md-to-pdf-engine

Professional PDF generation from Markdown with customizable templates, syntax highlighting, and cover pages.

Install

npm install -g md-to-pdf-engine

CLI Usage

Generate (default command)

# Basic — generates PDF in the same directory
md-to-pdf document.md

# With template and cover page
md-to-pdf generate document.md --template profesional-moderna --cover

# Custom output path and page size
md-to-pdf generate document.md --output report.pdf --size Letter --orientation landscape

# With metadata
md-to-pdf generate document.md --title "My Report" --author "Juan Aldama"

# With watermark
md-to-pdf generate document.md --watermark logo.png --watermark-opacity 0.2

# Encrypt output
md-to-pdf generate document.md --encrypt --password mysecret

# Batch processing — all .md files in a directory
md-to-pdf generate docs/ -r --output-dir output/

# Output to stdout (for piping)
md-to-pdf generate document.md --stdout > output.pdf

# Verbose mode with timing
md-to-pdf generate document.md --verbose

Merge

# Merge multiple Markdown files into one PDF
md-to-pdf merge intro.md chapter1.md chapter2.md -o book.pdf

# With cover page on first file
md-to-pdf merge intro.md chapter1.md -o book.pdf --cover --template moderna-azul

List Templates

md-to-pdf list-templates

Info

# Show PDF metadata and page count
md-to-pdf info output.pdf

Generate Options

| Option | Description | Default | |--------|-------------|---------| | -t, --template <id> | Template to use | corporativa-clasica | | -o, --output <path> | Output PDF path | Same name with .pdf | | --output-dir <dir> | Output directory (batch mode) | Same as source | | -r, --recursive | Find .md files recursively | off | | --size <size> | A4 | Letter | Legal | A4 | | --orientation <o> | portrait | landscape | portrait | | --cover | Include cover page (first H1) | off | | --no-page-numbers | Disable page numbering | on | | --title <title> | PDF title metadata | — | | --author <author> | PDF author metadata | — | | --subject <subject> | PDF subject metadata | — | | --keywords <words> | PDF keywords (comma-separated) | — | | --watermark <path> | Watermark image (PNG/JPG) | — | | --watermark-opacity <n> | Watermark opacity (0-1) | 0.3 | | --encrypt | Encrypt the output PDF | off | | --password <pass> | Encryption password | — | | --stdout | Write PDF to stdout | off | | --overwrite | Overwrite existing output file | off | | --verbose | Show detailed progress and timing | off | | --quiet | Suppress non-error output | off |

Templates

| ID | Name | Best for | |----|------|----------| | corporativa-clasica | Corporativa Clasica | Formal reports, proposals | | moderna-minimalista | Moderna Minimalista | Clean presentations | | tecnica-documentacion | Tecnica/Documentacion | Technical manuals, code docs | | moderna-azul | Moderna Azul | Modern blue-themed documents | | profesional-moderna | Profesional Moderna | Contemporary professional style |

Config File

Create a .md-to-pdfrc.json in your project root to avoid repeating CLI flags:

{
  "template": "tecnica-documentacion",
  "size": "A4",
  "orientation": "portrait",
  "cover": true,
  "pageNumbers": true,
  "author": "My Company",
  "title": "Document Title"
}

Supported config files: .md-to-pdfrc, .md-to-pdfrc.json, md-to-pdf.config.js, md-to-pdf.config.cjs, or md-to-pdf key in package.json.

CLI flags always override config file values.

API Usage

import { generatePDFFromMarkdown, getTemplateById, postProcess } from "md-to-pdf-engine";
import type { PDFOptions } from "md-to-pdf-engine";
import { readFileSync, writeFileSync } from "fs";

const markdown = readFileSync("document.md", "utf-8");
const template = getTemplateById("tecnica-documentacion")!;

const options: PDFOptions = {
  pageSize: "A4",
  orientation: "portrait",
  margins: template.margins,
  includeCoverPage: true,
  includePageNumbers: true,
  pageNumberFormat: "Page X of Y",
};

let pdfBuffer = await generatePDFFromMarkdown(markdown, template, options);

// Optional: add metadata and watermark
pdfBuffer = await postProcess(pdfBuffer, {
  metadata: { title: "My Document", author: "Juan Aldama" },
  watermark: { imagePath: "logo.png", opacity: 0.2 },
});

writeFileSync("output.pdf", pdfBuffer);

Features

• 5 built-in templates with customizable colors, fonts, and margins
• Syntax highlighting for code blocks (highlight.js)
• Cover page support (first H1 becomes cover)
• Page numbering with multiple formats
• Logo support (per-page or first-page only)
• GFM (GitHub Flavored Markdown) support
• Tables with styled headers and alternating rows
• Smart page breaks (avoids cutting content mid-element)
• A4, Letter, and Legal page sizes
• Portrait and landscape orientation
• PDF metadata (title, author, subject, keywords)
• Watermark overlay (PNG/JPG with configurable opacity)
• PDF encryption via qpdf (AES-256)
• Merge multiple Markdown files into one PDF
• Batch processing with recursive directory scanning
• Config file support (.md-to-pdfrc.json)
• Verbose mode with generation timing
• Safe write with atomic rename

Requirements

• Node.js >= 18
• Puppeteer (included as dependency — downloads Chromium automatically)
• qpdf (optional — only needed for --encrypt)

License

MIT - Juan Ignacio Aldama