Render academic Markdown documents (English or Korean) to publication-quality PDF via pandoc + xelatex. Targets non-bibliography artifacts: research proposals, IRB cover letters, briefing handouts, anchor docs (Q&A grids), and reference tables. Auto-infers pipe-table column widths from content (label column shrinks to fit, data columns share remaining width). CJK-aware font fallback for Korean text (Apple SD Gothic Neo on macOS, Noto Sans CJK KR on Linux). NOT for: manuscripts with bibliography (use /manage-refs render_pandoc.sh), Word form filling (/fill-protocol), figures (/make-figures).
Render academic Markdown documents (English or Korean) to publication-quality PDF via pandoc + xelatex. Targets non-bibliography artifacts: research proposals, IRB cover letters, briefing handouts, anchor docs (Q&A grids), and reference tables. Auto-infers pipe-table column widths from content (label column shrinks to fit, data columns share remaining width). CJK-aware font fallback for Korean text (Apple SD Gothic Neo on macOS, Noto Sans CJK KR on Linux). NOT for: manuscripts with bibliography (use /manage-refs render_pandoc.sh), Word form filling (/fill-protocol), figures (/make-figures).
triggers
render PDF, PDF 렌더, korean PDF, 한글 PDF, anchor doc PDF, briefing PDF, proposal PDF, 연구계획서 PDF, 표 정렬 PDF, 표 폭 자동, tbl-colwidths, 학술 PDF
tools
Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob
model
inherit
Render-PDF-Doc Skill
Markdown + frontmatter → publication-quality academic PDF (English or Korean).
Why This Skill Exists
In real circulation cycles for academic PDFs, two recurring failure patterns appear:
v1 drafts: change-history, version numbers, and PI attribution leak into the attached PDF, confusing the first recipient.
v2 drafts: pandoc pipe-table dash ratios are misjudged, narrowing the first column and forcing label wrapping that hurts readability.
Manual fixes work but the same pattern recurs across proposals, briefings, IRB covers, exemption applications. This skill focuses on layout (CJK fonts + table column widths). Bibliography and CSL are handled by /manage-refs.
This skill: non-bib academic markdown → PDF (proposal, briefing, anchor doc, IRB cover)
/render-pdf-doc
Core Principles
Pipe table column widths must be inferred from content. No equal splitting. Size the first column (label) to the longest label, and distribute the remaining width content-proportionally across the data columns.
Set the CJK font explicitly — mainfont + CJKmainfont. The default fallback is OS-detected.
For circulation PDFs, remove change history / version numbers / PI attribution (or split them into a supplementary). Use the frontmatter redact_internal: true option.
No Quarto dependency — raw pandoc + xelatex. Quarto's tbl-colwidths has reported PDF regressions (issues 6089/9200).
Dependencies
# macOS
brew install pandoc
brew install --cask mactex-no-gui # xelatex + xeCJK (~5 GB)# Linuxsudo apt-get install pandoc texlive-xetex texlive-lang-cjk fonts-noto-cjk
# Windows (PowerShell) — run in Git Bash afterwards
winget install --id JohnMacFarlane.Pandoc
winget install --id MiKTeX.MiKTeX # xelatex; installs missing LaTeX packages on demand# No CJK font download needed: Malgun Gothic ships with Windows 7+ and is the default here.
Detection:
bash scripts/check_deps.sh
Windows / Git Bash note. MiKTeX's binary directory
(%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64) is often not on the Git Bash PATH,
so xelatex can read as [MISS] even after install. Both check_deps.sh and
render_pdf.sh now auto-probe that location; if xelatex still isn't found, add the
directory to your PATH (or run from the MiKTeX Console → Settings-configured shell).
The Windows CJK/main font default is Malgun Gothic (preinstalled); override per document
via frontmatter, or with --font / --cjk-font.
xelatex silently drops any character the chosen font does not cover — the PDF
renders with the glyph simply missing, no error or warning. Academic markdown
routinely carries glyphs a default Latin font misses: transition arrows (→ ↑ ↓),
math operators (− ≤ ≥ ± √ ∪ × ≈ ≠), stats Greek (κ μ σ β), bullets/marks (• ★ ✓),
and CJK. Scan the source first so a silent drop is caught before it ships:
python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --strict
# real cmap check when you have the font file + fonttools:
python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --font "/path/to/body.otf" --strict
It groups the risky glyphs by class (advisory), or — with --font + fonttools
— reports which are genuinely absent from the font's cmap. If risky glyphs are
present, ensure mainfont/CJKmainfont cover them (a CJK-capable font such as
Apple SD Gothic Neo / Noto Sans CJK usually covers arrows + Hangul but can
still miss the true-minus − U+2212 and ★). The DOCX is authoritative; the
PDF is a convenience copy — never let a PDF render drop a glyph the document
needs.
Step 4 — Visual verify
Open the PDF. Check:
The first-column labels do not wrap and stay on a single line
Data columns have sufficient width
No broken Korean glyphs (a Times New Roman fallback means CJKmainfont was not applied)
No missing scientific symbols (arrows, −, ≤, ±, √) — the Step 3.5 scan flags candidates
No change history / internal version numbers exposed
Templates
Starter markdown in templates/ (English default; a Korean variant *_ko.md ships alongside each):
anchor-doc.md — Q&A grid
proposal-cover.md — research-proposal cover page
briefing-handout.md — meeting brief (1-page)
reference-table.md — comparison-table format
Each template marks slots with a <!-- TODO: --> marker.
Anti-Patterns
Anti-pattern
Consequence
Equal dash split (|---|---|---|)
A column with only a short label gets the same width → cramped data columns
CJKmainfont not set
Hangul falls back to Times New Roman (broken Latin glyphs or blanks)
Change history / version (e.g. v3.2.2) / PI attribution exposed in a circulation PDF
Confuses the first recipient; leaks internal information
Quarto tbl-colwidths for PDF
PDF regression in Quarto 1.4+ — trust HTML only
Files
scripts/render_pdf.sh — pandoc + xelatex wrapper, OS font detection
scripts/check_deps.sh — checks for pandoc / xelatex / CJK font
templates/ — 4 starters (English) + their *_ko.md Korean variants
references/pandoc_korean_cheatsheet.md — collection of frontmatter patterns (Korean-PDF reference)
references/known_pitfalls.md — em-dash line breaks, smart quotes, etc. (Korean-PDF reference)
Anti-Hallucination
Numerical content in tables: read every value from the source CSV or analysis output. Do not
retype a number from prose, and do not carry one forward from an earlier draft — a table that
was correct in v3 is not evidence it is correct in v4.
References: use /manage-refs separately — this skill does not handle bib.
When producing a circulation PDF, keep the received primary source (the .docx or .eml a
co-author sent) unmodified as its own artifact. The PDF is a derivative, not a replacement, and
the next round is diffed against that source. If the source was itself AI-drafted by a
collaborator, treat every number, denominator, and author-year in it as unverified: re-derive
each from the underlying paper or analysis output before it reaches the PDF.
Global-rule references
Some passages in this skill cite a path of the form ~/.claude/rules/<name>.md. Those are the
maintainer's personal global rules, kept outside this repository. They are not shipped with
this skill and will not exist on your machine; they appear only as provenance for where a
convention came from. If one of them looks like it is standing in for an instruction you actually
need, that is a bug — please open an issue, because the instruction belongs here.
