PDF Craft

PDF Craft

Claude's default document is instantly recognizable: Helvetica or Times, a centered bold title, an unbroken ladder of H1/H2/H3, bullets everywhere, one blue accent, uniform margins. It reads as an outline someone forgot to design. This skill replaces that with a deliberate typographic choice per document, and forces those choices to differ across documents.

Two failures to prevent, in order:

1. Boring - no design decision was made, so the default happened.
2. Same - a decision was made once and then repeated forever.

Workflow

1. Write the design brief first

Before any HTML, state these five decisions in one short block and put them as an HTML comment at the top of the file. No brief, no document.

2. Check the ledger, then pick a different style

tail -5 ~/.claude/skills/pdf-craft/.ledger 2>/dev/null

Do not reuse the most recent house style unless the archetype genuinely demands it. If it does, change the page geometry and type pair so the document still reads as its own thing. After rendering, append one line:

echo "$(date +%F) | <style> | <doc name>" >> ~/.claude/skills/pdf-craft/.ledger

3. Fetch fonts (only if using webfonts)

node ~/.claude/skills/pdf-craft/scripts/getfont.mjs "Newsreader:400,600,400italic" "Sora:600"

Prints @font-face CSS pointing at local cached files - paste it into the document's <style>. Skip this entirely and use the verified local fonts if offline.

4. Render

node ~/.claude/skills/pdf-craft/scripts/topdf.mjs doc.html --out=doc.pdf --margin=20 \
     --header="Document title" [--footer="Confidential"] [--no-number] [--landscape]

Page numbers are on by default. The renderer waits for webfonts and prints WARNING unloaded @font-face: if any failed - never ignore that line, it means the PDF silently fell back to Times.

5. Verify before reporting done

node ~/.claude/skills/pdf-craft/scripts/checkpdf.mjs doc.pdf

Confirms page count, page size, and embedded fonts. If TimesNewRoman appears and you did not ask for it, a font failed - fix it before showing the user.

Environment facts (verified on this machine - do not re-derive)

• Renderer is headless Chrome via DevTools Protocol. No pandoc, weasyprint, or typst.
• Variable fonts do not embed. They fall back to Times, silently. This killed Bahnschrift, Sitka Text, and Fraunces VF in testing. Use static instances only.
• Headless Chrome will not fetch remote fonts. A Google Fonts @import or <link> loads nothing, even with a long --virtual-time-budget. Fonts must be downloaded and referenced as local file:/// URLs - that is what getfont.mjs does.
• Google's API serves a variable file when you request several weights at once, and a true static instance when you request one weight at a time. getfont.mjs handles this.
• Quote every multi-word font family in CSS. Unquoted Sitka Text can invalidate the whole declaration and drop you to Times.
• @page { size: ... } is honored. Set size only - margins come from --margin, because the header and footer sit in that space.
• Chrome ignores @page margin boxes (@bottom-center), which is why page numbers come from the renderer instead.

Local fonts, verified to embed

Serif: Georgia Constantia Cambria Palatino Linotype Book Antiqua Bookman Old Style Garamond Century Sans: Candara Corbel Segoe UI Franklin Gothic Medium Century Gothic Trebuchet MS Verdana Tahoma Calibri Arial Narrow Ebrima Gadugi Mono: Consolas Lucida Console

Always end a stack with a generic: font-family: "Constantia", Georgia, serif.

House styles

Pick by archetype. Each is a full specification - do not blend them into mush. example/editorial.html is a working implementation of style A (floated margin sidenotes, raised initial, book-style paragraph indents) - read it before building a document from scratch.

A. Editorial - long-form report, essay, whitepaper

Reader studies it. Asymmetric page: a wide text column with a narrow sidenote margin.

• Page A4, --margin=22, text column ~110mm, sidenotes in the outer margin
• Type: Newsreader:400,600,400italic text at 11pt/1.55 + Sora:600 display (local: Constantia + Corbel)
• Ink #1b1917 on #fdfcfa; accent #8a3324 (burnt sienna)
• Hierarchy: headings by weight and space, not size jumps. No rules
• Signature: sidenotes set at 8.5pt in the margin; opening paragraph with a raised initial

B. Technical brief - RFC, design doc, postmortem

Reader navigates and cites. Numbered, dense, scannable.

