Markdown To PDF

Markdown to PDF Skill

Convert markdown documents to high-quality PDFs with dark mode support, proper ASCII diagram rendering, and professional table formatting.

Features

• Dark mode theme (default) with Catppuccin Mocha colors
• Light mode theme with Catppuccin Latte colors
• Print mode theme - printer-friendly black & white, high contrast
• ASCII diagram support with proper monospace font alignment
• Unicode icon support (checkmarks, emojis, etc.)
• Professional table formatting with alternating row colors
• Code block syntax highlighting optimized for readability

Usage

Basic Conversion (Dark Mode)

python ~/.claude/skills/markdown-to-pdf/scripts/md2pdf.py document.md

Specify Output File

python ~/.claude/skills/markdown-to-pdf/scripts/md2pdf.py document.md -o output.pdf

Light Mode

python ~/.claude/skills/markdown-to-pdf/scripts/md2pdf.py document.md --light

Print Mode (Black & White)

python ~/.claude/skills/markdown-to-pdf/scripts/md2pdf.py document.md --print

Best for physical printing - uses only black, white, and grays for maximum legibility and toner efficiency.

Custom CSS

python ~/.claude/skills/markdown-to-pdf/scripts/md2pdf.py document.md --css custom.css

Send to Printer

Add --print-to to send the PDF directly to a printer after conversion:

python ~/.claude/skills/markdown-to-pdf/scripts/md2pdf.py document.md --print --print-to brother

This converts to PDF (using print-friendly theme) and sends it straight to the printer via lp. The --print-to flag takes a CUPS printer name.

Printing an existing PDF (no conversion needed):

lp -d brother document.pdf

Available Printers

The system has CUPS configured with:

• brother — Brother printer (default)

To check printer status: lpstat -p

Output

The script outputs file:// URLs for the created PDFs. Always include these URLs in your response to the user so they can easily open the files in their browser or PDF viewer.

Requirements

The following packages must be installed:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S pandoc python-weasyprint

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install pandoc weasyprint

# macOS
brew install pandoc
pip install weasyprint

Bundled Assets

• assets/dark-mode.css - Catppuccin Mocha dark theme
• assets/light-mode.css - Catppuccin Latte light theme
• assets/print-mode.css - Printer-friendly black & white theme

Technical Notes

ASCII Diagram Rendering

The CSS is optimized for ASCII art with:

• DejaVu Sans Mono as the primary monospace font
• Zero letter-spacing to ensure box characters align
• Proper line-height (1.3) for connected box drawings
• white-space: pre to preserve exact spacing

Color Printing

The stylesheets include print-color-adjust: exact to ensure background colors render correctly when printing to PDF.

Page Breaks

To force a page break, use:

<div class="page-break"></div>

Troubleshooting

Missing fonts

Install DejaVu fonts for best ASCII diagram rendering:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt install fonts-dejavu

Icons not rendering

Ensure Noto Color Emoji or similar emoji font is installed:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S noto-fonts-emoji