PDF Generation Skill

Professional PDF documentation generation.

Capabilities

• Markdown to PDF conversion
• Custom PDF templates and styling
• Table of contents generation
• Cross-reference and link handling
• Image optimization for print
• PDF/A compliance for archival
• Multi-chapter document assembly
• Cover page and headers/footers

Usage

Invoke this skill when you need to:

• Generate PDF documentation from Markdown
• Create printable user guides
• Archive documentation as PDF
• Produce branded PDF output
• Build multi-chapter manuals

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
inputPath	string	Yes	Path to Markdown source(s)
outputPath	string	Yes	Output PDF file path
template	string	No	Path to PDF template
config	object	No	PDF generation options
metadata	object	No	Document metadata
toc	boolean	No	Generate table of contents

Input Example

{
  "inputPath": "./docs",
  "outputPath": "./output/documentation.pdf",
  "template": "./templates/manual.html",
  "toc": true,
  "metadata": {
    "title": "Product Documentation",
    "author": "Documentation Team",
    "version": "1.0.0"
  }
}

Output Structure

Single PDF Output

output/
└── documentation.pdf
    ├── Cover page
    ├── Table of Contents
    ├── Chapter 1: Getting Started
    │   ├── Installation
    │   └── Quick Start
    ├── Chapter 2: User Guide
    │   ├── Configuration
    │   └── Features
    ├── Chapter 3: API Reference
    └── Appendix

Multi-PDF Output

output/
├── getting-started.pdf
├── user-guide.pdf
├── api-reference.pdf
└── complete-manual.pdf

Pandoc Configuration

pandoc-defaults.yaml

from: markdown+smart+yaml_metadata_block+implicit_figures+table_captions
to: pdf
pdf-engine: xelatex

variables:
  documentclass: report
  papersize: letter
  fontsize: 11pt
  geometry:
    - margin=1in
    - top=1.25in
    - bottom=1.25in
  mainfont: "Source Serif Pro"
  sansfont: "Source Sans Pro"
  monofont: "Source Code Pro"
  linkcolor: blue
  urlcolor: blue
  toccolor: black
  toc-depth: 3

include-before-body:
  - cover.tex

include-in-header:
  - preamble.tex

metadata:
  title: "Documentation"
  author: "Documentation Team"
  date: "2026-01-24"
  lang: en-US

toc: true
toc-title: "Table of Contents"
number-sections: true
colorlinks: true
highlight-style: pygments

LaTeX Preamble (preamble.tex)

% Custom styling
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{titlesec}
\usepackage{xcolor}
\usepackage{listings}
\usepackage{graphicx}

% Header/Footer
\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhf{}
\fancyhead[L]{\leftmark}
\fancyhead[R]{\thepage}
\fancyfoot[C]{\small Documentation v1.0}

% Code block styling
\lstset{
    basicstyle=\ttfamily\small,
    breaklines=true,
    frame=single,
    backgroundcolor=\color{gray!10}
}

% Heading styles
\titleformat{\chapter}[display]
  {\normalfont\huge\bfseries}
  {\chaptertitlename\ \thechapter}{20pt}{\Huge}

% Link colors
\definecolor{linkblue}{RGB}{0,102,204}

WeasyPrint Configuration

weasyprint-config.css

@page {
    size: letter;
    margin: 1in;
    margin-top: 1.25in;
    margin-bottom: 1.25in;

    @top-center {
        content: string(chapter-title);
        font-size: 10pt;
        color: #666;
    }

    @bottom-center {
        content: "Page " counter(page) " of " counter(pages);
        font-size: 9pt;
    }
}

@page :first {
    @top-center { content: none; }
    @bottom-center { content: none; }
}

/* Cover page */
.cover {
    page: cover;
    text-align: center;
    padding-top: 3in;
}

.cover h1 {
    font-size: 36pt;
    color: #333;
}

.cover .version {
    font-size: 14pt;
    color: #666;
    margin-top: 1in;
}

/* Table of contents */
#toc {
    page-break-after: always;
}

#toc h2 {
    font-size: 24pt;
    margin-bottom: 0.5in;
}

#toc a {
    text-decoration: none;
    color: inherit;
}

#toc a::after {
    content: leader('.') target-counter(attr(href), page);
}

/* Chapters */
h1 {
    string-set: chapter-title content();
    page-break-before: always;
    font-size: 28pt;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #333;
    padding-bottom: 0.25in;
}

h2 { font-size: 20pt; margin-top: 0.5in; }
h3 { font-size: 16pt; margin-top: 0.3in; }

/* Code blocks */
pre {
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
    padding: 0.5em;
    border-radius: 4px;
    font-size: 9pt;
    overflow-x: auto;
    page-break-inside: avoid;
}

code {
    font-family: "Source Code Pro", monospace;
    background-color: #f0f0f0;
    padding: 0.1em 0.3em;
    border-radius: 3px;
}

