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Markdown to PDF on Mac

markdown pdf tools
How to convert a Markdown file to a PDF with pleasant fonts and great footnotes using pandoc and TeX.
Nice fonts and nice footnotes in a PDF

Prerequisites #

Install Pandoc and a minimal TeX Live distribution via Homebrew:

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brew install pandoc
brew install --cask mactex-no-gui

After installing MacTeX, restart your terminal or run:

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eval "$(/usr/libexec/path_helper)"

Verify everything is in place:

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pandoc --version
xelatex --version
fc-list | grep "TeX Gyre"   # should show Pagella, Heros, Cursor

Render command #

Run this from the directory containing the markdown file:

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pandoc estimation-decision-support.md \
  -o estimation-decision-support.pdf \
  --pdf-engine=xelatex \
  -V mainfont="TeX Gyre Pagella" \
  -V sansfont="TeX Gyre Heros" \
  -V monofont="TeX Gyre Cursor" \
  -V fontsize=11pt \
  -V geometry:"top=1.25in, bottom=1.25in, left=1.25in, right=1.25in" \
  -V linestretch=1.15 \
  -V colorlinks=true \
  -V urlcolor="[rgb]{0.13,0.33,0.60}" \
  -V linkcolor="[rgb]{0.13,0.33,0.60}" \
  -V "header-includes=\usepackage{titlesec} \titleformat{\section}{\large\bfseries\sffamily}{}{0em}{} \titleformat{\subsection}{\normalsize\bfseries\sffamily}{}{0em}{} \titleformat{\subsubsection}{\normalsize\itshape\sffamily}{}{0em}{}"

What each flag does #

FlagEffect
--pdf-engine=xelatexUses XeLaTeX, which supports OpenType fonts
mainfontTeX Gyre Pagella — a Palatino clone for body text
sansfontTeX Gyre Heros — a Helvetica clone for headings
monofontTeX Gyre Cursor — a Courier clone for code
fontsize=11ptBody text size
geometry1.25" margins on all sides
linestretch=1.15Slightly relaxed line spacing
colorlinksHyperlinks rendered in color rather than boxed
urlcolor / linkcolorMuted navy blue for all links
header-includesReformats section headings to use the sans-serif font

Notes #

  • The [^footnote] syntax in the markdown renders as proper page-level footnotes, not endnotes.
  • MacTeX ships with all TeX Gyre fonts, so no separate font installation is needed.
  • First run may be slow (~30s) as XeLaTeX builds its font cache. Subsequent runs are faster.
  • If you get a “font not found” error, try running sudo fc-cache -fv to rebuild the font cache.

See Also

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