diff --git a/.Rbuildignore b/.Rbuildignore
index 572b1e03f4..e55a6f952d 100644
--- a/.Rbuildignore
+++ b/.Rbuildignore
@@ -20,17 +20,20 @@ tests/performance-monitoring
 tests/testthat/_snaps
 tests/testthat/test-as_raw_html.R
 tests/testthat/test-as_word.R
+tests/testthat/test-color_handling.R
 tests/testthat/test-cols_align_decimal.R
 tests/testthat/test-cols_label.R
 tests/testthat/test-cols_label_with.R
 tests/testthat/test-cols_merge.R
 tests/testthat/test-cols_width_rtf.R
+tests/testthat/test-cols_width.R
 tests/testthat/test-data_color.R
+tests/testthat/test-escaping.R
 tests/testthat/test-extract_cells.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_auto.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_bytes.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_currency.R
-tests/testthat/test-fmt_datetime.R
+tests/testthat/test-fmt_date_time.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_duration.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_engineering.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_fraction.R
@@ -46,23 +49,34 @@ tests/testthat/test-fmt_scientific.R
 tests/testthat/test-fmt_spelled_num.R
 tests/testthat/test-footer.R
 tests/testthat/test-group_column_label.R
-tests/testthat/test-gt_multi.R
+tests/testthat/test-gt_group.R
 tests/testthat/test-gtsave.R
+tests/testthat/test-h_md_html.R
 tests/testthat/test-image.R
+tests/testthat/test-info_tables.R
+tests/testthat/test-input_data_validation.R
 tests/testthat/test-l_table_parts.R
 tests/testthat/test-location_cells.R
+tests/testthat/test-opt_functions.R
+tests/testthat/test-rtf_column_widths.R
 tests/testthat/test-rtf_page_options.R
 tests/testthat/test-stub.R
 tests/testthat/test-substitution.R
-tests/testthat/test-summary_rows.R
 tests/testthat/test-summary_rows_latex.R
 tests/testthat/test-summary_rows_rtf.R
+tests/testthat/test-summary_rows.R
 tests/testthat/test-tab_footnote.R
 tests/testthat/test-tab_info.R
 tests/testthat/test-tab_options.R
 tests/testthat/test-tab_remove.R
-tests/testthat/test-tab_spanner.R
 tests/testthat/test-tab_spanner_delim.R
+tests/testthat/test-tab_spanner.R
 tests/testthat/test-tab_stub_indent.R
+tests/testthat/test-tab_style.R
 tests/testthat/test-table_parts.R
+tests/testthat/test-text_transform.R
+tests/testthat/test-util_functions.R
+tests/testthat/test-utils_formatters.R
+tests/testthat/test-utils_render_html.R
+tests/testthat/test-utils.R
 tests/testthat/test-vec_fmt.R
diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index f06c7da5a4..5d07bb1af9 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 Type: Package
 Package: gt
-Version: 0.8.0.9000
+Version: 0.9.0
 Title: Easily Create Presentation-Ready Display Tables
 Description: Build display tables from tabular data with an easy-to-use set of
     functions. With its progressive approach, we can construct display tables
@@ -40,11 +40,12 @@ Imports:
     commonmark (>= 1.8.1),
     dplyr (>= 1.1.0),
     fs (>= 1.6.1),
-    ggplot2 (>= 3.4.1),
     glue (>= 1.6.2),
     htmltools (>= 0.5.4),
     htmlwidgets (>= 1.6.1),
+    juicyjuice (>= 0.1.0),
     magrittr (>= 2.0.2),
+    markdown (>= 1.5),
     reactable (>= 0.4.3),
     rlang (>= 1.0.2),
     sass (>= 0.4.5),
@@ -55,10 +56,9 @@ Imports:
 Suggests:
     covr,
     digest (>= 0.6.31),
-    juicyjuice (>= 0.1.0),
+    ggplot2,
     knitr,
     lubridate,
-    markdown (>= 1.5),
     paletteer,
     RColorBrewer,
     rmarkdown (>= 2.20),
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index a5c1e8316c..5fe002895c 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-# gt (development version)
+# gt 0.9.0
 
 ## New features
 
@@ -82,8 +82,6 @@
 
 * Fixed some border-related issues for **gt** tables published in R Markdown and Quarto documents (#1120). (#1234)
 
