pressroom

name

pressroom

description

Render markdown to clean HTML + PDF + DOCX with professional resume/cover-letter CSS. Headless Chrome PDF gives exact browser fidelity (no LaTeX needed). Auto-detects cover-letter styling from filename. Use when the user asks to convert markdown to PDF, make a clean printable version, render for sharing or printing, generate ATS-friendly resume/cover-letter exports, or "press" a markdown doc to publication-ready format.

pressroom — markdown → press-ready output

Convert any markdown file (or folder of markdown files) into clean, publication-ready HTML, PDF, and DOCX in one shot. Built for resumes, cover letters, essays, and printable documentation. CSS is tasteful by default, designed to work in browser preview and print/PDF without modification.

When to use this skill

• User says "convert this MD to PDF" / "make a clean PDF" / "render this for sharing"
• User wants ATS-friendly resume / cover letter exports
• User wants "press" their markdown to a finished output (single file or batch)
• User wants the same source markdown to generate matching HTML, PDF, and DOCX (e.g. one for the recruiter form, one for browser preview, one for Google Docs)

When NOT to use

• Raw text dumps that don't need styling — paste-and-go is faster
• LaTeX-heavy academic output — use a proper LaTeX template instead
• Slide decks — use a slide tool

How it works

1. Pandoc renders the .md to standalone HTML with the bundled _style.css embedded inline. The CSS is print-friendly (Charter serif body, Inter sans headers, 0.85" margins, no dark backgrounds).
2. If the file looks like a cover letter (filename matches cover-letter or letter), the body gets class="cover-letter" for slightly looser line-height.
3. Pandoc separately renders the .md to .docx (clean Word XML — best format for ATS uploads).
4. Headless Chrome prints the HTML to PDF (--headless=new --no-pdf-header-footer). Same render engine as the user's browser, so the PDF matches the on-screen preview exactly. No LaTeX, no manual Cmd+P.

Default invocation

~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh <input.md>

Outputs <input>.html, <input>.pdf, <input>.docx next to the source.

For batch processing a folder of markdown files:

~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh <directory>

Common flags

Flag	Effect
--cover-letter	Force cover-letter CSS class (looser line-height). Auto-detected from filename if not set.
--no-cover-letter	Force off (override filename heuristic).
--title "..."	Browser-tab + suggested-PDF-filename title. Defaults to humanized filename.
--css PATH	Use a different CSS file instead of the bundled _style.css.
--no-pdf	Skip PDF generation.
--no-docx	Skip DOCX generation.
--out-dir DIR	Write outputs to DIR instead of next to source.

Examples

# Single resume, default everything
~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh resume.md

# Single cover letter with explicit title (becomes browser tab + PDF filename suggestion)
~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh cover-letter.md \
  --title "Jacob Krajewski — Cover Letter (Anthropic, Product Designer Claude Code)"

# Batch: re-press every markdown file in finals/
~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh "01 Projects/AI Career Pivot/finals"

# Use a custom CSS theme
~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh essay.md --css ~/themes/long-form.css

# HTML + DOCX only (skip PDF)
~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh resume.md --no-pdf

Source markdown conventions

• Use \ (backslash) at end-of-line to force a <br> in pandoc-flavored markdown — needed for header blocks like To/Re/Date or signature blocks where each line should render separately. (A bare newline collapses lines into one paragraph.)
• Strip YAML frontmatter and trailing notes sections before pressing if you're producing a clean public artifact. Keep them in source folders, not in the file you press.
• Use # Heading for the document title (resume = candidate name; cover letter = "Cover Letter — Name" or omit).
• Italics with *...*, bold with **...**, code with `.

Dependencies

• pandoc — brew install pandoc. Required.
• Google Chrome at /Applications/Google Chrome.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Chrome. Required for PDF; the script falls back gracefully (HTML + DOCX only) if missing.

Files in this skill

• SKILL.md — this file
• _style.css — the default CSS theme. Light, neutral, print-friendly. Includes a .cover-letter body class variant.
• press.sh — the executable pipeline. Self-contained; idempotent (re-running overwrites previous outputs).

How Claude should invoke this

When the user asks to convert markdown to PDF, render for sharing, make ATS-friendly exports, or "press" a markdown doc:

1. Identify the input file or directory (ask if unclear).
2. Run ~/.claude/skills/pressroom/press.sh <input> with appropriate flags.
3. Optionally open <output>.pdf to display the result.

For batch tasks (e.g. "re-press all the finals"), point it at a directory and let the script iterate.