Show HN: Mdpdf a 2k line C CLI to convert Markdown to tiny PDFs
https://github.com/schicho/mdpdf
I have always searched for a simple tool which can convert a MD document to a well styled small PDF, just like a GitHub Readme.This was inspired by TinyPDF https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46316968
I also used this project to get familiar with agentic coding, which I had dreaded before.
mdpdf supports:
- using the included PDF fonts to generate tiny valid PDFs
- outputs as A4 or Letter depending on your locale
- plenty of common MD syntax: code blocks, inline code, lists, tables, and jpg and png images
That's it. It covers probably most of the use cases and can help to simply convert a Markdown write-up to a PDF to share.
GitHub: https://github.com/schicho/mdpdf
A simple make call should build it for you.
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(It's vanilla.)
I'd love to see an output option that leaves 40%–60% of the right side of every page blank, for handwritten notes after printing (similar to Tufte layout).
I would also like to see some markdown to PDF screenshot examples in order to properly visualize the intent. Keep it up!
I too am building an API client based on markdown and this will do pretty well with it : https://voiden.md/