Quarto is an open-source scientific and technical publishing system developed by Posit (formerly RStudio). As the successor to R Markdown, Quarto supports R, Python, Julia, and Observable JS and enables the creation of documents, presentations, websites, books, and dashboards.
Quarto documents can be rendered into numerous output formats, including HTML, PDF, Word, and RevealJS slides. In our courses, we use Quarto for reproducible reports and analyses – this very website was also built with Quarto.
Installation
Quarto can be downloaded for free from the official website:
Choose the installer for your operating system (Windows, macOS, or Linux) and follow the installation wizard. After installation, Quarto is available both as a command-line tool (quarto) and within editors like RStudio, Positron, and VS Code.
If you already use RStudio (version 2022.07 or later) or Positron, Quarto is already integrated. For use with VS Code, additionally install the Quarto Extension.
Why Quarto?
- Language-agnostic – supports R, Python, Julia, and Observable JS in one document
- Versatile output formats – HTML, PDF, Word, RevealJS slides, books, websites, dashboards
- Reproducible research – code and text combined in a single document
- Simple syntax – based on Markdown with extended features
- Actively maintained – by Posit with a large community
Further Resources
- Quarto – Official website
- Quarto Guide – Comprehensive documentation
- Awesome Quarto – Curated collection of Quarto resources on GitHub