| name | md-to-pdf |
| description | Convert Obsidian markdown documents (with Mermaid diagrams, tables, wiki links) to professional A4 PDF using Playwright. Use when user requests PDF export of markdown files. |
| allowed-tools | ["Read","Write","Edit","Bash","Glob","Grep"] |
| license | MIT |
Markdown to PDF Skill
Convert Obsidian markdown files to styled A4 PDF documents with full support for Mermaid diagrams, tables, wiki links, embedded images (![[image.png]]), and Korean text.
When to Use This Skill
Activate when the user:
- Asks to convert a markdown file to PDF
- Wants to export a document as PDF
- Needs a printable version of a markdown document
- Requests PDF generation with Mermaid diagram support
- Often invoked downstream of
/share to convert markdown notes into PDF for distribution.
Dependencies
- Python packages:
markdown, playwright
- Playwright browser: Chromium (install via
playwright install chromium)
- Install check:
python3 -c "import markdown; from playwright.sync_api import sync_playwright"
- If missing:
pip3 install markdown playwright && python3 -m playwright install chromium
Pipeline
- Strip YAML frontmatter — remove
--- blocks
- Convert checkboxes —
- [ ] → ☐, - [x] → ☑
- Fix list breaks — ensure blank line before bullet lists that follow inline text (see List Break Fix section)
- Extract & embed images — convert
![[image.png]] to base64 <img> tags (placeholder swap)
- Convert wiki links —
[[link|display]] → display text, [[link]] → link text
- Convert markdown to HTML — using
markdown library with tables, fenced_code, attr_list extensions
- Restore image placeholders — swap placeholders back to
<img> tags
- Wrap Mermaid blocks — detect
```mermaid code blocks and convert to <div class="mermaid"> with type-specific CSS classes
- Render with Playwright — load HTML in headless Chromium, wait for Mermaid JS to render SVGs, export PDF
Script Generation
Generate a self-contained Python script at /tmp/md_to_pdf.py with the following parameters extracted from user request:
INPUT = "<source markdown file path>"
OUTPUT = "70. Outputs/<filename>.pdf"
TITLE = "<document title>"
AUTHOR = "<author name>"
DATE = "<YYYY-MM-DD>"
CMDS Output Convention
- Default:
70. Outputs/<filename>.pdf
- Distribution-ready (newsletters, articles):
70. Outputs/71. Published/<filename>.pdf
- Slides / talks:
70. Outputs/72. Presentations/<filename>.pdf
- Course materials:
70. Outputs/73. Courses/<filename>.pdf
- Always
mkdir -p the target directory before writing.
The script itself can stay at /tmp/md_to_pdf.py (it's a throwaway transform); the PDF artifact lands in 70. Outputs/.
HTML Template Structure
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="ko">
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<style>/* see CSS Rules below */</style>
<script src="mermaid CDN"></script>
</head>
<body>
<div class="doc-meta">AUTHOR | DATE</div>
<h1>TITLE</h1>
{converted HTML body}
<script>mermaid.initialize({...})</script>
</body>
</html>
CSS Rules
Page Layout
@page { size: A4; margin: 20mm 18mm 25mm 18mm; }
body { font-family: 'Apple SD Gothic Neo', 'Noto Sans KR', sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 1.6; }
Typography
- H1: 22pt, border-bottom 2px solid
- H2: 16pt, color #2c3e50, border-bottom 1px solid #ddd
- H3: 13pt, color #34495e
- Tables: 10pt font, collapsed borders, striped rows
- Blockquotes: left blue border, italic, light background
- Code: 9.5pt, light gray background
Mermaid Diagrams — Critical Lessons
Container sizing by diagram type:
- Default (
.mermaid): max-width: 100% — timeline, gantt, sequence, graph LR diagrams use full page width
- Vertical flowcharts (
.mermaid-flowchart): max-width: 420px — only flowchart TB, flowchart TD, graph TB, graph TD get constrained to prevent oversized rendering
- All diagrams:
text-align: center; margin: 16px auto; overflow: visible
- SVGs inside:
max-width: 100% !important; height: auto !important
Type detection logic (in wrap_mermaid_blocks):
stripped = code.strip().lower()
if stripped.startswith(('flowchart tb', 'flowchart td', 'graph tb', 'graph td')):
cls = 'mermaid mermaid-flowchart'
else:
cls = 'mermaid'
Mermaid initialization:
mermaid.initialize({
startOnLoad: true,
theme: 'default',
flowchart: { useMaxWidth: true, htmlLabels: true },
sequence: { useMaxWidth: true },
themeVariables: { fontSize: '13px' }
});
Key lessons:
- Do NOT set
fontSize per diagram type config (e.g., flowchart.fontSize) — it makes non-flowchart diagrams too small
- Use
themeVariables.fontSize as the single global font size control
- Constrain oversized diagrams via CSS
max-width on the container, not font size reduction
graph LR is a horizontal layout and should NOT be constrained — only TB/TD directions overflow
Footer (Page Numbers)
Use Playwright's display_header_footer — do NOT also use CSS @page @bottom-center (causes duplication).
