markdown2pdf 1.2.0

markdown2pdf converts Markdown to PDF through a fully in-tree pipeline: a CommonMark/GFM lexer, a TOML-driven style resolver, and a layout engine built directly on printpdf. There is no intermediate HTML and no third-party document engine.

It ships as both a binary and a library. The binary converts from a file, URL, or string on the command line; the library exposes programmatic generation with full control over styling and fonts. Configuration is loaded at runtime or embedded at compile time for containerized deployments.

The lexer targets CommonMark 0.31.2 plus GFM and note-tool extensions such as WikiLinks, ==highlight==, and LaTeX math, and passes 649 of the 652 CommonMark spec examples. The exceptions are deliberate, where the WikiLink syntax reclaims [[…]] (which CommonMark treats as nested brackets). Conformance is held in place by the full CommonMark spec runner alongside the lexer-unit, stress, and adversarial renderer suites.

The renderer covers headings with bookmarks and anchors, the full inline-emphasis set (bold, italic, monospace, strikethrough, underline, highlight, super/subscript, small-caps), nested ordered/unordered/task lists, GFM tables with per-column alignment and header repeat, blockquotes, fenced and indented code, images (local, URL, SVG), footnotes, definition lists, cross-references, and inline HTML. Mathematics is typeset by a built-in TeX engine — real fraction bars, radicals, script stacks, big operators with limits, growing delimiters, matrices, and accents — drawn as vector outlines and configurable through a [math] style block.

Documents are styled per block with six bundled themes, configurable page setup, running headers and footers, an auto-generated table of contents, a title page, YAML/TOML frontmatter, and PDF metadata. Output is written to a file or returned as an in-memory byte buffer.

Install binary

Homebrew

brew install theiskaa/tap/markdown2pdf

Cargo

Install the binary globally using cargo:

cargo install markdown2pdf

For the latest git version:

cargo install --git https://github.com/theiskaa/markdown2pdf

URL input (-u) and SVG images are behind optional features; pass them to cargo install (see Feature flags):

cargo install markdown2pdf --features fetch,svg

Prebuilt binaries

Prebuilt versions are available in our GitHub releases:

Install as library

Add the crate to your project:

cargo add markdown2pdf

Or, in Cargo.toml:

# Minimal — local files only, no network, no SVG
markdown2pdf = "1.2.0"

# Or with URL fetching + SVG rasterization
markdown2pdf = { version = "1.2.0", features = ["fetch", "svg"] }

See docs/library.md for the programmatic API.

Feature flags

Two optional features, both off by default and shared by the binary and the library. The library enables them in Cargo.toml (features = [...]); the binary enables them at install or build time (cargo install markdown2pdf --features fetch,svg).

• fetch — URL input (the -u/--url flag) and remote images. Uses pure-Rust TLS (rustls), so no system OpenSSL is needed; works in rust:slim and Alpine. If you need native TLS for corporate certificate stores, depend on reqwest directly with your preferred backend and Cargo will unify the features.
• svg — SVG image rasterization via resvg, for SVG embedded through ![](path.svg) or <img src="...svg">.

Configuration

Every visual choice — fonts, colors, page setup, headers / footers, table of contents, title page, alignment, per-block typography — lives in a TOML configuration. Six bundled themes (default, github, academic, minimal, compact, modern) give one-line styling; per-block overrides handle the long tail; and any value can be overridden per-run from the command line, winning over the config file and theme.

# A theme
markdown2pdf -p input.md --theme github -o out.pdf

# Your own config file
markdown2pdf -p input.md -c my-config.toml -o out.pdf

# Override individual values at runtime (highest priority)
markdown2pdf -p input.md --title "Report" --font-size 11 --margin 2.5cm \
  --page-numbers -V headings.h1.font_size_pt=28 -o out.pdf

The full schema with every field explained is in docs/configuration.md; an annotated, copy-and-tweak reference config is docs/config.toml.

Usage

The binary converts a file (-p), a string (-s), or a URL (-u, with the fetch feature) to a PDF (-o, default ./output.pdf).

markdown2pdf -p docs/resume.md -o resume.pdf
markdown2pdf -s "**bold** *italic*." -o out.pdf
markdown2pdf -p doc.md --theme academic --page-numbers -o out.pdf

--dry-run validates input without writing; --print-effective-config emits the resolved style as TOML; --verbose and --quiet adjust logging. The complete flag reference, config-override precedence, and font selection are in docs/cli.md.

Library Usage

parse_into_file writes a PDF to disk; parse_into_bytes returns the document as a Vec<u8> for in-memory use. ConfigSource selects styling — Default, Theme("github"), File(path), or Embedded(toml).

use markdown2pdf::{parse_into_file, config::ConfigSource};

parse_into_file("# Hello".into(), "out.pdf", ConfigSource::Default, None)?;
parse_into_file("# Doc".into(), "out.pdf", ConfigSource::Theme("academic"), None)?;

Pre-resolved styles and runtime overrides, font selection (by name, path, or embedded bytes), frontmatter, and the error model are covered in docs/library.md.

Contributing

For information regarding contributions, please refer to CONTRIBUTING.md file.