% Pandoc User’s Guide % John MacFarlane % January 27, 2012
Synopsis
pandoc [options] [input-file]…
Description
Pandoc is a Haskell library for
converting from one markup format to another, and a command-line tool
that uses this library. It can read markdown and
(subsets of) Textile, reStructuredText,
HTML, LaTeX, and DocBook XML; and it can write plain
text, markdown, reStructuredText,
XHTML, HTML 5, LaTeX (including beamer
slide shows), ConTeXt, RTF, DocBook XML, OpenDocument XML, ODT, Word
docx, GNU
Texinfo, MediaWiki
markup, EPUB, Textile, groff
man pages, Emacs Org-Mode, AsciiDoc, and Slidy, Slideous, DZSlides, or S5 HTML slide shows. It
can also produce PDF output on
systems where LaTeX is installed.
Pandoc’s enhanced version of markdown includes syntax for footnotes,
tables, flexible ordered lists, definition lists, delimited code blocks,
superscript, subscript, strikeout, title blocks, automatic tables of
contents, embedded LaTeX math, citations, and markdown inside HTML block
elements. (These enhancements, described below under Pandoc’s markdown, can be disabled using
the --strict option.)
In contrast to most existing tools for converting markdown to HTML,
which use regex substitutions, Pandoc has a modular design: it consists
of a set of readers, which parse text in a given format and produce a
native representation of the document, and a set of writers, which
convert this native representation into a target format. Thus, adding an
input or output format requires only adding a reader or writer.
Using pandoc
If no input-file is specified, input is read from
stdin. Otherwise, the input-files are concatenated
(with a blank line between each) and used as input. Output goes to
stdout by default (though output to stdout is disabled
for the odt, docx, and epub
output formats). For output to a file, use the -o
option:
pandoc -o output.html input.txt
Instead of a file, an absolute URI may be given. In this case pandoc
will fetch the content using HTTP:
pandoc -f html -t markdown http://www.fsf.org
If multiple input files are given, pandoc will
concatenate them all (with blank lines between them) before parsing.
The format of the input and output can be specified explicitly using
command-line options. The input format can be specified using the
-r/--read or -f/--from options, the output
format using the -w/--write or -t/--to
options. Thus, to convert hello.txt from markdown to LaTeX,
you could type:
pandoc -f markdown -t latex hello.txt
To convert hello.html from html to markdown:
pandoc -f html -t markdown hello.html
Supported output formats are listed below under the
-t/--to option. Supported input formats are listed below
under the -f/--from option. Note that the rst,
textile, latex, and html readers
are not complete; there are some constructs that they do not parse.
If the input or output format is not specified explicitly,
pandoc will attempt to guess it from the extensions of the
input and output filenames. Thus, for example,
pandoc -o hello.tex hello.txt
will convert hello.txt from markdown to LaTeX. If no
output file is specified (so that output goes to stdout), or if
the output file’s extension is unknown, the output format will default
to HTML. If no input file is specified (so that input comes from
stdin), or if the input files’ extensions are unknown, the
input format will be assumed to be markdown unless explicitly
specified.
Pandoc uses the UTF-8 character encoding for both input and output.
If your local character encoding is not UTF-8, you should pipe input and
output through iconv:
iconv -t utf-8 input.txt | pandoc | iconv -f utf-8
Creating a PDF
Earlier versions of pandoc came with a program,
markdown2pdf, that used pandoc and pdflatex to produce a
PDF. This is no longer needed, since pandoc can now produce
pdf output itself. To produce a PDF, simply specify an
output file with a .pdf extension. Pandoc will create a
latex file and use pdflatex (or another engine, see
--latex-engine) to convert it to PDF:
pandoc test.txt -o test.pdf
Production of a PDF requires that a LaTeX engine be installed (see
--latex-engine, below), and assumes that the following
LaTeX packages are available: amssymb,
amsmath, ifxetex, ifluatex,
listings (if the --listings option is used),
fancyvrb, enumerate, ctable,
url, graphicx, hyperref,
ulem, babel (if the lang variable
is set), fontspec (if xelatex or
lualatex is used as the LaTeX engine), xltxtra
and xunicode (if xelatex is used).
hsmarkdown
A user who wants a drop-in replacement for Markdown.pl
may create a symbolic link to the pandoc executable called
hsmarkdown. When invoked under the name
hsmarkdown, pandoc will behave as if the
--strict flag had been selected, and no command-line
options will be recognized. However, this approach does not work under
Cygwin, due to problems with its simulation of symbolic links.
