Quarto (software)

Last updated
Quarto
Developer Posit PBC
Initial releaseJuly 2022;3 years ago (2022-07)
Operating system Cross-platform
Platform x86-64, ARM64
Type Electronic publishing, Literate programming
License GNU General Public License
Website quarto.org

Quarto is a free and open-source scientific and technical publishing system developed by Posit PBC (formerly RStudio). It is a command-line tool built on Pandoc that converts plain text documents mixed with executable code including Python, R, Julia, and Observable JavaScript into static formats including PDF, HTML, MS Word, Powerpoint, ePub, RevealJS, and MediaWiki. [1] [2]

Contents

Quarto is considered the successor to R Markdown, extending support beyond the R ecosystem to support a broader range of data science languages and environments. [3]

History

Quarto was officially announced in July 2022 at the `rstudio::conf(2022)` conference. [1] The release coincided with the corporate rebranding of the developer from RStudio to Posit. This rebranding and the launch of Quarto reflected a strategic shift to support language-agnostic data science workflows, specifically acknowledging the growing adoption of Python alongside R in scientific research. [1]

Design and implementation

Quarto is implemented as a Command Line Interface (CLI), which allows it to function independently of any specific Integrated Development Environment (IDE). However, extensions are available for IDEs such as RStudio, Visual Studio Code, and Jupyter. [4]

File formats

The native source format for Quarto uses the `.qmd` extension. These files are plain text files that combine Markdown with executable code blocks. Quarto can also render existing Jupyter Notebooks (`.ipynb`) into publication-quality documents without converting them to Markdown first. [1]

Functionality

Quarto is designed to support reproducible research workflows. By integrating narrative and code into a single source file, the software is intended to ensure that analysis and reporting remain consistent. [5]

Key features include:

Adoption

Quarto has been adopted in various institutions for technical reporting, official statistics, open science workflows and documentation.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Machlis, Sharon (2022-07-27). "What is Quarto? RStudio quietly rolls out next-generation R Markdown". InfoWorld . Retrieved 2024-01-01.
  2. 1 2 "All Formats". Quarto Documentation. Posit PBC . Retrieved 2025-11-29.
  3. ↑ Hofman, N.; Heer, J. (2023). "Living Papers: A Language Toolkit for Augmented Scholarly Communication". Proceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. pp. 1–13. doi:10.1145/3586183.3606791.
  4. 1 2 3 Cook, Joshua J. (2024). "An introduction to Quarto: A Versatile Open-source Tool for Data Reporting and Visualization" (PDF). PharmaSUG 2024 Proceedings. PharmaSUG.
  5. ↑ "Open-access Open Science in Three Acts: Foundations, Practice, and Implementation". Brazilian Administration Review. 22 (3). SciELO. 2025. doi:10.1590/1807-7692bar2025250162.
  6. ↑ Erickson, R.A.; et al. (2024). "A reproducible manuscript workflow with a Quarto template". United States Geological Survey.
  7. ↑ Stoyel, Quentin; et al. (2022). An open, efficient, and transparent spatial reproducible reporting tool for data discovery and science advice (PDF) (Technical report). Fisheries and Oceans Canada. 3495.
  8. ↑ Doll, Hendrik Christian; Ollech, Daniel (2024). "Data-driven visualisations for official statistics – A case study implementing corporate design in R" (PDF). Romanian Statistical Review. 1: 3–18.
  9. ↑ Araujo, Douglas; et al. (2024). "Data science in central banking: applications and tools" (PDF). IFC Bulletin. 59. Bank for International Settlements.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.