Document Render Previews

Crispy gives three more document formats a live, rendered preview right next to their source — each rendered locally and offline by a command-line tool you install once. These are render-only previews: you edit the text in the Source tab, and the Preview shows the result.

Each file opens with a Preview / Source toggle in the editor toolbar. Preview shows the rendered output and updates as you edit; Source is the editable text. There’s no account, no cloud, and no internet — Crispy just runs the command-line tool on your machine. Renders are debounced (rapid edits batch into a single re-render) and bounded by a timeout, so a long or runaway render won’t hang the app.

Getting started

1. Install the tool for the format you want (once):
   • Typst: brew install typst
   • AsciiDoc: brew install asciidoctor (or gem install asciidoctor)
   • Graphviz: brew install graphviz
2. Open a .typ, .adoc/.asciidoc/.asc, or .dot/.gv file from the file explorer.
3. It opens in Preview mode and renders.
4. Use the toolbar’s Preview / Source toggle to edit the text. Crispy remembers your choice per file.
5. Edits autosave — there’s no Save button.

Crispy looks for these tools in the standard install locations (/opt/homebrew/bin, /usr/local/bin, /Library/TeX/texbin, /usr/bin), so a Homebrew install is found automatically — nothing to configure. Validated against typst 0.15.0, asciidoctor 2.0.26, and graphviz / dot 15.0.0, but recent releases work.

Document types

Typst (.typ)

A modern typesetting system, fast and friendly for documents and reports. Crispy runs typst compile and shows the resulting PDF. Edit the source and the PDF re-renders; your page and scroll position are preserved so the view doesn’t jump.

AsciiDoc (.adoc, .asciidoc, .asc)

A rich plain-text documentation format. Crispy runs asciidoctor and shows the formatted HTML with AsciiDoctor’s default styling (the standalone document with its embedded stylesheet). Edit the source and the HTML re-renders.

Graphviz (.dot, .gv)

The DOT graph-description language for diagrams — flowcharts, dependency graphs, state machines. Crispy runs dot -Tpdf and shows the rendered graph as a PDF. Edit the source and the diagram re-renders, preserving page and scroll position.

When a tool isn’t installed

• Installed: the file opens in Preview and renders. Edits in Source re-render the preview automatically.
• Not installed: the preview is unavailable — you’ll see a message naming the required tool. Install the matching tool and reopen the file. Unlike the LaTeX PDF tab, there’s no guided installer for these three formats; the message points you at the missing command.

Troubleshooting

• “Not found” message: the required command-line tool isn’t installed (or isn’t in a standard location). Install it and reopen the file.
• “Compilation failed”: there’s an error in your document — the message includes the tool’s error output. Fix the source and the preview re-renders. For the PDF previews (Typst, Graphviz), if you already had a good render, Crispy keeps showing it with a small banner instead of clearing the page.
• A long render seems stuck: Crispy stops a compile that runs too long and re-runs it on your next edit.
• Edits aren’t showing: make sure you’re editing in Source and viewing Preview — the preview itself is read-only.

Known limitations

• Requires the corresponding CLI (Typst, AsciiDoc, or Graphviz) installed on your Mac — Crispy doesn’t bundle a renderer.
• Render-only — unlike Crispy’s Markdown and LaTeX editors, these previews can’t be edited in place and have no commenting. Edit the text in Source.
• No dedicated install prompt — a missing tool shows a “not found” message rather than a guided installer.
• Offline and single-user by design — no cloud rendering or collaboration.

Related docs

• LaTeX Editor
• Markdown Editor
• Code Editor
• File Viewer