md2pdf

md2pdf converts Markdown into structured PDF files using Pandoc, LaTeX templates, and a curated Lua filter pipeline.

Install

Requirements:

• Pandoc with Lua support
• A LaTeX distribution with pdflatex
• pandoc-crossref (optional, enabled by default)
• Python 3 (required for --asset-link)

Install from this repository:

make install

User-local install:

make PREFIX=$HOME/.local install

Quick Start

Convert a Markdown file:

md2pdf -- note.md

Select a template:

md2pdf --template article-modern -- note.md

Disable cross-references for a run:

md2pdf --no-crossref -- note.md

Run directly from source tree:

./src/app/md2pdf.sh -- doc/exp/main.md

Usage

md2pdf [options] -- <input.md> [pandoc args...]

Options:

• -o, --output <file>: output PDF path (default: <input>.pdf)
• --template <name|path>: template name or explicit .tex path
• --no-crossref: disable pandoc-crossref for the current run
• --list-templates: list available template names and exit
• --asset-link <dir>: create temporary asset symlink(s) in input directory
• --debug: print resolved paths and full Pandoc command
• --version: print version information

Use external assets without moving files:

md2pdf --asset-link ../shared-assets -- note.md

Template Catalog

Available templates:

• default: balanced default style
• article-modern: modern single-column article style
• article-stylish: editorial article style
• article-stylish-2col: lean two-column article style
• note-modern: compact note-oriented style
• report-stylish: report-oriented style

List templates from CLI:

md2pdf --list-templates

Language Handling

Set lang in front matter to control localized labels such as the table-of-contents title.

---
lang: de-DE
---

Completion

Installed completion targets:

• Bash: /usr/local/share/bash-completion/completions/md2pdf
• Zsh: /usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_md2pdf
• Fish: /usr/local/share/fish/vendor_completions.d/md2pdf.fish

Quality Checks

Run full local verification:

make verify

Run test suite only:

src/tst/run.sh

Project Structure

.
|-- doc
|   |-- exp
|   `-- ops
|-- src
|   |-- app
|   |-- lib
|   |   |-- filters
|   |   `-- templates
|   `-- tst
`-- utl
    `-- completions

License

See LICENSE. © 2026 nemron