learn five or six symbols and you will wonder why you ever wrestled with a word processor.
“How does the Chrome extension work? I'm worried it will slow down my browser.”
— Skeptical in Seattle, WA
Dear Skeptical: The extension sits quietly in your browser's side panel until summoned. Open it on any page and it reads the content, strips the ads and clutter, and converts the article into clean markdown. Two trusted libraries do the heavy lifting — Readability (from Mozilla, the Firefox people) and Turndown. It does not run in the background, injects nothing into pages, and has no noticeable effect on browser speed.
“Can Paperboy read text out of an image? I have screenshots full of useful prose.”
— Optical in Oakland, CA
Dear Optical: It can. The Chrome extension includes local OCR — short for optical character recognition, which simply means reading text out of pictures. It uses tesseract.js, a respected open-source engine that runs in the browser. A screenshot or scanned page becomes legible markdown without leaving your machine. The file converter on the front page also accepts images.
“I have a markdown file on my computer. Can I read it here without installing anything?”
— Puzzled in Pittsburgh, PA
Dear Puzzled: Yes. The markdown viewer takes a local .md file dropped into the browser and lays it out as a broadsheet. The file stays on your machine. Nothing is uploaded.
“I pressed the 'Late Edition' toggle and everything went dark. Help!”
— Baffled in Baltimore, MD
Dear Baffled: Nothing is broken, dear reader. Late Edition is simply the dark theme — a nod to the evening papers that once rolled off the presses after sundown. Toggle it again in the masthead and warm, papery daylight returns. Both editions are purely cosmetic and leave your content untouched.
“I want to help build Paperboy. I'm learning to code — is there a way to contribute?”
— Curious in Chicago, IL
Dear Curious: Contributors of all experience levels are welcome at the press. The entire project lives on GitHub — report bugs, suggest features, improve the documentation, or submit code. Even fixing a typo earns the gratitude of the editorial desk. Start by reading the README, and do not hesitate to open an issue simply to introduce yourself. The newsroom always has room for one more.