-* The **juicyjuice** package is now a soft dependency. The previous hard requirement presented some problems for users in environments where the installation of the package was difficult (because of its own dependency on **V8**) (#1179). (#1229)
-
 * Added the `quarto.use_bootstrap` and `quarto.disable_processing` options in `tab_options()` to control whether Quarto will add Bootstrap classes to a **gt** table or ignore a **gt** table. (#1222, #1227)
 
 * Fixed the unintended appearance of a bottom border in the column spanner row for some CSS environments. (#1209)
diff --git a/R/export.R b/R/export.R
index fa8adf85c2..5033e278c6 100644
--- a/R/export.R
+++ b/R/export.R
@@ -497,16 +497,6 @@ as_raw_html <- function(
 
   if (inline_css) {
 
-    # Check whether juicyjuice is in the package library and stop function
-    # only if it is not present
-    if (!requireNamespace("juicyjuice", quietly = TRUE)) {
-
-      cli::cli_abort(c(
-        "Using `as_raw_html(... , inline_css = TRUE)` requires the `juicyjuice` package.",
-        "*" = "It can be installed with `install.packages(\"juicyjuice\")`."
-      ))
-    }
-
     font_vec <- unique(dt_options_get_value(data = data, option = "table_font_names"))
     font_family_attr <- as_css_font_family_attr(font_vec = font_vec)
 
diff --git a/R/format_data.R b/R/format_data.R
index ddefe2a705..ff15618937 100644
--- a/R/format_data.R
+++ b/R/format_data.R
@@ -7348,10 +7348,9 @@ fmt_flag <- function(
 #'
 #' @inheritParams fmt_number
 #' @param md_engine The engine preference for Markdown rendering. By default,
-#'   this is set to `"auto"` where **gt** will choose the **markdown** package
-#'   if it is available in the user library, otherwise functions from the
-#'   **commonmark** package will be used. You can explicitly choose one or the
-#'   other with the `"markdown"` or `"commonmark"` keyword option.
+#'   this is set to `"markdown"` where **gt** will use the **markdown** package
+#'   for Markdown conversion to HTML and LaTeX. The other option is
+#'   `"commonmark"` and with that the **commonmark** package will be used.
 #'
 #' @return An object of class `gt_tbl`.
 #'
@@ -7464,7 +7463,7 @@ fmt_markdown <- function(
     data,
     columns = everything(),
     rows = everything(),
-    md_engine = c("auto", "markdown", "commonmark")
+    md_engine = c("markdown", "commonmark")
 ) {
 
   # Perform input object validation
diff --git a/R/format_vec.R b/R/format_vec.R
index 97544de86f..2dd70ac75c 100644
--- a/R/format_vec.R
+++ b/R/format_vec.R
@@ -3348,10 +3348,9 @@ vec_fmt_duration <- function(
 #'
 #' @inheritParams vec_fmt_number
 #' @param md_engine The engine preference for Markdown rendering. By default,
-#'   this is set to `"auto"` where **gt** will choose the **markdown** package
-#'   if it is available in the user library, otherwise functions from the
-#'   **commonmark** package will be used. You can explicitly choose one or the
-#'   other with the `"markdown"` or `"commonmark"` keyword option.
+#'   this is set to `"markdown"` where **gt** will use the **markdown** package
+#'   for Markdown conversion to HTML and LaTeX. The other option is
+#'   `"commonmark"` and with that the **commonmark** package will be used.
 #'
 #' @return A character vector.
 #'
@@ -3401,7 +3400,7 @@ vec_fmt_duration <- function(
 #' @export
 vec_fmt_markdown <- function(
     x,
-    md_engine = c("auto", "markdown", "commonmark"),
+    md_engine = c("markdown", "commonmark"),
     output = c("auto", "plain", "html", "latex", "rtf", "word")
 ) {
 
diff --git a/R/image.R b/R/image.R
index de5a18489e..3f215d4503 100644
--- a/R/image.R
+++ b/R/image.R
@@ -298,6 +298,14 @@ ggplot_image <- function(
     aspect_ratio = 1.0
 ) {
 
