by

Html To Pdf Pandoc



17 Nov 2018

About

Both LaTeX and HTML are both markup
  1. PDF is resulting of PANDOC conversion to.tex then pdf. You need to provide styling for LaTex, CSS won't be taken into account. With html, you can print you document using chrome to get a pdf that match the HTML rendering. It is what is used in pagedown to get pdf from the pagedjs rendering.
  2. To create PDF I use knsit/pandoc Docker container. This container has newer version of the pandoc therefore instead of -S optoin I use +smart extension in the -f option. Single stage pipeline. The example of the pipeline below will allow you to produce PDF automatically using GitLab CI engine. The.gitlab-ci.yml has the following content.
languages. They both have standardized short-hand syntax to specify how content should be styled and formatted.

17.3 Custom Pandoc templates. An R Markdown is first compiled to Markdown through knitr, and then converted to an output document (e.g., PDF, HTML, or Word) by Pandoc through a Pandoc template.While the default Pandoc templates used by R Markdown are designed to be flexible by allowing parameters to be specified in the YAML, users may wish to provide their own template for more control over. Instantly convert HTML files to PDF format with this free online converter. Nothing to install, no registration, no watermark. Click the UPLOAD FILES button and select up to 20 HTML files or ZIP archives containing HTML, images and stylesheets. Wait for the conversion process to finish and download files either one by one, using thumbnails,.

Markdown is another markup language with its own specific syntax, yet is far simpler and less verbose than either LaTeX or HTML.

The goal of markup languages is to provide simple styling rules and syntax so as to allow the author to concentrate on the content. To this end, the highly simplified syntax of the markdown languagemakes it one of the briefest and content rich formats.Unlike, many other markup languages (such as LaTeX and HTML), carriage returns and spaces form an important part of the language structure and thus influence the formatting of the final document.

Simplicity also makes markdown an ideal languagefor acting as a base source from which other formats (such as PDF, HTML, Presentations, Ebooks) can be created as well as a sort of conduit languagethrough which other formats are converted.

Pandoc is a universal document converter that converts between one markup language and another.Specifically, Pandoc can read markdown and subsets of the following formats:

  • HTML
  • LaTeX
  • Textile
  • reStructuredText
  • MediaWiki markup
  • DocBook XML
Pandoc can write the following formats:
  • plain text
  • markdown
  • HTML (XHTML, HTML5>)
  • LaTeX
  • PDF (when LaTeX installed)
  • Various HTML/Javascrip based slide shows (Slidy, Slideous, DZSlides, S5)
  • EPUB
  • Emacs org-mode
  • Rich Text Format (RTF)
  • OpenDocument XML
  • LibreOffice (Open Document Format, ODT)
  • Microsoft Word DOCX
  • MediaWiki markup
  • FictionBook2
  • Textile
  • groff man pages
  • AsciiDoc

Many of the above markup languages feature extensive definitions for styling and formattingrules that do not have direct equivalents within other languages. For example, Cascading Style Sheets and Javascriptwithin HTML provide advanced styling and dynamic presentation of content that cannot be easily translated into other languages. Similarly, there are many macros available for LaTeX that enhance the styling and formattingof content relevant to PDF. Consequently, not all of the more advanced features of each of the languages are supported by Pandoc for conversion.

Pandoc fully supports markdown as an input language, making markdown a popular base language to create content from which other formats can be generated.For example, contents authored in markdown can then be converted into PDF, HTML, HTML presentations, eBooks and others. There are currently numerous dialects of the markdown language. Pandoc has its own enhanced dialect of markdownwhich includes syntax for bibliographies and citations, footnotes, code blocks, tables, enhanced lists, tables of contents, embedded LaTeX math.

This tutorial will focus on markdown as a base source language from which PDF, HTML, presentations and eBooks are created.As a result, the tutorial will focus on Pandoc's enhanced markdown.

Using Pandoc

Pandoc is a command line application with the basic use of:where output.file is the name of the output file and input.file is the name of the input file or files (space separated).Pandoc uses the file extensions to determine the input and output formats. If multipleinput files are specified, Pandoc will first concatenate (join) them together before parsing the combined input file.

Before going through the specifics of the Pandoc markdown syntax and the Pandoc options, I will illustratea very basic example of Pandoc markdown conversion into a PDF, HTML and DZSlides presentation.Note, in the case of the PDF, the default is to produce a A4 size page, and therefore the font in theexample below is going to look small.

Markdown (*.md)PDF result (*.pdf)

HTML result (*.html)
DZSlides result (*.html)

Pandoc markdown

The basic philosophy of markdown is that a document formatted in markdown is completelyreadable in plain text without any obvious tags or formatting instructions. That is, the formatting rules are derived almost entirely from the structure of the plain text document.Furthermore, any additional 'markup' (such as underlined text) should not appear out of place in a plain text document.

Pandoc's dialect of markdown, whilst retaining some of this philosophy for most elements, is nevertheless guided by its aims to support multiple input and output formats (not just markdown -> HTML).

