Markdown/Word to PDF

A GitHub Action that converts Markdown or Word (.docx/.doc) files to PDF. Markdown files are first converted to .docx via Pandoc, then the Word document is converted to PDF using LibreOffice in headless mode.

The PDF preserves the document's layout, fonts, and template styling, which is not possible with a separate Pandoc/LaTeX render.

Usage

From a Markdown file

- name: Convert Markdown to PDF
  uses: bryanpaget/markdown-to-pdf@main
  with:
    markdown_file: "docs/readme.md"
    pdf_file: "output/readme.pdf"

From a Word document

- name: Convert Word to PDF
  uses: bryanpaget/markdown-to-pdf@main
  with:
    docx_file: "output/document.docx"
    pdf_file: "output/document.pdf"

Inputs

Input	Required	Description
docx_file	no	Path to the source Word document (.docx/.doc).
markdown_file	no	Path to a Markdown file (auto-converted to .docx first).
pdf_file	yes	Path where the resulting PDF should be written.
code_block_style	no	When "true", code blocks render with a light background and smaller font. Default "false".
page_breaks	no	When "sections", each H1 heading starts on a new page. Default "none".
font	no	When "arial", switches the document font to Arial. Default "default".

Provide either docx_file or markdown_file (not both).

Outputs

Output	Description
pdf_file	Resolved path to the generated PDF.

Sample PDFs

Pre-built sample PDFs are attached to each release. They are generated from samples/complex-document.md — a document with tables, code blocks, lists, blockquotes, embedded financial charts, and extensive formatting. Both the Markdown→PDF and DOCX→PDF paths are included.

To generate them locally:

pandoc samples/complex-document.md --resource-path=samples -o complex-document.docx
python3 lib/fix-docx.py complex-document.docx
soffice --headless --convert-to pdf complex-document.docx

Requirements

• libreoffice-writer (auto-installed if missing)
• pandoc (auto-installed if using markdown_file)

License

GPL or similar