Placeholders Reference

Complete reference for all placeholders available in headers and footers.

Syntax

{placeholder}
{placeholder:format}

The :format suffix is optional and only applies to certain placeholders (like date).

Page Placeholders

Rendered by Chromium at print time — guaranteed accurate.

Placeholder	Description	HTML Output
{page}	Current page number	<span class="pageNumber"></span>
{pages}	Total page count	<span class="totalPages"></span>

Example

{
  "footer": {
    "center_text": "Page {page} of {pages}"
  }
}

Output: Page 3 of 10

Date & Time Placeholders

Resolved at export time using date-fns.

Placeholder	Default Format	Example Output
{date}	yyyy-MM-dd	2025-06-14
{date:FORMAT}	Custom	See below
{time}	HH:mm:ss	14:30:00
{datetime}	yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss	2025-06-14 14:30:00

Date Format Examples

Placeholder	Output
{date}	2025-06-14
{date:yyyy-MM-dd}	2025-06-14
{date:MMMM d, yyyy}	June 14, 2025
{date:MM/dd/yyyy}	06/14/2025
{date:dd/MM/yyyy}	14/06/2025
{date:dd.MM.yyyy}	14.06.2025
{date:d MMMM yyyy}	14 June 2025
{date:EEE, MMM d}	Sat, Jun 14
{date:EEEE, MMMM d, yyyy}	Saturday, June 14, 2025
{date:Q}	2 (quarter)
{date:yyyy}	2025

Time Format Examples

Placeholder	Output
{time}	14:30:00
{date:HH:mm}	14:30
{date:h:mm a}	2:30 PM
{date:HH:mm:ss}	14:30:00

Date-fns Format Tokens

Token	Description	Example
yyyy	4-digit year	2025
yy	2-digit year	25
MMMM	Full month	January
MMM	Abbreviated month	Jan
MM	2-digit month	01
M	Month number	1
dd	2-digit day	05
d	Day number	5
EEEE	Full weekday	Monday
EEE	Abbreviated weekday	Mon
HH	24-hour hour	14
hh	12-hour hour	02
mm	Minutes	30
ss	Seconds	45
a	AM/PM	PM
Q	Quarter	2

Document Metadata Placeholders

Placeholder	Source	Description
{title}	Front matter title: or filename	Document title
{author}	Front matter author:	Author name
{filename}	File path	Source filename with extension

Example

---
title: Quarterly Report
author: Jane Smith
---

{
  "header": {
    "left_text": "{author}",
    "center_text": "{title}"
  }
}

Output: Jane Smith | Quarterly Report

Custom Variable Placeholders

Any field in front matter becomes a placeholder:

---
title: Project Report
company: Acme Corporation
department: Engineering
version: 2.0.0
project_code: PRJ-2025-001
client_name: BigCorp Inc.
fiscal_year: 2025
---

All are available as placeholders:

Front Matter Field	Placeholder
company: Acme Corporation	{company}
department: Engineering	{department}
version: 2.0.0	{version}
project_code: PRJ-2025-001	{project_code}
client_name: BigCorp Inc.	{client_name}
fiscal_year: 2025	{fiscal_year}

Using Custom Variables

---
company: Acme Corp
version: 1.0.0
pdf:
  header:
    left_text: "{company}"
    right_text: "v{version}"
  footer:
    center_text: "Page {page} of {pages}"
---

Combining Placeholders

Multiple placeholders can be combined in a single text:

{
  "type": "text",
  "content": "{company} — {title} — {date:yyyy}"
}

Output: Acme Corp — Quarterly Report — 2025

{
  "type": "text",
  "content": "Generated {date:MMMM d, yyyy} at {date:HH:mm}"
}

Output: Generated June 14, 2025 at 14:30

Placeholder Resolution

Placeholders are resolved in this order:

1. Page placeholders ({page}, {pages}) → Chromium spans
2. Date/time placeholders → date-fns formatted strings
3. Document metadata ({title}, {author}, {filename})
4. Custom variables → From front matter
5. Unknown → Left as-is (for debugging)

Case Sensitivity

Placeholder names are case-insensitive:

---
Company: Acme Corp
DEPARTMENT: Engineering
---

Both work as {company} and {department}.

Reserved Names

These names are reserved and have special handling:

Name	Type
page	Chromium page number
pages	Chromium total pages
date	Current date
time	Current time
datetime	Current date and time
title	Document title
author	Document author
filename	Source filename

Avoid using these as custom front matter field names.

Escaping

Currently, there is no escape syntax for literal curly braces. Avoid text that matches the {name} pattern unless you want placeholder substitution.

Troubleshooting

Placeholder Not Replaced

1. Check spelling and case
2. Verify front matter is valid YAML
3. Ensure the field exists in front matter
4. Check the debug log: /tmp/zed-markdown-pdf-debug.log

Date Format Invalid

If a date format is invalid, it falls back to ISO format (yyyy-MM-dd). Check the format string against date-fns documentation.

Unknown Placeholder Shows

Unknown placeholders are left as-is. This helps with debugging:

{compnay}  → {compnay}  (typo, not replaced)
{company}  → Acme Corp  (correct)