md2pdf turns an Obsidian note into a PDF that still looks like the note. Callouts stay callouts. Code stays highlighted. The frontmatter becomes the properties table you are used to seeing under the title.
It is one binary with the fonts already inside it. Nothing to install alongside it, nothing fetched over the network, and the same note comes out the same on any machine.
- Callouts: all 27 kinds Obsidian knows, each with its own colour and icon.
- Properties: frontmatter becomes the table under the title, with tag pills, formatted dates, links and checkboxes.
- Footnotes: numbered in the order you reference them, gathered under a divider at the end, each with a link back to where it was cited.
- Code: fenced blocks are syntax highlighted and labelled with their language.
- Math: LaTeX, both inline and as its own centred block.
- Everything else: image embeds,
==highlights==,%%comments%%,#tags, task lists, tables, nested lists, strikethrough, and quotes. - Two themes: light and dark.
- An interactive mode: pick a note, choose a folder, and export, without leaving the terminal.
You need Rust. Nothing else.
git clone https://github.com/ecstras-lab/md2pdf.git
cd md2pdf
cargo install --path .md2pdf note.md # writes PDF/note.pdf
md2pdf note.md -t dark # dark theme
md2pdf notes/post.md -o ~/post.pdf # choose where it lands
md2pdf note -q # add the .md, and say nothing
md2pdf -i # pick a note and a folder, then export -i, --interactive pick a note and a folder, then export
-t, --theme <light|dark> colour theme, light by default
-o, --output <PATH> write the PDF here
-q, --quiet report nothing but errors and warnings
--color <auto|always|never>
A missing .md is added for you. Without an output path the PDF mirrors your folders under PDF/, so notes/2024/post.md lands at PDF/notes/2024/post.pdf.
Every run says what it did.
theme dark
source notes/post.md
output PDF/notes/post.pdf (155 KB in 1.4s)
Colour turns itself on when a terminal is reading and off when anything else is. NO_COLOR, CLICOLOR_FORCE and --color each get a say.
md2pdf -i opens a picker for your notes, a theme, and a folder to save into. Choose a note, press enter, and it writes the PDF. It opens in the dark theme, since a terminal usually is, and -t light starts it the other way.
The files are on the left, the PDF they become on the right. Type / to search the list, and the letters need only appear in order, so tsmd finds tests/test.md. Press e to change the save folder, beneath which the PDF keeps its name and its folders, exactly as the command keeps them beneath PDF/. The selected note, the live theme, and the export button carry the document's own accent, so switching the theme retints the interface, and it is the theme the PDF is written in. Anything a note could not draw is listed below once it is written.
A PDF has no web browser in it, and no video player, so a few things in a note have nowhere to go. None of them vanish quietly. Each one leaves a marked box where it belonged, naming the reason, and the same reason is printed when you run the command.
- Raw HTML is dropped. A
<div>or a<details>block has nothing to render it. - Videos, audio and embedded notes cannot be drawn.
- An image that is not on disk is marked rather than skipped.
The whole theme is one Typst stylesheet. If you want to change a colour, a margin or an icon, that is the only file you need to open.
The design notes and the reasoning behind the trickier parts live in docs/.
MIT. See LICENSE.
The bundled fonts keep their own licences, which sit beside them in assets/fonts/.
- Montserrat and JetBrains Mono: SIL Open Font License.
- DejaVu Sans: the DejaVu licence, a permissive Bitstream Vera derivative.
- New Computer Modern Math: the GUST Font License.