Quickstart

pandoc Quickstart

pandoc is a universal document converter that reads and writes in dozens of formats.

Installation

brew install pandoc

Basic Usage

Convert Markdown to HTML

pandoc README.md -o README.html

Convert to PDF (requires pdflatex or wkhtmltopdf)

pandoc document.md -o document.pdf

Convert Word to Markdown

pandoc document.docx -o document.md

Multiple formats

pandoc slides.md -t revealjs -o slides.html  # Reveal.js slides
pandoc article.md -t latex -o article.tex     # LaTeX
pandoc notes.md -t epub -o notes.epub         # EPUB

Common Conversions

• Markdown → HTML, PDF, LaTeX, Word, EPUB
• HTML → Markdown, PDF, Word
• LaTeX → HTML, Word, PDF
• Docx → Markdown, HTML, PDF
• Epub → Markdown, HTML

Key Options

• -f FORMAT - Input format (auto-detected from extension)
• -t FORMAT - Output format
• -o FILE - Output file
• --template FILE - Use custom template
• --css STYLE.css - Include CSS stylesheet
• --toc - Generate table of contents
• -V VAR=VALUE - Set template variable
• --standalone - Produce standalone document
• --number-sections - Number sections

Real-world Examples

Batch convert Markdown files

for f in *.md; do pandoc "$f" -o "${f%.md}.html"; done

Generate PDF with styling

pandoc document.md --css style.css -V margin=2cm -o document.pdf

Convert with table of contents

pandoc README.md --toc -o README.html

Markdown slides to Beamer PDF

pandoc slides.md -t beamer -o slides.pdf

Resources

• Official Documentation
• GitHub Repository