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Last active February 10, 2025 14:18
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How To Convert Markdown to PDF

How to convert markdown to PDF:

This post reviews several methods for converting a Markdown (.md) formatted file to PDF, from UNIX or Linux machines.

Using Pandoc:

$ pandoc How_I_got_svg-resizer_working_on_Mac_OSX.md -s -o test1.pdf

Other methods:

GRIP

http://superuser.com/questions/689056/how-can-i-convert-github-flavored-markdown-to-a-pdf I've had success using grip to display markdown in Chrome and then use Chrome's "Save as PDF" option in the Print dialog.

pip install grip  
grip your_markdown.md

grip will render the markdown on localhost:5000 ... - just edit away and refresh the browser. Print when ready.

This gave a more reliable representation than pandoc and was lighter weight than installing LaTeX (required by pandoc for pdf generation).

The print is not command line in this answer, but still found this easier/more reliable (looked 100% like Github for a long document including relatively linked images and code highlighting).

Node.js

http://superuser.com/questions/689056/how-can-i-convert-github-flavored-markdown-to-a-pdf You can also use Node.js based markdown-pdf

npm install -g markdown-pdf
markdown-pdf /path/to/markdown

NOTES:

The GRIP results look just like GitHub README pages. The Pandoc result looks like (is) LaTex format. And the Node.js result is the most original looking, but slightly harder to read than GRIP output PDF. Overall, I prefer GRIP output.

@hpssjellis
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Please try this one using VS Code, it worked for me.

  • Install VS Code Extension Markdown Pdf
  • Now Open Command Pallete Ctrl+Shift+P
  • Then choose Markdown PDF: Export(pdf) and then pdf will be generated in the corresponding directory.

Thank you @ajaykumar2017

@hannes-angst
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Markdown PDF failed (on a Mac) to render my SVG images correctly. The SVG have a white background defined, but Markdown PDF render them in black.

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