await page.pdf(
...,
display_header_footer=True,
header_template='<span></span>',
footer_template='<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;font-size:8pt;color:#888;font-family:Apple SD Gothic Neo,sans-serif;">TITLE | p. <span class="pageNumber"></span></div>'
)
Author/Date Header
Place above H1 as right-aligned metadata:
<div class="doc-meta">AUTHOR | DATE</div>
.doc-meta { text-align: right; color: #666; font-size: 10pt; margin-bottom: 4px; }
List Break Fix — Critical for Bullet Rendering
Problem: Python's markdown library requires a blank line between a paragraph and a bullet list. Without it, list items render as inline text inside a <p> tag instead of proper <ul><li> elements.
Example of broken markdown:
**논의 포인트**:
- 항목 1
- 항목 2
This renders as <p><strong>논의 포인트</strong>:\n- 항목 1\n- 항목 2</p> — all one paragraph, no bullets.
Fix: Two transformations needed:
- Insert a blank line before top-level
- that follows non-list text
- Convert 2-space indent to 4-space (Python markdown requires 4-space for nested lists)
def fix_list_breaks(md_text):
lines = md_text.split('\n')
result = []
for i, line in enumerate(lines):
stripped = line.strip()
is_top_level_bullet = stripped.startswith('- ') and not line.startswith(' ')
if (is_top_level_bullet and
i > 0 and
not lines[i-1].strip().startswith('- ') and
not lines[i-1].strip().startswith(' - ') and
lines[i-1].strip() != ''):
result.append('')
if line.startswith(' - ') and not line.startswith(' - '):
line = ' ' + line.lstrip(' ')
result.append(line)
return '\n'.join(result)
Key lesson: Obsidian uses 2-space indentation for sub-lists, but Python markdown library requires 4-space. Always normalize indentation before conversion.
Processing order — must run BEFORE markdown conversion:
md_text = strip_frontmatter(md_text)
md_text = convert_checkboxes(md_text)
md_text = fix_list_breaks(md_text)
md_text = extract_images_to_placeholders(md_text)
md_text = convert_wiki_links(md_text)
html = markdown.markdown(md_text, ...)
html = restore_placeholders(html)
Image Embedding — Critical Ordering
CRITICAL: Image extraction (![[...]]) MUST happen BEFORE wiki link conversion ([[...]]).
convert_wiki_links uses r'\[\[([^\]]+)\]\]' which also matches the inner [[...]] of ![[image.png]], stripping the image embed. Always extract images first, replace with text placeholders, then convert wiki links.
Processing order:
md_text = strip_frontmatter(md_text)
md_text = convert_checkboxes(md_text)
md_text = extract_images_to_placeholders(md_text)
md_text = convert_wiki_links(md_text)
html = markdown.markdown(md_text, ...)
html = restore_placeholders(html)
Image search paths (tried in order):
_files_/ subdirectory relative to the markdown file's parent- Same directory as the markdown file
- Explicit
IMG_DIR if set
CSS for embedded images:
.embedded-img {
display: block;
max-width: 100%;
height: auto;
margin: 16px auto;
border-radius: 6px;
box-shadow: 0 2px 8px rgba(0,0,0,0.1);
}
Wiki Link Conversion
Obsidian wiki links are not valid HTML. Convert before markdown processing:
[[Page|Display Text]] → Display Text[[Page Name]] → Page Name
Execution
python3 /tmp/md_to_pdf.py
The script:
- Saves intermediate HTML to
/tmp/<name>.html for debugging
- Prints count of rendered Mermaid diagrams
- Saves PDF to output path
- Open PDF after generation:
open "<output path>"
Output
- PDF file:
70. Outputs/<filename>.pdf (or a 71. Published/ / 72. Presentations/ subfolder per CMDS Output Convention above; ensure directory exists with mkdir -p)
- Debug HTML:
/tmp/<name>.html
- Always open the PDF in default viewer after generation
