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pdf-creator

Convert markdown files to professional PDF documents with proper Chinese font support, theme system, and visual self-check. Use for Markdown → PDF, printable Markdown documents, and Markdown formatted for print or mobile reading. Prefer its CJK typography, header/footer suppression, and visual verification over manual pandoc/Chrome commands. Scope is Markdown → PDF only. Existing Word/WPS → PDF, including manuscript excerpts and layout repair, routes to daymade-docs:docx-creator; do not round-trip an authoritative Word manuscript through Markdown. Word output also routes to docx-creator.

L4 High-Privilege · Graded auth & full auditV1 Commit-PinnedExecute CommandData ExfiltrationNetwork AccessWrite FileDual-pass Audit

Author daymadeGitHub daymade/claude-code-skills ↗Stars 1385License MIT（仓库根 LICENSE；Copyright (c) 2025 daymade；GitHub API spdx MIT）Commit d5c4678cb5

Control levels describe skill capabilities and suggested control measures; they do not represent quality or safety certifications, nor do they dictate usability. Usage decisions rest entirely with users and administrators. Different agent hosts apply varying constraints; do not assume hosts provide automatic protection. Third-party skill copyrights belong to their original authors. Use at your own risk.

1How It Works & Mechanism

The pipeline is pandoc (md → HTML) + CSS themes + weasyprint/headless-Chrome rendering + poppler self-check, with scripts automatically applying CJK font stacks and typography patches—the core is in md_to_pdf.py (813 lines).

daymade-docs/pdf-creator/scripts/md_to_pdf.py

result = subprocess.run( ["pandoc", "-f", "markdown", "-t", "html"], input=md_content, capture_output=True,

The Chrome backend passes `--no-pdf-header-footer` to prevent default headers and footers (avoiding the pitfalls of manual pandoc+Chrome listed in the SKILL Anti-Pattern table); the weasyprint backend calls `HTML(string).write_pdf` directly.

Backend selection automatically routes based on "content × theme font stack" rather than whether Chinese is present: default/cjk-auto (Songti/Heiti CID TrueType) routes to weasyprint, while PingFang-style themes route to Chrome because weasyprint embeds PingFang SC subsets as CID Type 0C, which macOS Preview/Adobe cannot read.

daymade-docs/pdf-creator/SKILL.md

**CJK + a Songti/Heiti theme** (`default`, `cjk-auto`) → **weasyprint**. These themes embed CID TrueType, which every reader renders, so Chrome buys nothing and costs the clip described below.

Routing is locked down by tests/test_backend_routing.py; the explicit `--backend` parameter always overrides auto-detection. This engineers font embedding format knowledge (PDF reader compatibility) into code.

Themes are standalone CSS files (themes/*.css); 5 built-in themes cover formal, training, and mobile reading. Creating a new theme simply involves copying default.css and renaming it.

daymade-docs/pdf-creator/SKILL.md

To create a new theme: copy `themes/default.css`, modify, save as `themes/your-theme.css`.

The mobile theme uses 148×210mm specifically for WeChat/mobile reading; warm-terra-menu is a variant reinforced for line breaks in long menu text (using Menlo unicode-range to fix missing CJK glyphs in inline code).

CJK typography two-layer defense: Layer 1 automatically injects CSS patches (`table-layout: fixed`, `keep-all`, `th nowrap`, etc., without modifying the user's source file); Layer 2 runs `pdftotext -layout` after rendering to scan for anti-patterns such as orphan characters and broken brackets according to the "Chinese Copywriting Guidelines" and emits warnings.

daymade-docs/pdf-creator/SKILL.md

The patch: - `table { table-layout: fixed; width: 100% }` — equal column widths prevent weasyprint auto-layout from squeezing one column to ~10% width when an adjacent column has 5x more content

Layer 2 only warns and does not auto-modify—following CLAUDE.md's rule of "no implicit behavior" as stated in SKILL: silently rewriting Markdown masks underlying issues in the source itself.

Chrome clipping defects are studied down to the pixel level and paired with dual-mode inspection: Chrome's `@page` clip path cuts off table right borders that exceed the content box (538.90pt vs 545.18pt), yet the object remains in the PDF, undetectable by preview or coordinates alone. check_table_borders.py provides two modes: ink check + `--reference` comparison, with only the latter acting as a definitive verdict for Chrome rendering.

daymade-docs/pdf-creator/SKILL.md

It takes two forms, and for a Chrome-rendered PDF only the second one is a verdict.

The script docstring provides empirical evidence: 'a table styled with vertical rules and no cell fills, rendered through Chrome past the clip, loses its right border from the object layer entirely; the ink check then reports 5/5 promised rules painted — PASS'—this turns the mechanism of 'why manual verification fails' into an automated check.

Enforced visual self-check: Each generation automatically runs `pdftoppm` to output per-page PNGs (placed in the system temp directory, never committed to the working tree), printing a checklist reminding the user to inspect page-by-page; files containing tables must pass border check before clearance.

daymade-docs/pdf-creator/SKILL.md

Converts each page to PNG via `pdftoppm` (poppler-utils) into a `<pdf-name>/` subdirectory under the **system temp dir** (NOT next to the PDF — previews are a throwaway self-check artifact and must never linger in your working tree / git repo).

