pdf

name

pdf

description

Use this skill for any PDF authoring or post-processing task that doesn't require READING the content. CREATE / GENERATE / PRODUCE PDFs from scratch — reports, invoices, business letters, memos, status updates, market analyses, proposals (Typst engine, charts via Cetz, four bundled templates: report, invoice, letter, memo). FILL existing PDF forms — text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons. MERGE / SPLIT / ROTATE / WATERMARK / ENCRYPT existing PDFs via qpdf and pypdf. Embed ZUGFeRD / Factur-X XML for EU e-invoices. Triggers: 'erstelle PDF', 'baue Rechnung', 'mache einen Bericht als PDF', 'create a PDF', 'generate a report', 'render an invoice', 'business letter', 'Geschäftsbrief', 'Memo', 'merge PDFs', 'split a PDF', 'rotate pages', 'watermark this PDF', 'encrypt PDF', 'PDF Formular ausfüllen', 'fill this form'. Do NOT use for READING / EXTRACTING text from existing PDFs or OCR on scanned documents — use the `document-parse` skill (LiteParse).

PDF Generation Skill

Produces professional, brand-consistent PDFs with Typst as the primary engine. Optimized for fast iteration: write .typ source, run one build-pdf command, get a polished PDF.

When to use this skill

Create new PDFs from scratch:

• Reports — market research, status reports, deliverables (template: report)
• Invoices — Rechnungen mit USt-konformer Struktur (template: invoice)
• Letters — DIN-5008 Geschäftsbriefe (template: letter)
• Memos — Single-page interne Notizen / Recaps (template: memo)
• Custom PDFs — own .typ source with full Typst flexibility

Work with existing PDFs:

• Fill PDF forms — text fields, checkboxes, radio buttons → references/forms.md
• Merge, split, rotate — combine, extract page ranges, rotate pages → references/existing-pdfs.md
• Watermark, encrypt, repair — qpdf and pypdf one-liners → references/existing-pdfs.md

Form-filling decision tree

1. python scripts/check_fillable_fields.py <file.pdf> — does the PDF have AcroForm fields?
2. Has fillable fields → scripts/extract_form_field_info.py to inspect, then scripts/fill_fillable_fields.py to fill.
3. No fillable fields (flat scan or rendered form) → fall back to the visual estimation path in references/forms.md.

When NOT to use this skill

• Reading or extracting text from existing PDFs → document-parse skill
• OCR on scanned documents → document-parse skill

Quick start

# Pick a template and pipe in your data:
build-pdf report \
  --title "Markt-Recherche DACH" \
  --subtitle "Tech / Beratung / Agentur" \
  --author "Atlas" \
  output/report.pdf

build-pdf invoice --data examples/invoice-sample.json output/invoice.pdf

build-pdf letter  --data my-letter.json              output/letter.pdf

build-pdf memo \
  --title "Sprint Recap KW 22" \
  --to "Team" \
  --from "Max" \
  output/memo.pdf

# Custom template? Just pass the .typ path:
build-pdf path/to/custom.typ output/custom.pdf

The build-pdf script lives in scripts/build-pdf of this skill.

The four bundled templates

report — multi-page research / status / market reports

• Cover page with title + subtitle + author + date
• Auto headers/footers + page numbers
• H1 forces a page break, H2/H3 inline
• Tables with brand-coloured headers and subtle row rules
• Native Cetz vector charts (cetz.canvas { chart.barchart(...) }) inside figure(...) with captions
• Footnote-style source citations: text#footnote[Bitkom, 2024]

Inputs (all optional, sensible defaults):

--key	Purpose
--title	Cover title
--subtitle	Cover subtitle
--author	Cover footer
--date	Header date (ISO YYYY-MM-DD → locale-formatted; default: today)
--lang	de (default) / en / fr — affects labels (Inhalt/Contents/Sommaire, Seite/Page) and date format

Note: The bundled report.typ is a starter scaffold with placeholder German chapter headings and lorem-ipsum body text. The --key flags only control cover/header metadata — actual content (sections, charts, tables) must be added by copying templates/report.typ and editing it. For voice, structure, chart usage, and pre-flight checklist see references/writing-reports.md. For pure metadata-driven output (no edits needed), use memo or letter instead.

