md2pdf
Convert markdown files to professionally formatted PDF documents using pandoc.
Instructions
When the user asks to convert a markdown file to PDF, follow these steps:
- Verify pandoc is installed
- Run pandoc --version to check if pandoc is available - If not installed, provide installation instructions for the user's platform: - macOS: brew install pandoc - Linux: sudo apt-get install pandoc or sudo yum install pandoc - Windows: Download from https://pandoc.org/installing.html
- Check for PDF engine
- Pandoc requires a PDF engine (LaTeX). Check if available with pdflatex --version - If not installed: - macOS: brew install --cask mactex-no-gui (smaller) or brew install --cask mactex (full) - Linux: sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base texlive-fonts-recommended - Alternative: Use wkhtmltopdf as PDF engine
- Convert the markdown file
- Basic conversion: pandoc input.md -o output.pdf - With options for better formatting: pandoc input.md -o output.pdf \ --pdf-engine=pdflatex \ -V geometry:margin=1in \ -V fontsize=11pt \ --highlight-style=tango
- Common options
- --toc: Add table of contents - --toc-depth=2: Set TOC depth - -V geometry:margin=1in: Set page margins - -V fontsize=11pt: Set font size (10pt, 11pt, 12pt) - --highlight-style=tango: Syntax highlighting for code blocks - -V colorlinks=true: Enable colored links in PDF - --metadata title="Document Title": Set PDF title - --metadata author="Author Name": Set PDF author
- Verify output
- Confirm the PDF was created successfully - Report the output file path to the user
Examples
Example 1: Basic conversion
User: Convert README.md to PDF
Assistant: I'll convert README.md to PDF using pandoc.
[Runs: pandoc README.md -o README.pdf]
Successfully converted README.md to README.pdfExample 2: Conversion with formatting options
User: Convert CLAUDE.md to PDF with a table of contents
Assistant: I'll convert CLAUDE.md to PDF with a table of contents and formatting.
[Runs: pandoc CLAUDE.md -o CLAUDE.pdf --toc -V geometry:margin=1in -V fontsize=11pt]
Successfully converted CLAUDE.md to CLAUDE.pdf with table of contentsExample 3: Converting with custom output name
User: Convert docs/guide.md to a PDF called user-guide.pdf
Assistant: I'll convert docs/guide.md to user-guide.pdf
[Runs: pandoc docs/guide.md -o user-guide.pdf -V geometry:margin=1in --highlight-style=tango]
Successfully converted docs/guide.md to user-guide.pdfExample 4: Batch conversion
User: Convert all markdown files in the docs/ folder to PDF
Assistant: I'll convert all markdown files in docs/ to PDF
[Runs: for file in docs/*.md; do pandoc "$file" -o "${file%.md}.pdf"; done]
Successfully converted:
- docs/guide.md → docs/guide.pdf
- docs/api.md → docs/api.pdf
- docs/tutorial.md → docs/tutorial.pdfTroubleshooting
- If pandoc is not installed, guide the user to install it first
- If PDF engine is missing, suggest installing LaTeX or using an alternative engine
- For large documents, add
--pdf-engine-opt=-shell-escapeif needed - If images are not rendering, ensure image paths are correct and accessible