`--no-preview` only disables PNG generation, not the obligation: batch mode requires running check_table_borders.py against the outputs.

2Core Capabilities

01Markdown → Professional PDF (Chinese typography + theme system), single-file or batch

025 built-in themes (default/cjk-auto/warm-terra/warm-terra-menu/mobile) and custom theme mechanism

03Automatic weasyprint/Chrome dual-backend routing (content × theme font stack) with explicit override

04Automatic CJK typography patches + post-render typography linting (orphan characters/broken brackets/punctuation line breaks)

05Chrome clipping detection: ink check + `--reference` dual-backend comparison (the sole definitive verdict for Chrome)

06Enforced visual self-check: per-page PNGs + checklist (temp dir avoids polluting the working tree)

3External Dependencies

Kind	Dependency / Endpoint
cli	pandoc（markdown→HTML）
package	weasyprint（uv run --with weasyprint / pip install）
cli	Google Chrome（headless --print-to-pdf 后端）
cli	poppler：pdftoppm（预览 PNG）/ pdftotext / pdfinfo（排版 lint）
package	pdfplumber / pillow / numpy（check_table_borders，uv --with）

4Recommended Governance & Evidence

Suggested Controls for Safe Operation

For Agent Runtime

Graded/per-use authorization, sandbox recommended

For Administrators

Approval workflow, rollback support, full audit

Evidence & Triggers (File Paths & Excerpts)

scripts/: Execute local scripts or commands: `python md_to_pdf.py` (local: pandoc subprocess, weasyprint import, or headless Chrome subprocess)
外部端点: Exfiltrate local content or conversation sessions to third-party cloud storage
本地工作目录: File read/write and artifact output: generates PDF alongside input or at specified output path; preview PNGs are written to system temp directory `pdf-creator-previews/<stem>/` (automatically cleaning up old pages)

Audit Notes: Purely local toolchain (pandoc/weasyprint/Chrome/poppler) with zero outbound network traffic and zero credential reading during runtime; writes only the user-specified PDF and self-check PNGs in the system temp directory. Note: Initial usage requires uv/pip to pull packages like weasyprint/pdfplumber (official PyPI, predictable); DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH is only appended in-process.

5Second-Pass Verification

[ok] pandoc→HTML→渲染器管线 — md_to_pdf.py subprocess.run(["pandoc","-f","markdown","-t","html"]) + _render_weasyprint/_render_chrome 均存在。
[ok] 后端按内容×主题路由 — _detect_backend 中 _WEASYPRINT_SAFE_CJK_THEMES={'default','cjk-auto'} 与 SKILL 路由表一致；test_backend_routing.py 存在。
[ok] Chrome clip 缺陷数字 — SKILL 与 check_table_borders.py docstring 均载 538.90pt/545.18pt 与 '5/5 promised rules painted — PASS' 反例，跨文件一致。
[ok] 预览进 temp dir 而非工作树 — 代码 preview_dir = Path(tempfile.gettempdir()) / 'pdf-creator-previews' / pdf_path.stem；SKILL 同述。
[ok] Layer1 CSS 补丁 / Layer2 lint 不隐改源 — _TYPOGRAPHY_CSS_PATCH 注入与 pdftotext -layout 扫描代码均在；无对用户 md/css 的写回路径。
[ok] 无网络无凭证 — 代码扫描零 curl/requests/API key；env 读取仅 DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH（进程内）。
[ok] 元数据 — GitHub API：MIT / 1385 stars / pushed 2026-09-09T12:33:29Z；本地 HEAD==pin d5c4678。

6Verdict & Scenarios

Comprehensive Chinese PDF quality gates: font embedding format compatibility (CID TrueType routing), typography linting, and Chrome clipping detection are all backed by scripts and tests.

Deeply investigates the mechanism of "why manual workflows fail" (clipped objects remain in the object layer without laying down ink) and implements it as executable checks rather than mere reminders.

Theme system enables one-step multi-version conversion for training, formal, and mobile reading, with low barrier for pure CSS customization.

Hygiene and discipline: self-check artifacts never touch the working tree, and source Markdown is never silently rewritten—ideal for team pipelines.

Best for: Ideal for individuals and teams converting Chinese Markdown into formal, training, or mobile-friendly PDFs (contracts, lecture notes, course syllabi, WeChat sharing docs); requires pandoc + weasyprint or Chrome + poppler installed and a willingness to perform page-by-page visual verification.

Not for: Not suitable for converting existing authoritative Word/WPS manuscripts to PDF (use docx-creator's word-to-pdf workflow instead; Markdown round-tripping is prohibited); not suitable for offline environments without Chinese fonts installed; pixel-perfect layout control (exact per-page layout) exceeds CSS rendering capabilities.

Install Agent-Ready

① Verified Mirror 2026-09-09

Option A · Direct DownloadDownload pdf-creator.tar.gz

sha256: 77a0f5b23369e727…

Option B · Copy Guide for Agent

Agents automatically download and verify mirrors from this JSON guide.

② Upstream GitHub

GitHub Repo ↗

Pinned to commit d5c4678cb5.