invoice — DIN-A4 Rechnung

• Sender block top-left + invoice metadata grid
• Recipient block on the left, metadata (Rechnungs-Nr, Datum, Fällig) on the right
• Line items table with running sums
• Totals block: Subtotal · USt-% · Total
• IBAN / BIC / USt-IdNr footer block
• Optional notes line
• Invoice number auto-scales (28pt → 20pt → 14pt) so DATEV-style long numbers stay readable
• Dates accept ISO YYYY-MM-DD (locale-formatted) or pre-formatted free-form strings; service date can be a range like "2026-05-15 — 2026-05-23"
• Numbers locale-formatted: DE 1.600,00 · EN 1,600.00 · FR 1 600,00

Inputs: --data path/to/invoice.json (see examples/invoice-sample.json for shape). Add "lang": "en" (or "fr", default "de") to switch labels and date/number format.

letter — DIN-5008 Geschäftsbrief

• Sender mini-address top-right
• Underlined Rücksendezeile (DIN 5008)
• Recipient in the postal-window area
• Right-aligned date + bold subject
• Body with multi-paragraph support (separate paragraphs by \n\n in JSON)
• Salutation, body, closing, signature in correct German business style

Inputs: --data path/to/letter.json (see examples/letter-sample.json). Add "lang": "en" (or "fr") to switch the subject label and date format — note: DIN-5008 letters often pre-format the date with a city prefix ("Stuttgart, 25. Mai 2026"), which passes through unchanged.

memo — single-page recap

• Slim header bar with title (auto-shrinks 20pt → 17pt → 14pt for long titles), To, From, Date
• Three default sections: Was passiert ist · Entscheidungen · Nächste Schritte
• Compact table for owner / task / deadline
• Single-page discipline: if your content overflows to page 2, you wrote a report — see references/writing-memos.md

Inputs: --title, --to, --from, --date (ISO YYYY-MM-DD → locale-formatted), --lang (de / en / fr).

Charts and figures

Draw charts with Cetz + cetz-plot — native to Typst, vector all the way, inherits the document's theme:

#import "@preview/cetz:0.4.2"
#import "@preview/cetz-plot:0.1.3": chart

#figure(
  cetz.canvas({
    chart.barchart(
      mode: "basic",
      size: (10, 4),
      label-key: 0, value-key: 1,
      bar-style: i => (fill: accent),
      (("Tech", 225.9), ("Beratung", 48.7), ("Agenturen", 27.6)),
    )
  }),
  caption: [Marktgrößen DACH 2024 (Mrd. €).],
)

Patterns per chart type (horizontal bar, vertical bar, line, stacked, diverging), theme integration, anti-patterns in references/charts.md.

Languages

All four templates support de (default) / en / fr via the lang input.

Aspect	de	en	fr
Labels	Rechnung, Fällig bis, ...	Invoice, Due by, ...	Facture, Échéance, ...
Date format	25.05.2026	2026-05-25 (ISO)	25/05/2026
Number format	1.600,00	1,600.00	1 600,00 (NBSP)

Set via --lang en for memo/report (CLI flag), or "lang": "en" in the invoice/letter JSON.

Add another language by extending templates/i18n.typ — drop a new entry into the labels dict and add date/number format branches.

Fonts and themes

Six built-in themes (graphite default, indigo, forest, amber, crimson, mono) selectable via --theme <name>. Each theme bundles colours, fonts AND backgrounds — nine design tokens:

• Colours: primary, accent, muted, rule, background, surface
• Fonts: font-body, font-heading, font-mono

So picking --theme amber gives you cream page background + Crimson Pro headlines; --theme mono is all-monospace; --theme indigo keeps Inter + IBM Plex Serif but with indigo accents and a tinted surface.

Per-brand override via --colors brand.json accepts any subset of the nine tokens. Container ships with Inter, IBM Plex Serif, JetBrains Mono, Crimson Pro, Liberation, DejaVu, Noto + CJK.

Full theme list, token explanations, brand-override JSON shape in references/themes-and-fonts.md.