Paragraphs

Paragraphs of text are specified by separating sentences by one or more blank lines.Hard line breaks within paragraphs can be specified by placing two or more spaces at the end of a sentence followed by a line break.

Using Pandoc

Pandoc is a command line application with the basic use of:where output.file is the name of the output file and input.file is the name of the input file or files (space separated).Pandoc uses the file extensions to determine the input and output formats. If multipleinput files are specified, Pandoc will first concatenate (join) them together before parsing the combined input file.

Before going through the specifics of the Pandoc markdown syntax and the Pandoc options, I will illustratea very basic example of Pandoc markdown conversion into a PDF, HTML, presentation and eBook.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

The metadata block

You may have noticed in the examples above, that at the start of the markdown there were a block of linesstarting with three hypens (---) and ending with three dots (...).When processed via pandoc, these linesdefine the document's meta data (such as the title, author and creation date).

The meta data are a set of key value pairs in YAML format. The list of useful metadata depends on theintended output.

Note however, the metadata block only appears in the output when the --standalone (or -s) switch is used.

The following rules can be applied to field different outcomes:

  • The three fields must be in order of title, author(s), date with each on a separate line
  • When omitting a field, the field must be left as a line just containing the % character
  • Multiple authors can be defined by either:
    • separating each author by a ; (semicolon) character
    • placing each author on a separate line (indented by a single space)

Text formatting

Brief changes to font styles within a block of text can be effective at emphasizing or applying different meanings to characters.Common text modifier styles are: italic, bold and strikethrough.

The following table indicates the mardown used to achieve these text formats.
MarkdownFont type
*Italic text* or _Italic text_Italic text
**bold text** or __bold text__bold text
~~strikethrough~~strikethrough text
`courier` or ``courier``courier or typewriter font shape.

Note, underlined text is not defined in any dialect of markdown (including pandoc markdown) as the developers believe that the underline style is a relic of the days of typewriters when there where fewalternatives for emphasizing words. Furthermore, underlining of regular words within a sentence tends to breakthe aesthetic spacing of lines.

Subscript and Superscript

  • subscripts are supported by surrounding the content to be lowered by ~ characters
  • superscripts are supported by surrounding the content to be raised by ^ characters
If the content to be raised or lowered contains spaces, then they must be escaped by proceeding the space with a character.
Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Additional mathematical and symbol notation will be illustrated in a later section.

Section headings

Pandoc markdown supports two heading formats (pandoc markdown headings must be proceeded by a blank line):

  • Setext-style headings. Level 1 headings are specified by underlining the heading with a row of = charactersand level 2 headings are specified by underlining with a row of - characters.
    Markdown (*.md)
    Show HTML output
    Show PDF output
    Setext-style headings only support level 1 and level 2 headings.
  • Atx-style headings. Levels 1-6 headings comprise one to six # characters followed by the heading text.by underlining the heading with a row of = characters.
    Markdown (*.md)
    Show HTML output
    Show PDF output

Table of contents

A table of contents can be included by issuing the --toc command line switch to pandoc.For some output formats (such as HTML), a block of links to section headings is created, whilst for others (such as LaTeX), an instruction (tableofcontentsfor the external driver to create the table of contents is generated.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Block quotations

Block quotations in pandoc markdown follows email conventions - that is, each line is proceeded by a > character.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Verbatim (code) blocks

Verbatim blocks are typically used to represent blocks of code syntax. The text within the verbatim block is rendered literally as it is typed (retaining all spaces and line breaks) and in monoscript font (typically courier). In pandoc markdown, verbatim text blocks are specified by indenting a block of text by either four spaces or a tab character.Within verbatim text, regular pandoc markdown formatting rules (due to spaces etc) are ignored.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output
Pandoc pdf to word

Alternatively, verbatim blocks can be specified without indentation if the text block is surrounded by a row of three or more ~ characters. This format is often referred to as fenced code.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Lists

There are three basic list environments available within pandoc markdown:

  • Bullet lists - un-numbered itemized lists
  • Ordered lists - enumerated lists
  • Definition lists - descriptive lists

Pandoc Html To Pdf Page Break

Bullet lists

A bullet list item begins with either a *, + or - character followed by a single space. Bullets can also be indented.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Ordered lists

An ordered list item begins with a number followed by a space. The list enumerator can be a decimal number or a roman numeral. In addition to the enumerator, other formatting characters can be used to further define the format of the list numbering.
Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output
Note that only the value of the number used for the first item is considered. For subsequent list items the value of the numbers themselves are ignored, they are merely used to confirm that the list items have the same sort of enumerator.

Definition lists

The term (word or phrase) must fit on a single line and the definition must start with either a colon (:) or tilde (~) and be indented by four or more spaces.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Nesting and the four space rule

To include multiple paragraphs (or other blocked content) within a list item or nested lists, the content must be indented by four or more spaces from the main list item.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

List ends

Normally, pandoc considers a list as complete when a blank line is followed by non-indented text (as markdown does not have starting and ending tags).However, if you wish to place indented text directly after a list, it is necessary to provide an explicit indication that the list is complete.This is done with the <!-- end of list --> marker.

