| name | pdf |
| description | Use when tasks involve reading, creating, or reviewing PDF files where rendering and layout matter; prefer visual checks by rendering pages and use Python tools such as reportlab, pdfplumber, and pypdf for generation and extraction. |
PDF Skill
When to Use
- Read or review PDF content where layout and visuals matter.
- Create PDFs programmatically with reliable formatting.
- Validate final rendering before delivery.
Workflow
- Prefer visual review: render PDF pages to PNGs and inspect them.
- Use
reportlab to generate PDFs when creating new documents.
- Use
pdfplumber or pypdf for text extraction and quick checks; do not rely on text extraction for layout fidelity.
- After each meaningful update, re-render pages and verify alignment, spacing, and legibility.
Temp and Output Conventions
- Use
tmp/pdfs/ for intermediate files.
- Write final artifacts under
output/pdf/ when working in this repo.
- Keep filenames stable and descriptive.
Dependencies
Prefer uv for Python dependencies:
uv pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf
If uv is unavailable:
python3 -m pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf
System rendering tools:
brew install poppler
sudo apt-get install -y poppler-utils
If installation is not possible in this environment, tell the user which dependency is missing and how to install it locally.
Rendering Command
pdftoppm -png "$INPUT_PDF" "$OUTPUT_PREFIX"
Quality Expectations
- Maintain consistent typography, spacing, margins, and section hierarchy.
- Avoid clipped text, overlapping elements, broken tables, black squares, or unreadable glyphs.
- Charts, tables, and images must be sharp, aligned, and clearly labeled.
- Use ASCII hyphens only.
- Citations and references must be human-readable; never leave tool tokens or placeholders.
Final Checks
- Do not deliver until the latest PNG inspection shows no visual or formatting defects.
- Confirm headers, footers, page numbering, and section transitions.
- Keep intermediate files organized or remove them after final approval.
