Getting Started

Markdown PDF is a Zed extension that exports Markdown files to high-quality PDFs using Playwright and Chromium.

Features

• Native Zed integration — works directly in the AI assistant
• Structured headers & footers — declarative configuration with zones and typed elements
• Custom placeholders — use front matter variables in headers/footers
• Date formatting — flexible date-fns patterns
• Image embedding — SVG, PNG, JPG converted to data URIs
• Syntax highlighting — 80+ highlight.js themes
• Custom CSS — bring your own stylesheet
• Per-document overrides — configure via YAML front matter

How It Works

1. You ask the AI assistant to export a Markdown file
2. The extension parses the Markdown and any front matter configuration
3. HTML is generated with syntax highlighting and emoji rendering
4. Playwright/Chromium converts the HTML to PDF
5. The PDF is saved next to your source file (or to a custom path)

Quick Example

Open any Markdown file and ask:

Export this file to PDF

Or with options:

Export this file to PDF in landscape with header and footer

Structured Header/Footer

The extension supports a declarative header/footer system:

{
  "header": {
    "height": "15mm",
    "left": { "type": "image", "src": "./logo.svg", "height": "12mm" },
    "center": { "type": "title" },
    "right": { "type": "date", "format": "MMMM d, yyyy" }
  },
  "footer": {
    "center": { "type": "text", "content": "Page {page} of {pages}" }
  }
}

Or configure per-document via front matter:

---
title: My Report
author: Jane Smith
pdf:
  header:
    left_text: "{author}"
    center_text: "{title}"
    right_text: "{date:yyyy-MM-dd}"
---

Next Steps

• Installation — Set up the extension
• First Export — Your first PDF export
• Header & Footer — Configure headers and footers