Advanced MD to PDF

Turn Markdown into polished PDFs in one click: with Mermaid diagrams, KaTeX math, GitHub alerts, themes, a page-accurate live preview, and a built-in PDF viewer.

🚀 Quick start

Open any .md file.
Press Ctrl+Alt+P (Cmd+Alt+P on macOS), or click the PDF icon in the editor title bar.
The PDF opens right inside VS Code. That's it: no setup, and Chrome is detected (or downloaded) automatically.

Want to see it before exporting? Click the preview icon (Ctrl+K Ctrl+Alt+V).

Live preview with theme, page size and orientation toolbar

✨ Features


👀 Live preview	Drawn at the real paper size, margins, and orientation, so wrapping matches the PDF. Updates as you type.
🎨 Themes	`github-light`, `github-dark`, and `academic`, plus custom CSS and font overrides.
📊 Mermaid diagrams	```mermaid blocks are rendered to crisp vector graphics.
🧮 Math	KaTeX inline $…$ and block `$$…$$`, with bundled fonts.
📣 GitHub alerts	`> [!NOTE]`, `[!TIP]`, `[!IMPORTANT]`, `[!WARNING]`, `[!CAUTION]`.
📑 Rich Markdown	TOC, footnotes, emoji, task lists, definition lists, sub/sup, `==highlight==`, abbreviations, and `<details>` (auto-expanded).
🔍 Built-in PDF viewer	Zoom and fit, selectable text with `Ctrl/Cmd+F`, clickable TOC and web links, and auto-refresh on re-export.
🖨️ Page control	Headers and footers with page numbers, manual page breaks, and per-document options in front matter.
📂 Batch export	Convert a multi-selection or a whole folder, with cancellable progress.
⚡ Fast and zero-config	A shared headless Chrome, Edge, Chromium, or Brave. If none is installed, Chrome is downloaded once and reused offline.

The same document in the GitHub Light, GitHub Dark and Academic themes

Try examples/feature-showcase.md to see every feature in one document.

📖 Usage

Convert

Where	How
Editor title bar	Click the PDF icon
Keyboard	`Ctrl+Alt+P` (Windows/Linux) · `Cmd+Alt+P` (macOS)
Status bar	Click PDF while a Markdown file is open
Context menu	Right-click a `.md` file in the Explorer or editor → Convert to PDF (select several files to convert them all)
Choose location	Command Palette → Advanced MD to PDF: Export to PDF (choose location)…
Whole folder	Right-click a folder → Convert All Markdown in Folder

Live preview

Click the preview icon in the editor title bar, press Ctrl+K Ctrl+Alt+V (Cmd+K Cmd+Alt+V on macOS), or run Advanced MD to PDF: Open PDF Preview. The toolbar changes the theme, page size, and orientation for this document. Export to PDF / Export As… use exactly those choices. Links work too: #anchors scroll the preview, relative .md links open in the editor, and web links open in your browser.

The preview doesn't take over Ctrl+K V, so VS Code's built-in Markdown: Open Preview to the Side keeps that shortcut.

Built-in PDF viewer

Built-in PDF viewer showing Mermaid diagrams

Generated PDFs open in an in-editor viewer. It has page navigation, zoom, fit-width / fit-page, selectable and searchable text (Ctrl/Cmd+F), clickable links, and Save a copy, Print, and Open externally buttons. When you re-export, the viewer refreshes automatically and keeps your page and zoom. Large documents stay smooth because only the pages near the viewport are kept in memory.

Keyboard: Page Up / Page Down, Home / End, Ctrl/Cmd + / - to zoom, and Ctrl/Cmd+0 to fit width.

The viewer doesn't replace your default PDF app. To use it for any other PDF, right-click the file → Open With… → MD to PDF Viewer. If you'd rather use your system viewer for exports, set md-to-pdf.viewer to system.

Page breaks

Put , \pagebreak, or \newpage on a line of its own where a new page should start.

Per-document options (front matter)

A pdf: block in the YAML front matter overrides your settings for that document. The preview toolbar and the askOptionsOnConvert prompts still take precedence over it.

---
title: Quarterly Report        # used for the {title} header/footer token and the preview title
pdf:
  theme: academic              # github-light | github-dark | academic
  format: Letter               # A4 | Letter | Legal | A3 | A5 | A6 | Tabloid
  landscape: true
  margins: 20mm                # or a map with top / right / bottom / left
  toc: false                   # disable [[toc]] and heading anchors
---

⚙️ Settings

Output & layout

Setting	Default	Description
`md-to-pdf.openAfterConversion`	`true`	Automatically open the PDF after conversion
`md-to-pdf.askOptionsOnConvert`	`false`	Prompt for theme / page size / orientation each time you run Convert to PDF
`md-to-pdf.pageFormat`	`"A4"`	A4, Letter, Legal, A3, A5, A6, Tabloid
`md-to-pdf.landscape`	`false`	Render pages in landscape orientation
`md-to-pdf.scale`	`1`	Render scale (0.1–2) to shrink wide content
`md-to-pdf.margins`	`{...}`	Page margins (top, right, bottom, left)
`md-to-pdf.onFileExists`	`"overwrite"`	`overwrite` or `newFile` (adds a sequence number)
`md-to-pdf.outputDirectory`	`""`	Where to write PDFs (relative to the source file, or absolute). Supports `${workspaceFolder}`, `${fileDirname}`, `${userHome}`, and `~`
`md-to-pdf.viewer`	`"internal"`	`internal` (built-in viewer) or `system` (default app)
`md-to-pdf.header` / `md-to-pdf.footer`	`{ enabled: false }`	Running header/footer; tokens: `{title} {date} {pageNumber} {totalPages} {filePath}`

