Markdown - Footnotes without the square brackets in the final version

Using Ghost
1

Hello. Yep, I’m asking for help again.

With the Markdown->HTML processor in Ghost (Casper theme, if it is relevant), the footnotes are a superscript [1] in the final version. But I want a superscript 1 without the square brackets.

I looked at old examples of Markdown, and I saw both versions, but most removed the [ ] from footnotes in the HTML and final display.

I tested both ways (with straight HTML so as to avoid Ghost’s Markdown translator) and found that I liked the version without square brackets. It’s also the style of Chicago. As far as I know, only Wikipedia (which I do not want to promote) does the superscript [1], whereas other sites just use 1 for footnotes.

Is there some code injection that would change this behavior? I am not self-hosting and I cannot change files. (That prevents me from tooling around with certain things, unfortunately.)

2

(Only Wikipedia as the major site to do the practice—not the only organization in the world. Also, I want to get away from the unstable churn and selective perspectives of any wiki, by linking elsewhere. I also predict and fear that Wikipedia will be overwhelmed with GenAI submissions. I make an effort to find some stable and usually high-quality resources for citations. I am partial to the Chicago Style as its the style of my academic discipline as well as the default for books. The major competition, AP Style, does not use footnotes. N style guide I ever encountered uses superscript square brackets. You may see this [1], but it is not superscript [¹]; it is IEEE Style, which is otherwise the same as Chicago in any case,)