E-Invoices (ZUGFeRD / Factur-X)

For German B2B and EU public-sector invoices, the invoice template pairs with the scripts/invoice-zugferd helper to embed a CII XML (EN 16931 profile):

build-pdf invoice --data invoice.json invoice.pdf
invoice-zugferd invoice.pdf invoice.json invoice_factur-x.pdf

Profile choices, recipient compatibility, current limitations (multiple VAT rates, Skonto, reverse charge), and validation commands in references/zugferd.md.

Pre-flight checklist

Before delivering a PDF:

• typst compile succeeds with no warnings (variable-font warnings are red flags)
• All charts render and external image paths resolve — open the PDF to confirm
• Source citations consistent (URLs or footnotes, not mixed)
• Footer with date/version if the user will share externally
• PDF opens cleanly (head -c 8 my.pdf → %PDF-1.7)
• File size sane (< 3 MB for a 15-page report unless heavy images)
• For Factur-X invoices: facturx-xmlcheck out.pdf passes (schema + schematron)

Common pitfalls

1. Curly quotes "…" terminate Typst strings — German typographic quotes (U+201C/U+201D) are ASCII-identical to ". Inside string literals use plain "; inside content blocks ([…]) anything goes.
2. Variable fonts — reference "Inter", not "Inter Variable". The container ships static cuts only.
3. Table overflows — narrow column headers or wrap the body with text(size: 9pt).
4. Unescaped # in content — a bare # switches Typst into code mode (error: the character # is not valid in code). Write \# for a literal. Same for literal $ _ * @.

When a compile fails, build-pdf prints Typst's diagnostic plus a targeted hint for these two recurring errors (#-escaping and unclosed delimiters) and a pointer to references/typst-cheatsheet.md. Read the cheatsheet before re-running — don't re-compile blindly.

For Typst-authoring gotchas (image paths, context for counter(page).final(), table.header(...) repeat, pagebreak(weak: true)) see templates/custom-templates.md § Common gotchas.

Useful one-liners

# Render and open immediately:
build-pdf memo --title "Stand $(date +%V)" /tmp/memo.pdf && xdg-open /tmp/memo.pdf

# Iterate on a custom template — auto-recompile on save:
typst watch my-report.typ my-report.pdf

# Combine multiple PDFs (see references/existing-pdfs.md):
qpdf --empty --pages report.pdf invoice.pdf -- bundle.pdf

Writing your own templates

When the four bundled templates don't fit, write your own .typ from scratch. See templates/custom-templates.md for a hands-on guide: the four Typst building blocks (#set / #show / #let / layout primitives), how to pull data via --input flags or JSON, theme reuse, plus a cookbook of recipes (two-column pages, right-aligned totals, repeating table headers, footnotes, auto-TOC, callouts, German money formatting). The "Common gotchas" section at the end (curly quotes, variable fonts, context for page-counter, image paths, ...) saves the first hour of frustration.

File layout

pdf/
├── SKILL.md                          ← you are here
├── templates/
│   ├── custom-templates.md           Guide for writing your own Typst templates
│   ├── themes.typ                    Theme palette definitions
│   └── report.typ  invoice.typ  letter.typ  memo.typ
├── examples/
│   ├── invoice-sample.json
│   └── letter-sample.json
├── scripts/
│   ├── build-pdf                     One-command typst compile wrapper
│   ├── invoice-zugferd               Embeds Factur-X XML into rendered invoice
│   └── *.py                          PDF form-filling helpers (see references/forms.md)
└── references/
    ├── writing-reports.md            How to write a good report — workflow, structure, voice, pitfalls
    ├── writing-memos.md              How to keep memos single-page and operational
    ├── typst-cheatsheet.md           Escape rules, common patterns, theme tokens
    ├── charts.md                     Cetz / cetz-plot chart patterns and anti-patterns
    ├── themes-and-fonts.md           6 built-in themes, font swap recipes, brand override
    ├── zugferd.md                    Factur-X profile choices, EN 16931 mapping, recipient compatibility
    ├── existing-pdfs.md              Merge, split, rotate, watermark, encrypt existing PDFs
    └── forms.md                      Filling existing PDF forms (radio, checkbox, text fields)

Companion skills

• document-parse — reading PDFs (OCR, text extraction).