Styling

Setting	Default	Description
`md-to-pdf.theme`	`"github-light"`	`github-light`, `github-dark`, or `academic`
`md-to-pdf.customCss`	`""`	Path to a CSS file appended after the theme (same path variables; relative `url(...)` inside it resolve against the CSS file)
`md-to-pdf.fonts`	`{}`	`body`, `mono`, and `size` overrides

Content & rendering

Setting	Default	Description
`md-to-pdf.mermaid.enabled` / `md-to-pdf.mermaid.theme`	`true` / `"auto"`	Render Mermaid diagrams and choose their theme
`md-to-pdf.math.enabled`	`true`	Render KaTeX math
`md-to-pdf.alerts.enabled`	`true`	Render GitHub-style alerts/callouts
`md-to-pdf.toc.enabled`	`true`	`[[toc]]`/`[TOC]` and heading anchors
`md-to-pdf.toc.levels`	`[1, 2, 3]`	Heading levels listed in the table of contents
`md-to-pdf.emoji`	`true`	Render `:emoji:` shortcodes
`md-to-pdf.extraSyntax`	`true`	Definition lists, sub/sup, `==mark==`, abbreviations
`md-to-pdf.expandDetails`	`true`	Expand `<details>` so content is visible
`md-to-pdf.embedImages`	`true`	Embed local images as data URIs
`md-to-pdf.linkRenderUrls`	`false`	Print the URL after external links
`md-to-pdf.codeBlocks.wordWrap`	`true`	Wrap long code lines instead of clipping
`md-to-pdf.tables.wide`	`"wrap"`	`wrap` cells or `shrink` font for wide tables
`md-to-pdf.convertFolder.recursive`	`false`	Include subfolders when converting a folder

Browser

Setting	Default	Description
`md-to-pdf.browserPath`	`""`	Explicit Chrome/Chromium/Edge/Brave path (auto-detected, then auto-downloaded, if empty). User settings only
`md-to-pdf.timeout`	`120000`	Max time (ms) to wait while rendering. Set to `0` to disable for very large documents

Example configuration

{
  "md-to-pdf.theme": "github-dark",
  "md-to-pdf.pageFormat": "Letter",
  "md-to-pdf.footer": {
    "enabled": true,
    "template": "{pageNumber} / {totalPages}"
  },
  "md-to-pdf.tables.wide": "shrink",
  "md-to-pdf.linkRenderUrls": true
}

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
"Chrome … not found and automatic download failed"	Install Chrome, Edge, Chromium, or Brave, or set `md-to-pdf.browserPath` in your user settings.
Conversion times out on a huge document	Raise `md-to-pdf.timeout`, or set it to `0`. Splitting into chapters and using Convert All Markdown in Folder is faster.
"… is open in another program"	Another app (e.g. Acrobat on Windows) is locking the PDF. Close it, or pick Save As… in the error message.
`customCss` / `outputDirectory` / `browserPath` seem ignored	In Restricted Mode, workspace settings can't change these. Trust the folder or set them in user settings.
A font looks different in the PDF	Fonts referenced only by name must be installed locally. Bundle web fonts via `customCss` with `@font-face`.
Something else	Check the MD to PDF output channel (View → Output) and open an issue.

🔒 Security

Scripts inside Markdown (raw <script> tags, onerror= handlers, …) are blocked while the PDF is rendered, and the page can't make network requests from script. A document you convert can't read and send away your local files.
md-to-pdf.browserPath can only be set in user settings, so a cloned repository's .vscode/settings.json can't make the extension launch an arbitrary program.
In Restricted Mode, workspace settings can't change browserPath, customCss, or outputDirectory.
Chrome's sandbox stays on. It's only disabled on Linux when VS Code itself runs as root (e.g. in containers), where Chrome can't start otherwise.

📋 Requirements

VS Code 1.85 or newer
Browser: Chrome, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, or Brave. It's detected automatically, and Chrome is downloaded once if none is found.

🤝 Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

npm install
npm test        # copies assets, compiles, runs unit tests + a real-Chrome PDF smoke test
npm run lint
npm run build   # bundles out/extension.js (press F5 in VS Code to try it)

See CHANGELOG.md for release notes.

📄 License

If this extension saves you time, please consider leaving a ⭐ review on the Marketplace.

Advanced MD to PDF

hsynkmk

Advanced MD to PDF

🚀 Quick start

✨ Features

📖 Usage

Convert

Live preview

Built-in PDF viewer

Page breaks

Per-document options (front matter)

⚙️ Settings

Output & layout

Styling

Content & rendering

Browser

Example configuration

🛠️ Troubleshooting

🔒 Security

📋 Requirements

🤝 Contributing

📄 License