Analyze to PDF

Analyze to PDF

Convert a markdown file to PDF using pandoc. Designed for experiment analysis reports but works with any markdown file.

Your Task

1. Check that required system tools are installed
2. Locate the markdown file to convert
3. Convert to PDF with pandoc
4. Report the result

Dependency Check

Verify tools are available before proceeding:

Required: pandoc

which pandoc

If missing, stop and report:

pandoc is not installed. Install it with your package manager (e.g., apt install pandoc, dnf install pandoc).

Required: PDF engine (one of the following, in priority order)

which xelatex    # preferred — better Unicode support
which pdflatex   # fallback

If neither is found, stop and report:

No PDF engine found. pandoc needs a LaTeX installation to produce PDFs.
Install texlive (e.g., apt install texlive-xetex or dnf install texlive-xetex).

Record which engine is available for the conversion step.

Locate Markdown File

If user provides a path argument: Use that path directly.

If no argument provided:

1. Check if current directory contains experiment_summary.yaml
2. If yes, look for analysis/​report.md
3. If that file exists, use it
4. Otherwise, ask the user for a path

Validate the file exists before proceeding.

Preprocess for PDF

Reports may contain HTML <details> blocks (collapsible sections) that LaTeX cannot render. Expand them before conversion:

from pathlib import Path
from cruijff_kit.tools.inspect.report_generator import expand_details_for_pdf

md_path = Path("{full_path_to_md}")
text = md_path.read_text()
expanded = expand_details_for_pdf(text)

# Write to a temp file in the same directory (so relative image paths still work)
tmp_path = md_path.with_suffix(".tmp.md")
tmp_path.write_text(expanded)

This converts <summary> text to bold labels and <pre><code> blocks to fenced code blocks. If the markdown has no <details> blocks, the text passes through unchanged.

Convert to PDF

Critical: Change to the markdown file's parent directory before running pandoc. This ensures relative image paths (e.g., ![](scores_by_task.png)) resolve correctly.

cd {parent_directory}
pandoc {tmp_filename} -o {stem}.pdf --pdf-engine={engine} \
  --from markdown-implicit_figures \
  -V geometry:margin=1in

Why these flags matter:

• --from markdown-implicit_figures — disables pandoc's automatic wrapping of images in LaTeX \begin{figure} float environments. Without this, LaTeX treats every image as a float and reorders them past surrounding text onto later pages. With this flag, images are inline \includegraphics calls that appear exactly where they are in the markdown, just like text. The tradeoff is no Figure N: captions, but report images already have ### headings so captions are redundant.
• geometry:margin=1in — maximizes page real estate for figures

Where {stem} is the original filename without the .md extension (e.g., report.md → report.pdf).

After conversion, clean up the temp file:

tmp_path.unlink()

Report Result

On success:

PDF created: {full_path_to_pdf} ({file_size})

On failure: Show the pandoc error output. Common issues:

• Missing LaTeX packages: suggest tlmgr install {package} or a fuller texlive install
• Image format not supported: suggest converting images to PNG first
• Unicode issues with pdflatex: suggest installing xelatex instead

Important Notes

• No logging file — this is a lightweight utility, not a multi-stage workflow
• Idempotent — re-running overwrites the existing PDF
• Image embedding — the cd into the file's directory is what makes relative image paths work. Do not skip this.
• xelatex over pdflatex — prefer xelatex when available for better Unicode and font handling