thai-pdf-booklet

name	thai-pdf-booklet
description	Translate documents into Thai and render them as polished, print-ready Thai PDFs — single files or a combined booklet with a premium full-bleed cover, a matching back cover, a per-page credit footer, and page numbers. Ships TWO interchangeable variants — a portable Node CLI (default; bundled Chromium via puppeteer + embedded Noto Sans Thai, runs on macOS/Linux/Windows with no system deps) and a lightweight native variant in native/ (system Chrome via puppeteer-core + pandoc + poppler + system fonts). Use when the user wants to "แปล PDF/เอกสารเป็นไทยแล้วทำเป็นเล่ม/PDF", "ทำ PDF ภาษาไทยสวย ๆ", "รวมหลายเอกสารเป็นเล่มเดียวมีปก/ปกหลัง/เลขหน้า", make a Thai cheat-sheet / quiz / handout PDF, or render Thai Markdown into a designed PDF. Do NOT use for an mdBook website+PDF (use publishing-mdbook-pdf) or English-only output.
license	Apache-2.0
compatibility	Any OS (macOS / Linux / Windows). Only needs Node.js >= 18. `npm install` pulls puppeteer (which downloads a known-good Chromium); the Thai font and PDF stitching are bundled (Noto Sans Thai + pdf-lib), so there are no system-package or system-font dependencies.
metadata	{"author":"supachai-j","version":"2.0","repo":"https://github.com/supachai-j/thai-pdf-booklet"}

Thai PDF Booklet — translate + render beautiful Thai PDFs (cross-platform)

A standalone Node CLI that turns Markdown (often translated from English source PDFs) into print-quality Thai PDFs: each document on its own, or all of them bound into one booklet with a designed cover, a matching back cover, a credit line + page number on every content page.

v2 is OS-independent. It replaces the old macOS-only pipeline (system Chrome path, system Thai fonts, pandoc, poppler) with pure npm dependencies:

Concern	How v2 handles it (any OS)
Browser	puppeteer downloads its own Chromium — no system Chrome, no hardcoded paths
Thai font	Noto Sans Thai (OFL) bundled in assets/fonts/ and embedded — no system fonts
Markdown → HTML	markdown-it (npm) — no pandoc
Cover stitching	pdf-lib (npm) — no poppler

Two variants — pick one

Both produce the same designed output (cover, back cover, per-page Thai credit, page numbers).

	Portable (repo root)	Native (native/)
OS	macOS / Linux / Windows	macOS / Linux
Browser	bundled Chromium (puppeteer)	system Chrome (puppeteer-core)
Thai font	embedded Noto Sans Thai	system font (Sukhumvit/Thonburi; Linux: fonts-thai-tlwg)
MD→HTML / stitch	markdown-it / pdf-lib	pandoc / poppler
Install	npm install (downloads Chromium)	npm install + brew install pandoc poppler + Chrome
Configure	book.config.json (no code edits)	edit cover.html / build-book.sh
Run	node cli.js book <dir>	cd native && ./build-book.sh
Best when	zero system setup / any OS / Windows	you already have the tools and want a small footprint (no Chromium download)

Default to Portable. Choose Native only on macOS/Linux when Chrome + pandoc + poppler are already present and avoiding the Chromium download matters. The native variant has its own native/README.md.

Setup

# once, in the skill repo:
cd ~/.claude/skills/thai-pdf-booklet && npm install     # pulls puppeteer + Chromium

# per project:
mkdir -p ~/work/my-pdfs/src && cd ~/work/my-pdfs
# put Thai Markdown in src/*.md   (first line of each = "# Title")

Run it with node ~/.claude/skills/thai-pdf-booklet/cli.js <cmd> <dir> (or npm link to get a global thai-pdf-booklet command).

Workflow

1. Translate source → Thai Markdown (<project>/src/<base>.md)

If translating from English PDFs, Read each PDF (the Read tool renders PDF pages) and write natural professional Thai Markdown. For many docs, fan out one subagent per doc. Conventions:

• Keep in English: tickers/company names, ratio/metric abbreviations (OCF, FCF, P/E, EBITDA…), standard names (IAS 7, ASC 230), code. Translate prose; keep every number and $ figure.
• Cheat sheets → Markdown pipe tables; green/red columns → headers 🟢 จุดแข็ง / 🔴 จุดอ่อน.
• Quizzes → **ข้อ N.** … + a)…d), then ## เฉลย, then ## ประเด็นสำคัญ.
• Callouts (optional, styled): <div class="callout tip|warn|example|key"><span class="callout-title">…</span> …</div>.
• First line of each file = its title: # English Title — คำบรรยายไทย.

2. Render individual PDFs

node cli.js render <project>          # each src/*.md → <project>/out/<base>.pdf
node cli.js render <project> --credit "เรียบเรียง: … · แปลโดย …"

3. Combine into a booklet

Add <project>/book.config.json (schema below), then:

node cli.js book <project>            # → <project>/out/<output>.pdf

book.config.json

{
  "output": "my-booklet.pdf",
  "title": "ชื่อเล่ม\nบรรทัดสอง",        "subtitle": "คำโปรย\nบรรทัดสอง",
  "eyebrow": "หมวด · ฉบับแปลไทย",        "meta": "ฉบับพิมพ์ครั้งแรก · 2026",
  "coverCredit": "เรียบเรียง: ชื่อ\nแปลโดย Claude Code (AI)",
  "credit": "เครดิตท้ายทุกหน้า",          "tocTitle": "สารบัญ",
  "backQuote": "\"คำคมปิดเล่ม\"",         "backQuoteSub": "English subtitle",
  "backThanks": "ขอบคุณที่อ่านจนจบ",      "backMeta": "ชื่อเล่ม · 2026",
  "colors": { "base1": "#18715c",         
   
          
         
  

\n in any string becomes a line break. docs are src/<base>.md names, in order. The TOC is auto-built from each file's # H1. See examples/ for a runnable sample (node cli.js book examples).

Gotchas (each cost real debugging)

1. Inlining a big base64 font hangs page.setContent — a ~290 KB data-URI font in the page <style> blew the navigation timeout. Fix: write the HTML to a temp file and page.goto(file://), loading the font from a file:// URL (use url.pathToFileURL for Windows paths). Fast and OS-safe.
2. Chrome header/footer templates can't load file:// resources — so the page uses the file:// font, but the footer template embeds the font as a base64 data URI (small, isolated). That is how the Thai credit ("หน้า …") renders in the footer with no system font.
3. Full-bleed covers + numbered body + back cover = render three parts (front cover via pageRanges:'1' no footer; body with footer; back cover standalone no footer) and merge with pdf-lib (drop body page 1). @page :first { margin: 0 } + preferCSSPageSize:true.
4. Don't rely on system fonts/tools for portability — bundle the font, use puppeteer's Chromium, markdown-it, and pdf-lib. The only host requirement is Node ≥ 18.
5. Verify visually — read the output PDF (the Read tool renders pages) to confirm cover, a content page (footer + page number), and back cover; pdfinfo only if poppler happens to be installed.

Files

cli.js (CLI) · lib/build.js (engine) · templates/ (styles.css + cover/back-cover) · assets/fonts/NotoSansThai.ttf (bundled, OFL) · examples/ (runnable sample). Default house credit: เรียบเรียง: ศุภชัย จตุรพรม · แปลโดย Claude Code (AI) — override via --credit or config.