Markdown 2 ATS

Write an ATS-friendly resume in Markdown, render it to PDF. Optimized for developers.

About

Markdown 2 ATS is a Node.js library that turns a Markdown resume into a clean, ATS-friendly PDF. It parses Markdown into a structured document, validates it against sensible resume rules, and renders a restrained single-column layout that parses reliably through Applicant Tracking Systems.

The default template is based on the ATS Standard, using a restrained layout, standard PDF fonts, and readable content structure so a resume works well for both applicant tracking systems and people.

It is a library, not an editor or a web app: you call it from your own script, CLI, or build step, and you stay in control of your files.

I can't guarantee that using this will improve your job search success rate. But I hope it helps.

See the Changelog for the complete project history and latest changes.

Notice

Output uses standard PDF fonts (Helvetica) by default, which only cover Latin-1 characters. To render CJK/Kana/Hangul text, provide your own TTF font (see Custom Fonts).

Features

• Write your resume in Markdown and render it to a clean PDF
• ATS-friendly single-column layout, based on the CareerCup template
• Automatic page breaking for multi-page resumes
• Profile photo support (PNG and JPEG)
• Custom TTF fonts for non-Latin text (e.g. Noto Sans CJK)
• Theming: font family, sizes, colors, and spacing
• Supports headings, lists (nested), blockquotes, thematic breaks, and inline formatting
• ESM and CommonJS builds with TypeScript types included
• CLI (md-2-ats) for one-off renders
• Works offline and never uploads your data anywhere

Install

pnpm add md-2-ats
# or: npm install md-2-ats

Requires Node.js >= 18.

Usage

import { generateCV } from "md-2-ats";
import { readFile } from "node:fs/promises";

await generateCV({
  input: "./cv.md",
  output: "./cv.pdf",
  profile: {
    bytes: await readFile("./profile.png"),
    size: 96,
    position: "right",
  },
});

Options

| Option | Type | Description | | --------- | -------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | input | string | Path to the source Markdown file (required). | | output | string | Path where the PDF is written (required). | | profile | ProfileImage | Profile photo (bytes, optional size, position). | | fonts | FontSet | Custom TTF fonts for non-Latin text (e.g. CJK). | | theme | Theme | Customize fonts, colors, and spacing. | | page | PageConfig | Page size and margins (default A4, 40pt margins). |

CLI

The package ships a md-2-ats binary:

npx md-2-ats cv.md                  # after publish; runs the default bin
md-2-ats cv.md                      # if installed (local or global)
md-2-ats cv.md -o out.pdf -p photo.png
md-2-ats cv.md --profile-position left --profile-size 80
md-2-ats cv.md --font-regular NotoSansSC-Regular.ttf

| Flag | Description | | -------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | -o, --output <path> | Output PDF path (default: input with .pdf). | | -p, --profile <path> | Profile photo (PNG or JPEG). | | --profile-size <points> | Profile photo side length (default 96). | | --profile-position <pos> | left | center | right (default right). | | --font-regular <path> | Custom TTF regular font. | | --font-bold <path> | Custom TTF bold font. | | --font-italic <path> | Custom TTF italic font. | | -h, --help | Show help. | | -v, --version | Show version. |

Profile Photo

A standalone image in its own paragraph renders as a top-right profile photo:

# Jane Doe

![](profile.png)

**Software Engineer** · Jakarta

Supply the photo bytes via the profile option; size (side length in points, default 96) and position ("left" | "center" | "right", default "right") are optional:

profile: {
  bytes: await readFile("./profile.png"),
  size: 96,
  position: "right",
}

Supported formats: PNG and JPEG. When no profile is provided, the image is skipped silently.

Custom Fonts

Standard fonts only cover Latin-1. To render CJK/Kana/Hangul, provide a TTF font (e.g. Noto Sans SC):

await generateCV({
  input: "./cv.md",
  output: "./cv.pdf",
  fonts: {
    regular: await readFile("./NotoSansSC-Regular.ttf"),
    bold: await readFile("./NotoSansSC-Bold.ttf"), // optional
    italic: await readFile("./NotoSansSC-Italic.ttf"), // optional
  },
});

bold/italic fall back to regular when omitted. Font files are your responsibility (check their license). .ttc collections are not supported; use a single .ttf/.otf.

Theming

import { createDefaultTheme } from "md-2-ats";

const theme = createDefaultTheme();
theme.text.body.family = "Times"; // "Helvetica" | "Times" | "Courier"
theme.text.name.size = 24;
theme.color.accent = { r: 0.1, g: 0.2, b: 0.5 };
theme.spacing.sectionGap = 8;

await generateCV({ input: "./cv.md", output: "./cv.pdf", theme });

Validation

generateCV validates the document before rendering:

• Errors (throw): empty document, missing the level-1 # Name heading.
• Warnings (returned in result.issues): missing contact/email, invalid email, heading-level skips, missing ## Experience/## Education, empty entries, and unsupported Markdown.

const result = await generateCV({ input, output });
for (const issue of result.issues) console.warn(issue.message);

Markdown Support

Supported blocks: headings (#–###), paragraphs, unordered/ordered lists (including nested), blockquotes, thematic breaks (---), and inline formatting (bold, italic, links, images, inline code).

Not rendered (reported as warnings): tables, code blocks, raw HTML.

Development

Clone the repo and install dependencies:

pnpm install

Run the test suite and type-checking:

pnpm test
pnpm typecheck

Build the library:

pnpm build

Render the bundled example (example/cv.md → example/cv.pdf):

pnpm example

License

This project is licensed under the MIT license.

Made with ☕ by Iqmal.