Markdown to PDF

Write in Markdown, style with HTML and CSS. You send a small HTML template and the Markdown files; each placeholder in the template is replaced by the rendered Markdown.

POST https://api.pdfdispatch.com/v1/convert/markdown

Form fields

Field	Type	Default	What it does
`index.html` required	file	–	A page with a placeholder for each Markdown file: `{{ toHTML "notes.md" }}`. Its CSS styles the result.
`*.md` required	file	–	One or more Markdown files, named in `index.html`. A name that `index.html` asks for but you did not send is an error (400).
`any other file`	file	–	Images, stylesheets and fonts, by file name, as for HTML.

Page options (paper, margins, header and footer, waiting) are the same as for HTML:

Field	Type	Default	What it does
`paperWidth, paperHeight`	size	`8.5 × 11 (US Letter)`	The paper size. A number is inches; add a unit for others: `210mm`, `29.7cm`, `595pt`, `794px`, `50pc`. A4 is `210mm` × `297mm`.
`marginTop, marginBottom, marginLeft, marginRight`	size	`0.39 (1 cm)`	The page margins, in the same units. A header or footer is drawn inside the top or bottom margin.
`landscape`	boolean	`false`	Turn the paper sideways.
`printBackground`	boolean	`false`	Print background colours and images. Without it, most backgrounds are left out, as a browser does when it prints.
`preferCssPageSize`	boolean	`false`	Use the size from the page’s CSS `@page` rule instead of `paperWidth` and `paperHeight`.
`waitDelay`	duration	–	Wait this long after the page has loaded before printing, for example `500ms` or `2s`. See Waiting for better ways.
`emulatedMediaType`	string	`print`	`print` or `screen`: which CSS media rules apply.

All of them: Rendering options.

The template

index.html is an ordinary page with one placeholder per Markdown file, written as {{ toHTML "file name" }}:

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="utf-8">
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="notes.css">
  </head>
  <body>
    <header><img src="logo.png" alt=""></header>
    <main>{{ toHTML "meeting-notes.md" }}</main>
  </body>
</html>

The Markdown supports the common extensions: tables, fenced code blocks, strikethrough, automatic links, heading ids and definition lists. Raw HTML inside the Markdown is cleaned: safe tags such as <sup> stay, scripts and event handlers are removed. Put anything that needs scripts in the template instead.

Example

curl --fail-with-body \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $PDD_KEY" \
  --form files=@index.html \
  --form files=@notes.css \
  --form files=@logo.png \
  --form files=@meeting-notes.md \
  --form paperWidth=210mm --form paperHeight=297mm \
  --output meeting-notes.pdf \
  https://api.pdfdispatch.com/v1/convert/markdown

Several Markdown files can go into one template ({{ toHTML "part-1.md" }} … {{ toHTML "part-2.md" }}). For one PDF per Markdown file, send one request per file.