diff --git a/parser/frontmatter.go b/parser/frontmatter.go
index 6ace0031d..374fe020b 100644
--- a/parser/frontmatter.go
+++ b/parser/frontmatter.go
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ import (
 	"bytes"
 	"encoding/json"
 	"fmt"
+	"strings"
 
 	"github.com/BurntSushi/toml"
 	"launchpad.net/goyaml"
@@ -86,6 +87,20 @@ func InterfaceToFrontMatter(in interface{}, mark rune) ([]byte, error) {
 	}
 }
 
+func FormatToLeadRune(kind string) rune {
+	switch strings.ToLower(kind) {
+	case "yaml":
+		return rune([]byte(YAML_LEAD)[0])
+	case "toml":
+		return rune([]byte(TOML_LEAD)[0])
+	case "json":
+		return rune([]byte(JSON_LEAD)[0])
+	default:
+		return rune([]byte(TOML_LEAD)[0])
+	}
+
+}
+
 func DetectFrontMatter(mark rune) (f *FrontmatterType) {
 	switch mark {
 	case '-':