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Render Pdf Doc

  • 45 installs
  • 236 repo stars
  • Updated August 3, 2026
  • aperivue/medsci-skills

Render-pdf-doc is a Claude Code skill that renders non-bibliography academic Markdown (English or Korean) to publication-quality PDF via pandoc and xelatex.

About

Render-pdf-doc is a Claude skill that renders academic Markdown documents to publication-quality PDF via pandoc and xelatex. It targets non-bibliography artifacts such as research proposals, IRB cover letters, briefings, and anchor docs. It auto-infers pipe-table column widths, applies CJK-aware font fallback for Korean, and scans for glyphs the font would silently drop. It is not for manuscripts with a bibliography.

  • Renders academic Markdown (English or Korean) to PDF via pandoc + xelatex
  • Auto-infers pipe-table column widths from content
  • CJK-aware font fallback and a glyph-coverage scan to catch silent drops

Render Pdf Doc by the numbers

  • 45 all-time installs (skills.sh)
  • Ranked #377 of 688 Office & Documents skills by installs in the Skillselion catalog
  • Data as of Aug 5, 2026 (Skillselion catalog sync)
At a glance

render-pdf-doc capabilities & compatibility

Capabilities
manage refs · present paper · make figures
Use cases
documentation · pdf parsing
Platforms
macOS · Linux
From the docs

What render-pdf-doc says it does

Render academic Markdown documents (English or Korean) to publication-quality PDF via pandoc + xelatex.
SKILL.md
xelatex **silently drops** any character the chosen font does not cover
SKILL.md
npx skills add https://github.com/aperivue/medsci-skills --skill render-pdf-doc

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Listed on Skillselion
Installs45
repo stars236
Last updatedAugust 3, 2026
Repositoryaperivue/medsci-skills

What it does

A researcher uses it to render a Korean or English proposal, IRB cover letter, or briefing handout to a clean PDF.

Who is it for?

Rendering proposals, IRB cover letters, briefings, and anchor docs to PDF, including Korean documents.

Skip if: Manuscripts with a bibliography (use manage-refs render_pandoc.sh), Word form filling, or figures.

When should I use this skill?

You need a non-bibliography academic Markdown document rendered to a clean English or Korean PDF.

What you get

A publication-quality PDF with correctly sized tables, proper CJK fonts, and no silently dropped glyphs.

  • Publication-quality PDF
  • Column-width-inferred Markdown
  • Glyph-coverage scan report

By the numbers

  • 4 core principles
  • auto-inferred pipe-table column widths

Files

SKILL.mdMarkdownGitHub ↗

Render-PDF-Doc Skill

Markdown + frontmatter → publication-quality academic PDF (English or Korean).

Why This Skill Exists

In real circulation cycles for academic PDFs, two recurring failure patterns appear: 1. v1 drafts: change-history, version numbers, and PI attribution leak into the attached PDF, confusing the first recipient. 2. v2 drafts: pandoc pipe-table dash ratios are misjudged, narrowing the first column and forcing label wrapping that hurts readability.

Manual fixes work but the same pattern recurs across proposals, briefings, IRB covers, exemption applications. This skill focuses on layout (CJK fonts + table column widths). Bibliography and CSL are handled by /manage-refs.

Boundary (separation from other skills)

TaskSkill
Manuscript + bibliography → DOCX/PDF/manage-refs scripts/render_pandoc.sh (CSL + .bib)
Filling an institutional .docx form/fill-protocol
ICMJE COI form/fill-icmje-coi
Figure / PPTX/make-figures, /present-paper
This skill: non-bib academic markdown → PDF (proposal, briefing, anchor doc, IRB cover)/render-pdf-doc

Core Principles

1. Pipe table column widths must be inferred from content. No equal splitting. Size the first column (label) to the longest label, and distribute the remaining width content-proportionally across the data columns. 2. Set the CJK font explicitlymainfont + CJKmainfont. The default fallback is OS-detected. 3. For circulation PDFs, remove change history / version numbers / PI attribution (or split them into a supplementary). Use the frontmatter redact_internal: true option. 4. No Quarto dependency — raw pandoc + xelatex. Quarto's tbl-colwidths has reported PDF regressions (issues 6089/9200).

