diff --git a/pelican/readers.py b/pelican/readers.py
index c1c8dbfa..1adc2b66 100644
--- a/pelican/readers.py
+++ b/pelican/readers.py
@@ -249,6 +249,7 @@ class MarkdownReader(BaseReader):
         if 'meta' not in self.extensions:
             self.extensions.append('meta')
         self._source_path = None
+        self.output_format = self.settings['MD_OUTPUT_FORMAT']
 
     def _parse_metadata(self, meta):
         """Return the dict containing document metadata"""
@@ -282,7 +283,9 @@ class MarkdownReader(BaseReader):
         """Parse content and metadata of markdown files"""
 
         self._source_path = source_path
-        self._md = Markdown(extensions=self.extensions)
+        self._md = Markdown(
+            extensions=self.extensions,
+            output_format=self.output_format)
         with pelican_open(source_path) as text:
             content = self._md.convert(text)
 
diff --git a/pelican/settings.py b/pelican/settings.py
index c1a902cd..43dd62cf 100644
--- a/pelican/settings.py
+++ b/pelican/settings.py
@@ -100,6 +100,7 @@ DEFAULT_CONFIG = {
     'DEFAULT_DATE_FORMAT': '%a %d %B %Y',
     'DATE_FORMATS': {},
     'MD_EXTENSIONS': ['codehilite(css_class=highlight)', 'extra'],
+    'MD_OUTPUT_FORMAT' : 'xhtml1',
     'JINJA_EXTENSIONS': [],
     'JINJA_FILTERS': {},
     'LOG_FILTER': [],
diff --git a/pelican/tests/content/article_with_different_output_format.md b/pelican/tests/content/article_with_different_output_format.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f9081591
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pelican/tests/content/article_with_different_output_format.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+Title: Article output format
+
+Some text[^footnote]
+
+[^footnote]: Some footnote
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/pelican/tests/test_readers.py b/pelican/tests/test_readers.py
index dd7e5fc2..4e14d829 100644
--- a/pelican/tests/test_readers.py
+++ b/pelican/tests/test_readers.py
@@ -500,6 +500,43 @@ class MdReaderTest(ReaderTest):
         }
         self.assertDictHasSubset(page.metadata, expected)
 
+    def test_article_with_different_output_format(self):
+        reader = readers.MarkdownReader(settings=get_settings())
+        # test the default xhtml1 output format
+        expected = ('<p>Some text<sup id="fnref:footnote"><a class="footnote-re'
+                    'f" href="#fn:footnote" rel="footnote">1</a></sup></p>\n'
+                    '<div class="footnote">\n'
+                    '<hr />\n'
+                    '<ol>\n'
+                    '<li id="fn:footnote">\n'
+                    '<p>Some footnote&#160;<a class="footnote-backref" href="#fn'
+                    'ref:footnote" rev="footnote" title="Jump back to footnote 1'
+                    ' in the text">&#8617;</a></p>\n'
+                    '</li>\n'
+                    '</ol>\n'
+                    '</div>')
+        content, metadata = reader.read(
+            _path('article_with_different_output_format.md'))
+        self.assertEqual(content, expected)
+
+        # test html5 output format
+        reader = readers.MarkdownReader(
+            settings=dict(get_settings(), MD_OUTPUT_FORMAT='html5'))
+        expected = ('<p>Some text<sup id="fnref-footnote"><a class="footnote-re'
+                    'f" href="#fn-footnote">1</a></sup></p>\n'
+                    '<div class="footnote">\n'
+                    '<hr>\n'
+                    '<ol>\n'
+                    '<li id="fn-footnote">\n'
+                    '<p>Some footnote&#160;<a class="footnote-backref" href="#fn'
+                    'ref-footnote" title="Jump back to footnote 1 in the text">'
+                    '&#8617;</a></p>\n'
+                    '</li>\n'
+                    '</ol>\n'
+                    '</div>')
+        content, metadata = reader.read(
+            _path('article_with_different_output_format.md'))
+        self.assertEqual(content, expected)
 
 class HTMLReaderTest(ReaderTest):
     def test_article_with_comments(self):