Title: Prettify Code Syntax
Author: jesucarr
Published: <strong>February 15, 2013</strong>
Last modified: March 21, 2013

---

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This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of WordPress**.
It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have compatibility issues when
used with more recent versions of WordPress.

![](https://s.w.org/plugins/geopattern-icon/prettify-code-syntax.svg)

# Prettify Code Syntax

 By [jesucarr](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jesucarr/)

[Download](https://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/prettify-code-syntax.1.2.1.zip)

 * [Details](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/prettify-code-syntax/#description)
 * [Reviews](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/prettify-code-syntax/#reviews)
 *  [Installation](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/prettify-code-syntax/#installation)
 * [Development](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/prettify-code-syntax/#developers)

 [Support](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/)

## Description

The main reason for the development of this plugin was the lack of options supporting
the **HTML5 recommendation**, where the code snippets should be tagged with `pre`
followed by `code`, and optionally a class starting with `language-` and then our
language.

You can use the plugin like this:

    ```
    <pre class="prettyprint"><code class="language-php">
    // my code
    </code></pre>
    ```

Also very important is that although this plugin loads different files depending
on your configuration, it fully **supports caching** scripts ([W3 Total Cache](https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/w3-total-cache/))
to concatenate and compress all the css and js, so the impact in performance will
be minimum.

#### Languages

This syntax highlighter is based on [Google Code Prettify](http://google-code-prettify.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/README.html)
and should work on a number of languages including **C** and friends, **Java**, **
Python**, **Bash**, **SQL**, **HTML**, **XML**, **Javascript**, **Makefiles**, and
Rust. It works passably on **Ruby**, **PHP**, **VB**, and **Awk** and a decent subset
of **Perl** and **Ruby**, but, because of commenting conventions, doesn’t work on
Smalltalk.

Other languages are supported via an extension (plugin options): **CSS**, **SQL**,**
YAML**, **Visual Basic**, **Clojure**, **Scala**, **Latek (TeX, LaTeX)**, **WikiText**,**
Erlang**, **Go**, **Haskell**, **Lua**, **OCAML**, **SML**, **F#**, **Nemerle**,**
Protocol Buffers**, **CHDL (VHDL)**, **XQ (XQuery)**, **Lisp, Scheme**, **Dart**,**
Llvm**, **Mumps**, **Pascal**, **R, S**, **RD**, **TCL**

#### Styles

**Four** different styles are provided, and they can be previewed in the plugin 
options. They are modified to make sure they don’t clash with any other styles in
your theme.

You have also the option to include your **custom style**.

If you have a style that would like to see included in the option list, just [contact me](http://www.frontendmatters.com/contact/),
or [fork me](https://github.com/jesucarr/wordpress-prettify-code-syntax).

#### Notes

 * Plugin options are at Settings > Prettify Code Syntax. Have a look at the Screenshots
   tab to see how it looks like.
 * If you don’t care too much about the HTML5 recommendation, you can skip the `
   language-` class. The code always gets detected automatically.
 * It will also work if you only use a `pre` tag without the `code` tag (but long
   lines will be wrapped instead of get horizontal scroll), or if you only use a`
   code` tag with the `prettyprint` class (but if you don’t use `pre` your spaces/
   returns won’t be maintained.)
 * Be careful using the Visual Editor tab when inserting code, as some HTML tags
   will be modified or removed.
 * Using a chaching plugin like W3 Total Cache is highly recommended.

#### Demo

You can find a [front end demo](http://www.frontendmatters.com/open-source/wordpress-plugins/prettify-code-syntax/)
here a the bottom.

## Screenshots

 * [[
 * Language options
 * [[
 * Style options

## Installation

In your WordPress installation go to Plugins > Add New, and search for “prettify
code syntax” to find and install it automatically.

You can also install it manually:

 1. Download the plugin and upload the contents to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory,
    using FTP or the Upload tab in Plugins > Add New.
 2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
 3. Change settings if neccessary at Settings > Prettify Code Syntax

## FAQ

  I want to add the tags “ or “ to my code, how can I do it without breaking the
snippet?

You can add a space before the closing `>`, like this `</code >`

  I found a bug, or have some code improvements, or have something to ask about 
the plugin. How do I contact you?

Best thing with anything related to code would be to [fork me or open an issue](https://github.com/jesucarr/wordpress-prettify-code-syntax).
For anything else you can [post a comment](http://www.frontendmatters.com/open-source/wordpress-plugins/prettify-code-syntax/)
or [contact me](http://www.frontendmatters.com/contact/).

## Reviews

![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/85bdc493b6f93ea980ab64218e99534065e59019a817a7ac0803c7555fcfa18e?
s=60&d=retro&r=g)

### 󠀁[.](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/7878552/)󠁿

 [krischik](https://profiles.wordpress.org/krischik/) February 8, 2017

 [ Read all 12 reviews ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/)

## Contributors & Developers

“Prettify Code Syntax” is open source software. The following people have contributed
to this plugin.

Contributors

 *   [ jesucarr ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jesucarr/)

[Translate “Prettify Code Syntax” into your language.](https://translate.wordpress.org/projects/wp-plugins/prettify-code-syntax)

### Interested in development?

[Browse the code](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/browser/prettify-code-syntax/),
check out the [SVN repository](https://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/prettify-code-syntax/),
or subscribe to the [development log](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/prettify-code-syntax/)
by [RSS](https://plugins.trac.wordpress.org/log/prettify-code-syntax/?limit=100&mode=stop_on_copy&format=rss).

## Changelog

#### 1.2

 * Add Twitter Bootstrap style
 * Isolate default style. Every style now is independent
 * Fix bug where all languages were loaded
 * Code refactoring

#### 1.1

 * Add new languages
 * Several fixes and code refactoring

#### 1.0

 * First release

## Meta

 *  Version **1.2.1**
 *  Last updated **13 years ago**
 *  Active installations **80+**
 *  WordPress version ** 3.0.1 or higher **
 *  Tested up to **3.5.2**
 *  Language
 * [English (US)](https://wordpress.org/plugins/prettify-code-syntax/)
 * Tags
 * [code](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/code/)[highlighter](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/highlighter/)
   [markup](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/markup/)[prettify](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/prettify/)
   [syntax](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/tags/syntax/)
 *  [Advanced View](https://pcd.wordpress.org/plugins/prettify-code-syntax/advanced/)

## Ratings

 4.2 out of 5 stars.

 *  [  6 5-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/?filter=5)
 *  [  4 4-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/?filter=4)
 *  [  1 3-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/?filter=3)
 *  [  0 2-star reviews     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/?filter=2)
 *  [  1 1-star review     ](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/?filter=1)

[Add my review](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/#new-post)

[See all reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/reviews/)

## Contributors

 *   [ jesucarr ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/jesucarr/)

## Support

Got something to say? Need help?

 [View support forum](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/prettify-code-syntax/)

## Donate

Would you like to support the advancement of this plugin?

 [ Donate to this plugin ](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=LEJAVTJUGWE3E)