/* Tables */
table {
    width: 100%;
    border-collapse: collapse;
    margin: 1em 0;
    page-break-inside: avoid;
}

th, td {
    border: 1px solid #ddd;
    padding: 0.5em;
    text-align: left;
}

th {
    background-color: #f5f5f5;
    font-weight: bold;
}

/* Images */
img {
    max-width: 100%;
    height: auto;
}

figure {
    text-align: center;
    page-break-inside: avoid;
}

figcaption {
    font-style: italic;
    color: #666;
    margin-top: 0.5em;
}

/* Links */
a {
    color: #0066cc;
    text-decoration: none;
}

/* Print optimizations */
@media print {
    a[href^="http"]::after {
        content: " (" attr(href) ")";
        font-size: 0.8em;
        color: #666;
    }
}

Cover Page Template

cover.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
    <style>
        body {
            font-family: "Source Sans Pro", sans-serif;
            text-align: center;
            padding-top: 200px;
        }
        .logo {
            max-width: 200px;
            margin-bottom: 50px;
        }
        h1 {
            font-size: 48px;
            color: #333;
            margin-bottom: 20px;
        }
        .subtitle {
            font-size: 24px;
            color: #666;
            margin-bottom: 100px;
        }
        .version {
            font-size: 18px;
            color: #999;
        }
        .date {
            font-size: 14px;
            color: #999;
            margin-top: 10px;
        }
        .footer {
            position: absolute;
            bottom: 50px;
            width: 100%;
            text-align: center;
            color: #666;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
    <img src="logo.png" alt="Company Logo" class="logo">
    <h1>{{title}}</h1>
    <p class="subtitle">{{subtitle}}</p>
    <p class="version">Version {{version}}</p>
    <p class="date">{{date}}</p>
    <div class="footer">
        <p>{{company}}</p>
        <p>Confidential</p>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

Multi-Chapter Assembly

build-manual.js

const pandoc = require('pandoc');
const fs = require('fs');
const path = require('path');

async function buildManual(config) {
  const chapters = [
    { title: 'Getting Started', files: ['intro.md', 'installation.md', 'quickstart.md'] },
    { title: 'User Guide', files: ['configuration.md', 'features.md', 'advanced.md'] },
    { title: 'API Reference', files: ['api/*.md'] },
    { title: 'Appendix', files: ['glossary.md', 'changelog.md'] }
  ];

  // Combine all Markdown files
  let combined = '';

  for (const chapter of chapters) {
    combined += `# ${chapter.title}\n\n`;

    for (const filePattern of chapter.files) {
      const files = glob.sync(filePattern, { cwd: config.docsDir });
      for (const file of files) {
        const content = fs.readFileSync(path.join(config.docsDir, file), 'utf8');
        // Adjust heading levels
        const adjusted = adjustHeadings(content, 1);
        combined += adjusted + '\n\n';
      }
    }
  }

  // Write combined file
  const tempFile = '/tmp/combined.md';
  fs.writeFileSync(tempFile, combined);

  // Run Pandoc
  await pandoc({
    input: tempFile,
    output: config.outputPath,
    args: [
      '--defaults', config.pandocDefaults,
      '--metadata-file', config.metadataFile
    ]
  });

  return { output: config.outputPath };
}

PDF/A Compliance

Generate Archival PDF

# Using Pandoc with PDF/A output
pandoc input.md \
  -o output.pdf \
  --pdf-engine=xelatex \
  -V 'pdfa=1b' \
  --include-in-header=pdfa-header.tex

# pdfa-header.tex
\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
    pdfstartview=,
    colorlinks=false,
    pdfpagelayout=SinglePage
}
\usepackage[a-1b]{pdfx}

Workflow

1. Collect sources - Gather Markdown files
2. Preprocess - Handle includes and variables
3. Convert - Transform Markdown to intermediate format
4. Apply template - Add styling and structure
5. Generate TOC - Build table of contents
6. Render PDF - Output final PDF
7. Optimize - Compress images and fonts

Dependencies

{
  "devDependencies": {
    "pandoc": "^0.2.0",
    "weasyprint": "via pip",
    "puppeteer": "^21.0.0",
    "pdf-lib": "^1.17.0"
  }
}

System Dependencies

# macOS
brew install pandoc
brew install --cask basictex
pip install weasyprint

# Ubuntu
sudo apt install pandoc texlive-xetex texlive-fonts-recommended
pip install weasyprint

# Windows (via Chocolatey)
choco install pandoc miktex
pip install weasyprint

CLI Commands

# Single file with Pandoc
pandoc input.md -o output.pdf --defaults pandoc-defaults.yaml

# Multiple files combined
pandoc docs/*.md -o manual.pdf --toc --number-sections

# Using WeasyPrint
weasyprint input.html output.pdf -s style.css

# Using Puppeteer (for HTML-based PDFs)
node generate-pdf.js --input docs/ --output manual.pdf

Best Practices Applied

• Use vector graphics when possible
• Optimize images for print (300 DPI)
• Include page numbers and headers
• Generate hyperlinked TOC
• Handle page breaks for code blocks
• Embed fonts for consistency
• Test on different PDF readers

References

• Pandoc: https://pandoc.org/
• WeasyPrint: https://weasyprint.org/
• LaTeX: https://www.latex-project.org/
• PDF/A: https://www.pdfa.org/

Target Processes

• docs-versioning.js
• user-guide-docs.js
• runbook-docs.js
• adr-docs.js