Dependencies

# Required
brew install pandoc                                                   # macOS
brew install --cask mactex-no-gui          # xelatex + xeCJK (~5 GB)

# Linux
sudo apt-get install pandoc texlive-xetex texlive-lang-cjk fonts-noto-cjk

Detection:

bash scripts/check_deps.sh

Workflow

Step 1 — Author markdown with frontmatter

---
title: "Paper 2 Calibration Anchor — Q&A Grid"
author: "<Author Group>"
date: "2026-05-01"
mainfont: "Apple SD Gothic Neo"        # macOS default
CJKmainfont: "Apple SD Gothic Neo"
geometry: "margin=0.85in"
fontsize: 11pt
linestretch: 1.25
colorlinks: true
---

For Linux/CI, use Noto Sans CJK KR instead. The render script auto-detects.

Step 2 — Infer column widths

python scripts/infer_colwidths.py input.md > input.colwidths.md

The script: 1. Finds every pipe table block. 2. For each column, computes display width = max(len(header), max(len(cell))) (CJK = 2 cells, ASCII = 1). 3. Generates dash-row separator with proportional dash counts. 4. Writes a new file with separator rows replaced.

Override per-table via attribute: {tbl-colwidths="[20,40,40]"} after caption — passes through unchanged.

Step 3 — Render

bash scripts/render_pdf.sh -i input.colwidths.md -o output.pdf

Or one-shot:

bash scripts/render_pdf.sh -i input.md -o output.pdf --infer-colwidths

Step 3.5 — Scientific-symbol + CJK glyph scan (before render)

xelatex silently drops any character the chosen font does not cover — the PDF renders with the glyph simply missing, no error or warning. Academic markdown routinely carries glyphs a default Latin font misses: transition arrows (→ ↑ ↓), math operators (− ≤ ≥ ± √ ∪ × ≈ ≠), stats Greek (κ μ σ β), bullets/marks (• ★ ✓), and CJK. Scan the source first so a silent drop is caught before it ships:

python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --strict
# real cmap check when you have the font file + fonttools:
python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --font "/path/to/body.otf" --strict

It groups the risky glyphs by class (advisory), or — with --font + fonttools — reports which are genuinely absent from the font's cmap. If risky glyphs are present, ensure mainfont/CJKmainfont cover them (a CJK-capable font such as Apple SD Gothic Neo / Noto Sans CJK usually covers arrows + Hangul but can still miss the true-minus U+2212 and ). The DOCX is authoritative; the PDF is a convenience copy — never let a PDF render drop a glyph the document needs.

Step 4 — Visual verify

Open the PDF. Check:

  • The first-column labels do not wrap and stay on a single line
  • Data columns have sufficient width
  • No broken Korean glyphs (a Times New Roman fallback means CJKmainfont was not applied)
  • No missing scientific symbols (arrows, −, ≤, ±, √) — the Step 3.5 scan flags candidates
  • No change history / internal version numbers exposed

Templates

Starter markdown in templates/ (English default; a Korean variant *_ko.md ships alongside each):

  • anchor-doc.md — Q&A grid
  • proposal-cover.md — research-proposal cover page
  • briefing-handout.md — meeting brief (1-page)
  • reference-table.md — comparison-table format

Each template marks slots with a <!-- TODO: --> marker.

Anti-Patterns

Anti-patternConsequence
Equal dash split (`\---\
CJKmainfont not setHangul falls back to Times New Roman (broken Latin glyphs or blanks)
Change history / version (e.g. v3.2.2) / PI attribution exposed in a circulation PDFConfuses the first recipient; leaks internal information
Quarto tbl-colwidths for PDFPDF regression in Quarto 1.4+ — trust HTML only

Files

  • scripts/render_pdf.sh — pandoc + xelatex wrapper, OS font detection
  • scripts/infer_colwidths.py — auto-generates pipe-table separator dash ratios
  • scripts/check_deps.sh — checks for pandoc / xelatex / CJK font
  • templates/ — 4 starters (English) + their *_ko.md Korean variants
  • references/pandoc_korean_cheatsheet.md — collection of frontmatter patterns (Korean-PDF reference)
  • references/known_pitfalls.md — em-dash line breaks, smart quotes, etc. (Korean-PDF reference)

Anti-Hallucination

  • Numerical content in tables: apply ~/.claude/rules/numerical-safety.md. Read from CSV.
  • References: use /manage-refs separately — this skill does not handle bib.
  • When producing a circulation PDF, apply ~/.claude/rules/senior-mentor-circulation.md (preserve the primary source) + ~/.claude/rules/ai-drafted-document-policy.md.

Related skills

FAQ

Can it render Korean?

Yes. It sets mainfont and CJKmainfont explicitly with OS-detected fallback (Apple SD Gothic Neo on macOS, Noto Sans CJK KR on Linux).

What about manuscripts with references?

It is not for those; use manage-refs render_pandoc.sh for bibliography and CSL rendering.

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