+  if (!requireNamespace("ggplot2", quietly = TRUE)) {
+
+    cli::cli_abort(c(
+      "Using the `ggplot_image()` function requires the `ggplot2` package.",
+      "*" = "It can be installed with `install.packages(\"ggplot2\")`."
+    ))
+  }
+
   if (is.numeric(height)) {
     height <- paste0(height, "px")
   }
diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
index 629e20eb58..a629916a5e 100644
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ b/R/utils.R
@@ -405,18 +405,9 @@ get_markdown_engine_fn <- function(
 
   context <- match.arg(context)
 
-  md_engine_name <-
-    switch(
-      md_engine_pref,
-      auto = ,
-      markdown = "markdown",
-      commonmark = "commonmark"
-    )
-
   md_engine_fn <-
     switch(
       md_engine_pref,
-      auto = ,
       markdown = markdown::mark,
       commonmark = if (context == "html") {
         commonmark::markdown_html
@@ -425,39 +416,8 @@ get_markdown_engine_fn <- function(
       }
     )
 
-  # Stop function if user explicitly chose the `markdown` package as
-  # the Markdown engine but the package is not available
-  if (md_engine_pref == "markdown") {
-
-    if (!requireNamespace("markdown", quietly = TRUE)) {
-
-      cli::cli_abort(c(
-        "Using the \"markdown\"` engine preference requires the `markdown` package.",
-        "*" = "It can be installed with `install.packages(\"markdown\")`."
-      ))
-    }
-  }
-
-  # If the Markdown engine preference was set to 'auto' (the default) and
-  # the `markdown` is not available, use the `commonmark` package as a
-  # fallback; the situation is that `commonmark` is a hard dependency whereas
-  # `markdown` is a soft dependency (though commonly present in user libraries)
-  if (
-    md_engine_pref == "auto" &&
-    !requireNamespace("markdown", quietly = TRUE)
-  ) {
-
-    if (context == "html") {
-      md_engine_fn <- commonmark::markdown_html
-    } else {
-      md_engine_fn <- commonmark::markdown_latex
-    }
-
-    md_engine_name <- "commonmark"
-  }
-
   md_engine_fn <- c(md_engine_fn)
-  names(md_engine_fn) <- md_engine_name
+  names(md_engine_fn) <- md_engine_pref
   md_engine_fn
 }
 
@@ -474,10 +434,7 @@ process_text <- function(text, context = "html") {
   # When processing text globally (outside of the `fmt_markdown()`
   # function) we will use the 'markdown' package if it is available,
   # otherwise the 'commonmark' package
-  if (
-    requireNamespace("markdown", quietly = TRUE) &&
-    utils::packageVersion("markdown") >= "1.5"
-  ) {
+  if (utils::packageVersion("markdown") >= "1.5") {
     md_engine <- "markdown"
   } else {
     md_engine <- "commonmark"
@@ -2175,7 +2132,7 @@ data_get_image_tag <- function(file, dir = "images") {
   image_url <- file.path(repo_url, dir, file)
 
   paste0(
-    "<div align=\"center\">",
+    "<div style=\"text-align:center;\">",
     "<img ",
     "src=\"", image_url, "\" ",
     "alt=\"", alt_text, "\" ",
diff --git a/man/countrypops.Rd b/man/countrypops.Rd
index 2faba5c232..ee0e0fccc9 100644
--- a/man/countrypops.Rd
+++ b/man/countrypops.Rd
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{countrypops}.
 DATA-1
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_countrypops.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_countrypops.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/exibble.Rd b/man/exibble.Rd
index c73b4cba0a..3778640fc5 100644
--- a/man/exibble.Rd
+++ b/man/exibble.Rd
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ Here is the entirety of the \code{exibble} table.
 DATA-6
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_exibble.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_exibble.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/fmt_markdown.Rd b/man/fmt_markdown.Rd
index e93997e89c..8514d25772 100644
--- a/man/fmt_markdown.Rd
+++ b/man/fmt_markdown.Rd
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ fmt_markdown(
   data,
   columns = everything(),
   rows = everything(),
-  md_engine = c("auto", "markdown", "commonmark")
+  md_engine = c("markdown", "commonmark")
 )
 }
 \arguments{
@@ -30,10 +30,9 @@ to filter down to the rows we need (e.g.,
 \verb{[colname_1] > 100 & [colname_2] < 50}).}
 
