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.pdf

Example 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 contents

Example 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.pdf

Example 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.pdf

Troubleshooting

• 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-escape if needed

• If images are not rendering, ensure image paths are correct and accessible