Similarly, if you wish to place one list directly following on from another list, a <!-- --> markermust be used between the two lists so as to explicitly separate them.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Horizontal lines (rules)

Horizontal lines are indicated by a row of three or more *, - or _ characters (optionally separated by spaces) witha blank row either side.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Tables

As markdown is a very minimalist markup language that aims to be reasonably well formattedeven read as plain text, table formatting must be defined by layout features that have meaning in plain text

Simple tables

The number of columns as well as column alignment are determined by the relative positions of the table headings and dashed row underneath:
  • if the dashed line is flush with the end of the column header, yet extends to the left of the start of the header text, then the column will be right aligned
  • if the dashed line is flush with the start of the column header, yet extends to the right of the end of the header text, then the column will be left aligned
  • if the dashed line extends to the left of the start and right of the end of the header text, then the column will be center aligned
  • if the dashed line is flush with the start and end of the header text, then the column will follow the default justification (typically left justified)

The table must finish in either a blank line or a row of dashes mirroring those below the header followed by a blank row.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Multiline tables

Simple tables can be extended to allow cell contents to span multiple lines. This imposes the following additionallayout requirements:

  • The table must start with a row of dashes that spans the full width of the table
  • The table must end with a row of dashes that spans the full width of the table followed by a blank line
  • Each table row must be separated by a blank line
Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Grid tables

Grid tables have a little more adornment in that they use characters to mark all the cell boundaries.However, by explicitly defining the bounds of a cell, grid tables permit more complex cell contents.A grid table for example, can contain a list or a code block etc.

Cell corners are marked by + characters and the table header and main body are separated by a row of = characters

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Although, grid tables require substantially more setup, emacs users will welcome that grid tables are compatible with emacs table mode.

Convert Htm To Pdf Free

Pipe tables

Finally, there are also pipe tables. These are somewhat similar to grid tables in requiring a little more explicit specification of cell boundaries, however, unlike grid tables, they have a means to configure column alignment. Cell alignment is specified via the use of : characters (see example below)..Nor is it necessary to indicate cell corners.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Again, emacs users will appreciate that pipe tables are compatible with orgtbl-mode.

Math

Markdown leverages TeX math processing. Whilst this does technically break the rules that promote source documents that are readable in text only mode, the payoff is that math is rendered nicely in the various derivative documents (such as pdf or html). In fact, math are passed straight through to the derivative document allowing that document (or is reader) to handle TeX math as appropriate.

Inline math is defined as anything within a pair of $ characters and for math in its own environment (paragraph), use a pair of $$ characters.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Referencing

Referencing is the linking of information and content between different parts of a document or even between documents. These are alternatively referred to as links (particularly in the context of web documents).

Internal links

Internal links make use of the section identifiers that are automatically generated. That is, section headings are automatically defined as labels for referencing. Therefore, to reference (link to) a section simply involves using the target section header as a reference label in the following The in text label is a word or phrase that should appear as the link in the text, and reference label is the title of the section you wish to link to. Note, there should not be any spaces between the square braces and the brackets.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

To link to arbitrary parts of the document (non sections), it is necessary toinclude a point marker with a reference label, so that there is something to link to.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

External links

Linking to external documents follows a similar format:
Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Images

Images are not displayed in plain text (obviously). However, an image link in pandoc markdownwill insert the image into the various derivative document types (if appropriate), Image links aredefined in a similar manner to other links, yet preceded immediately by a ! character.

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Footnotes

Footnotes consist of a placemarker and the footnote text

Markdown (*.md)
Show HTML output
Show PDF output

Further reading

With Pandoc, it is possible to use a CSS stylesheet while converting Markdown to HTML.

This is the basic format of the command:

Assuming you have the custom CSS ready. If not, one possibility is to use a classless CSS stylesheet. I came accross MVP.css recently and liked how it looked.

To use MVP.css for documenting a project I’m working on, I had to make some modifications to Pandoc’s default HTML template. These are the steps I followed.

First, I saved the default template to a file:

And then, made the following changes in template.html:

  • Move TOC to a dropdown menu in site navigation
  • Add a button with a link to the project website
  • Update colour scheme using CSS variables and made some minor adjustments to styles

After adding some YAML metadata 1 to README.md, I ran pandoc again with the modified template and CSS file to generate the final output:

Html To Pdf Pandas

You can get the modified template, MVP.css, a Makefile, and input and output files from this repository on GitLab.

These links might be useful:

  • Pandoc home page
  • Pandoc usage examples
  • Pandoc documentation on templates
  • I also like the Sakura stylesheet
  • More classless css stylesheets

Pandoc Html Page To Pdf

  1. Otherwise these variables will need to be provided on the command line. ↩