• Page A4, --margin=18, single column
• Type: IBM Plex Sans:400,600 + IBM Plex Mono:400 (local: Segoe UI + Consolas)
• Ink #111418; accent #0f6b5c (deep teal); rules #d8dde3
• Hierarchy: decimal numbering (1., 1.1) hanging in the margin, hairline rule under H2
• Signature: spec tables with tabular numerals; inline code on a tinted ground

C. Executive memo - decision document, 1-3 pages

Reader decides in ninety seconds. Whitespace is the design.

• Page A4, --margin=28, short measure (~95mm), lots of air
• Type: Source Serif 4:400,600 at 11.5pt/1.6 (local: Palatino Linotype + Candara)
• Ink #1a1a1a on white; accent #7a5c2e (bronze)
• Hierarchy: a boxed Decision required block at the top, then at most two levels
• Signature: lead paragraph at 13pt; bullets banned - use short prose blocks

D. Data report - metrics, tables, charts

Reader compares numbers. Typography serves the table.

• Page A4, --landscape when tables are wide, --margin=16
• Type: Inter:400,600 with font-feature-settings:"tnum" (local: Corbel, which has real tabular figures)
• Ink #15181d; accent #1f5f8b; positive #2f7a4d, negative #a33a2e
• Hierarchy: table rules only at header and total; no zebra striping, no vertical rules
• Signature: numbers right-aligned on the decimal, units in the header not the cells

E. Field guide - manual, runbook, how-to

Reader follows along, hands busy.

• Page A5 (@page{size:148mm 210mm}) or A4 two-column, --margin=16
• Type: Atkinson Hyperlegible:400,700 (local: Verdana + Franklin Gothic Medium)
• Ink #1c1c1c; accent #b4531a; caution ground #fff4e6
• Hierarchy: big numbered step markers hanging in the left margin
• Signature: each step is a break-inside: avoid block; callouts as tinted panels

F. Proposal - pitch, client-facing, persuasive

Reader is being convinced. Presentation matters more than density.

• Page A4, --margin=20, cover page plus section openers
• Type: Fraunces:600 display (static only) + Work Sans:400,500 text (local: Book Antiqua + Segoe UI)
• Ink #14161a; accent from the client's brand if known, else #2d4a7c
• Hierarchy: full-width section openers with the number set large and pale
• Signature: cover with a full-bleed accent band; pull quotes at 16pt between sections

Never (these are the default tells)

• Arial, Helvetica, Times, or Calibri as the chosen text face
• A centered bold title followed immediately by H1/H2/H3 with nothing between
• Bullets as the primary structure - most points are sentences
• Generic blue #2563eb-family accents; purple gradients; emoji as bullets or icons
• Uniform margins on every side with a full-measure text column (over 90 characters)
• Equal vertical space above and below a heading - space belongs above
• More than three type sizes, or bold used for more than one job
• Tables with a grey header, full gridlines, and zebra stripes

Print craft

@page { size: A4 }                      /* size only - margins come from --margin */
body { margin: 0; -webkit-print-color-adjust: exact; text-wrap: pretty }
p { orphans: 3; widows: 3; margin: 0 0 0.7em }
h1, h2, h3 { break-after: avoid; margin: 1.6em 0 0.45em }   /* space above, not below */
figure, table, .step, blockquote { break-inside: avoid }
thead { display: table-header-group }    /* repeats headers across page breaks */
.page-break { break-before: page }
td.num { font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums; text-align: right }

• Measure: 60-75 characters. Shorten the column, do not widen the margin.
• Images and any local asset need file:/// URLs to load.
• break-inside: avoid is the reliable guarantee; treat orphans and widows as hints.
• Set the leading with the measure: longer line, more leading.

Quick prompt version

When the skill is not available (claude.ai, another tool), paste this:

Before writing anything, give me a five-line design brief: archetype, house style, page size and margin, type pairing with weights, and one accent colour. Then build the document to that brief. Banned: Arial/Helvetica/Times/Calibri as the chosen face, centered bold title over an H1/H2/H3 ladder, bullets as the main structure, generic blue accents, gradients, emoji bullets, uniform margins with a full-width text column, more than three type sizes. Space goes above headings, not below. Measure stays 60-75 characters. Tell me which style you chose last time and pick a different one.