markdown-pdf

Node module that converts Markdown files to PDFs.

The PDF looks great because it is styled by HTML5 Boilerplate. What? - Yes! Your Markdown is first converted to HTML, then pushed into the HTML5 Boilerplate index.html. Phantomjs renders the page and saves it to a PDF. You can even customise the style of the PDF by passing an optional path to your CSS and you can pre-process your markdown file before it is converted to a PDF by passing in a pre-processing function, for templating.

Getting started

npm install markdown-pdf

Example usage

var markdownpdf = require("markdown-pdf")
  , fs = require("fs")

fs.createReadStream("/path/to/document.md")
  .pipe(markdownpdf())
  .pipe(fs.createWriteStream("/path/to/document.pdf"))

// --- OR ---

markdownpdf().from("/path/to/document.md").to("/path/to/document.pdf", function () {
  console.log("Done")
})

Options

Pass an options object (markdownpdf({/* options */})) to configure the output.

options.cwd

Type: String
Default value: process.cwd()

Current working directory.

options.phantomPath

Type: String
Default value: Path provided by phantomjs module

Path to the phantomjs binary.

options.cssPath

Type: String
Default value: [module path]/markdown-pdf/css/pdf.css

Path to custom CSS file, relative to the current directory.

options.highlightCssPath

Type: String
Default value: [module path]/markdown-pdf/css/highlight.css

Path to custom highlight CSS file (for code highlighting with highlight.js), relative to the current directory.

options.paperFormat

Type: String
Default value: A4

'A3', 'A4', 'A5', 'Legal', 'Letter' or 'Tabloid'.

options.paperOrientation

Type: String
Default value: portrait

'portrait' or 'landscape'.

options.paperBorder

Type: String
Default value: 1cm

Supported dimension units are: 'mm', 'cm', 'in', 'px'

options.runningsPath

Type: String
Default value: runnings.js

Path to CommonJS module which sets the page header and footer (see runnings.js).

options.renderDelay

Type: Number
Default value: Time until page.onLoadFinished event fired

Delay (in ms) before the PDF is rendered.

options.loadTimeout

Type: Number
Default value: 10000

If renderDelay option isn't set, this is the timeout (in ms) before the page is rendered in case the page.onLoadFinished event doesn't fire.

options.preProcessMd

Type: Function
Default value: function () { return through() }

A function that returns a through2 stream that transforms the markdown before it is converted to HTML.

options.preProcessHtml

Type: Function
Default value: function () { return through() }

A function that returns a through2 stream that transforms the HTML before it is converted to PDF.

options.markdownit

Type: object
Default value: {}

A config object that is passed to markdownit, the underlying markdown parser.

options.markdownit.plugins

Type: Array of markdownit-plugin Functions
Default value: []

An array of Markdown-it plugin functions, that extend the markdown parser functionality.

API

from.path(path, opts) / from(path, opts)

Create a readable stream from path and pipe to markdown-pdf. path can be a single path or array of paths.

from.string(string)

Create a readable stream from string and pipe to markdown-pdf. string can be a single string or array of strings.

concat.from.paths(paths, opts)

Create and concatinate readable streams from paths and pipe to markdown-pdf.

concat.from.strings(strings, opts)

Create and concatinate readable streams from strings and pipe to markdown-pdf.

to.path(path, cb) / to(path, cb)

Create a writeable stream to path and pipe output from markdown-pdf to it. path can be a single path, or array of output paths if you specified an array of inputs. The callback function cb will be invoked when data has finished being written.

to.buffer(opts, cb)

Create a concat-stream and pipe output from markdown-pdf to it. The callback function cb will be invoked when the buffer has been created.

to.string(opts, cb)

Create a concat-stream and pipe output from markdown-pdf to it. The callback function cb will be invoked when the string has been created.

More examples

From string to path

var markdownpdf = require("markdown-pdf")

var md = "foo===\n* bar\n* baz\n\nLorem ipsum dolor sit"
  , outputPath = "/path/to/doc.pdf"

markdownpdf().from.string(md).to(outputPath, function () {
  console.log("Created", outputPath)
})

From multiple paths to multiple paths

var markdownpdf = require("markdown-pdf")

var mdDocs = ["home.md", "about.md", "contact.md"]
  , pdfDocs = mdDocs.map(function (d) { return "out/" + d.replace(".md", ".pdf") })

markdownpdf().from(mdDocs).to(pdfDocs, function () {
  pdfDocs.forEach(function (d) { console.log("Created", d) })
})

Concat from multiple paths to single path

var markdownpdf = require("markdown-pdf")

var mdDocs = ["chapter1.md", "chapter2.md", "chapter3.md"]
  , bookPath = "/path/to/book.pdf"

markdownpdf().concat.from(mdDocs).to(bookPath, function () {
  console.log("Created", bookPath)
})

Transform markdown before conversion

var markdownpdf = require("markdown-pdf")
  , split = require("split")
  , through = require("through")
  , duplexer = require("duplexer")

function preProcessMd () {
  // Split the input stream by lines
  var splitter = split()

  // Replace occurences of "foo" with "bar"
  var replacer = through(function (data) {
    this.queue(data.replace(/foo/g, "bar") + "\n")
  })

  splitter.pipe(replacer)
  return duplexer(splitter, replacer)
}

markdownpdf({preProcessMd: preProcessMd})
  .from("/path/to/document.md")
  .to("/path/to/document.pdf", function () { console.log("Done") })

Markdown-It options and plugins

Example using markdown-it-classy plugin:

var markdownpdf = require("markdown-pdf")

var options = { 
    markdownit: {
        html: true,
        breaks: true,
        plugins: [ require('markdown-it-classy') ]
    }
}

markdownpdf(options)
  .from("/path/to/document.md")
  .to("/path/to/document.pdf", function () { console.log("Done") })

CLI interface

Installation

To use markdown-pdf as a standalone program from the terminal run

npm install -g markdown-pdf

Usage

Usage: markdown-pdf [options] <markdown-file-path>

Options:

  -h, --help                             output usage information
  -V, --version                          output the version number
  <markdown-file-path>                   Path of the markdown file to convert
  -c, --cwd [path]                       Current working directory
  -p, --phantom-path [path]              Path to phantom binary
  -h, --runnings-path [path]             Path to runnings (header, footer)
  -s, --css-path [path]                  Path to custom CSS file
  -z, --highlight-css-path [path]        Path to custom highlight-CSS file
  -f, --paper-format [format]            'A3', 'A4', 'A5', 'Legal', 'Letter' or 'Tabloid'
  -r, --paper-orientation [orientation]  'portrait' or 'landscape'
  -b, --paper-border [measurement]       Supported dimension units are: 'mm', 'cm', 'in', 'px'
  -d, --render-delay [millis]            Delay before rendering the PDF
  -t, --load-timeout [millis]            Timeout before the page is rendered in case `page.onLoadFinished` isn't fired
  -o, --out [path]                       Path of where to save the PDF