 \item{md_engine}{The engine preference for Markdown rendering. By default,
-this is set to \code{"auto"} where \strong{gt} will choose the \strong{markdown} package
-if it is available in the user library, otherwise functions from the
-\strong{commonmark} package will be used. You can explicitly choose one or the
-other with the \code{"markdown"} or \code{"commonmark"} keyword option.}
+this is set to \code{"markdown"} where \strong{gt} will use the \strong{markdown} package
+for Markdown conversion to HTML and LaTeX. The other option is
+\code{"commonmark"} and with that the \strong{commonmark} package will be used.}
 }
 \value{
 An object of class \code{gt_tbl}.
diff --git a/man/gtcars.Rd b/man/gtcars.Rd
index f628da60c3..e68ce59d25 100644
--- a/man/gtcars.Rd
+++ b/man/gtcars.Rd
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{gtcars}.
 DATA-3
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_gtcars.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_gtcars.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/metro.Rd b/man/metro.Rd
index 136b6bd101..a01e3c4cca 100644
--- a/man/metro.Rd
+++ b/man/metro.Rd
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{metro}.
 DATA-8
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_metro.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_metro.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/pizzaplace.Rd b/man/pizzaplace.Rd
index 15c40de4c2..836e2f6420 100644
--- a/man/pizzaplace.Rd
+++ b/man/pizzaplace.Rd
@@ -144,7 +144,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the pizza data available in \code{pizzaplace}.
 DATA-5
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_pizzaplace.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_pizzaplace.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/rx_addv.Rd b/man/rx_addv.Rd
index 56b2b47867..6528aa794c 100644
--- a/man/rx_addv.Rd
+++ b/man/rx_addv.Rd
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{rx_addv}.
 DATA-10
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_rx_addv.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_rx_addv.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/rx_adsl.Rd b/man/rx_adsl.Rd
index 78bc954e0e..892f74f6f8 100644
--- a/man/rx_adsl.Rd
+++ b/man/rx_adsl.Rd
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{rx_adsl}.
 DATA-9
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_rx_adsl.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_rx_adsl.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/sp500.Rd b/man/sp500.Rd
index 32ae323417..bc13e51189 100644
--- a/man/sp500.Rd
+++ b/man/sp500.Rd
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{sp500}.
 DATA-4
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_sp500.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_sp500.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/sza.Rd b/man/sza.Rd
index 101c668488..7db4293820 100644
--- a/man/sza.Rd
+++ b/man/sza.Rd
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{sza}.
 DATA-2
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_sza.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_sza.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/towny.Rd b/man/towny.Rd
index c1a0d1190a..7084f907c9 100644
--- a/man/towny.Rd
+++ b/man/towny.Rd
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ Here is a glimpse at the data available in \code{towny}.
 DATA-7
 
 \if{html}{\out{
-<div align="center"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_towny.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
+<div style="text-align:center;"><img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rstudio/gt/master/images/dataset_towny.png" alt="This image of that of a dataset badge." style="width:50\%;padding-bottom:20px;"></div>
 }}
 }
 
diff --git a/man/vec_fmt_markdown.Rd b/man/vec_fmt_markdown.Rd
index 869e220343..e4b9990280 100644
--- a/man/vec_fmt_markdown.Rd
+++ b/man/vec_fmt_markdown.Rd
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
 \usage{
 vec_fmt_markdown(
   x,
-  md_engine = c("auto", "markdown", "commonmark"),
+  md_engine = c("markdown", "commonmark"),
   output = c("auto", "plain", "html", "latex", "rtf", "word")
 )
 }
@@ -14,10 +14,9 @@ vec_fmt_markdown(
 \item{x}{A numeric vector.}
 
 \item{md_engine}{The engine preference for Markdown rendering. By default,
-this is set to \code{"auto"} where \strong{gt} will choose the \strong{markdown} package
-if it is available in the user library, otherwise functions from the
-\strong{commonmark} package will be used. You can explicitly choose one or the
-other with the \code{"markdown"} or \code{"commonmark"} keyword option.}
+this is set to \code{"markdown"} where \strong{gt} will use the \strong{markdown} package
+for Markdown conversion to HTML and LaTeX. The other option is
+\code{"commonmark"} and with that the \strong{commonmark} package will be used.}
 
 \item{output}{The output style of the resulting character vector. This can
 either be \code{"auto"} (the default), \code{"plain"}, \code{"html"}, \code{"latex"}, \code{"rtf"},