Options
General options
-f FORMAT, -r FORMAT,
--from=FORMAT,
--read=FORMAT-
Specify input format. FORMAT can be
native (native
Haskell), json (JSON version of native AST),
markdown (markdown), textile (Textile),
rst (reStructuredText), html (HTML),
docbook (DocBook XML), or latex (LaTeX). If
+lhs is appended to markdown,
rst, latex, the input will be treated as
literate Haskell source: see Literate Haskell support, below.
-t FORMAT, -w FORMAT,
--to=FORMAT,
--write=FORMAT-
Specify output format. FORMAT can be
native
(native Haskell), json (JSON version of native AST),
plain (plain text), markdown (markdown),
rst (reStructuredText), html (XHTML 1),
html5 (HTML 5), latex (LaTeX),
beamer (LaTeX beamer slide show), context
(ConTeXt), man (groff man), mediawiki
(MediaWiki markup), textile (Textile), org
(Emacs Org-Mode), texinfo (GNU Texinfo),
docbook (DocBook XML), opendocument
(OpenDocument XML), odt (OpenOffice text document),
docx (Word docx), epub (EPUB book),
asciidoc (AsciiDoc), slidy (Slidy HTML and
javascript slide show), slideous (Slideous HTML and
javascript slide show), dzslides (HTML5 + javascript slide
show), s5 (S5 HTML and javascript slide show), or
rtf (rich text format). Note that odt and
epub output will not be directed to stdout; an
output filename must be specified using the -o/--output
option. If +lhs is appended to markdown,
rst, latex, beamer,
html, or html5, the output will be rendered as
literate Haskell source: see Literate Haskell support, below.
-o FILE,
--output=FILE-
Write output to FILE instead of stdout. If
FILE is
-, output will go to stdout.
(Exception: if the output format is odt, docx,
or epub, output to stdout is disabled.)
--data-dir=DIRECTORY-
Specify the user data directory to search for pandoc data files. If
this option is not specified, the default user data directory will be
used:
$HOME/.pandoc
in unix and
C:\Documents And Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\pandoc
in Windows. A reference.odt,
reference.docx, default.csl,
epub.css, templates, slidy,
slideous, or s5 directory placed in this
directory will override pandoc’s normal defaults.
-v, --version-
Print version.
-h, --help-
Show usage message.
Reader options
--strict-
Use strict markdown syntax, with no pandoc extensions or variants. When
the input format is HTML, this means that constructs that have no
equivalents in standard markdown (e.g. definition lists or strikeout
text) will be parsed as raw HTML.
-R, --parse-raw-
Parse untranslatable HTML codes and LaTeX environments as raw HTML or
LaTeX, instead of ignoring them. Affects only HTML and LaTeX input. Raw
HTML can be printed in markdown, reStructuredText, HTML, Slidy,
Slideous, DZSlides, and S5 output; raw LaTeX can be printed in markdown,
reStructuredText, LaTeX, and ConTeXt output. The default is for the
readers to omit untranslatable HTML codes and LaTeX environments. (The
LaTeX reader does pass through untranslatable LaTeX commands,
even if
-R is not specified.)
-S, --smart-
Produce typographically correct output, converting straight quotes to
curly quotes,
--- to em-dashes, -- to
en-dashes, and ... to ellipses. Nonbreaking spaces are
inserted after certain abbreviations, such as “Mr.” (Note: This option
is significant only when the input format is markdown or
textile. It is selected automatically when the input format
is textile or the output format is latex or
context, unless --no-tex-ligatures is used.)
--old-dashes-
Selects the pandoc <= 1.8.2.1 behavior for parsing smart dashes:
- before a numeral is an en-dash, and -- is an
em-dash. This option is selected automatically for textile
input.
--base-header-level=NUMBER-
Specify the base level for headers (defaults to 1).
--indented-code-classes=CLASSES-
Specify classes to use for indented code blocks'for example,
perl,numberLines or haskell. Multiple classes
may be separated by spaces or commas.
--normalize-
Normalize the document after reading: merge adjacent
Str or
Emph elements, for example, and remove repeated
Spaces.
-p, --preserve-tabs-
Preserve tabs instead of converting them to spaces (the default).
--tab-stop=NUMBER-
Specify the number of spaces per tab (default is 4).
General writer options
-s, --standalone-
Produce output with an appropriate header and footer (e.g. a standalone
HTML, LaTeX, or RTF file, not a fragment). This option is set
automatically for
pdf, epub,
docx, and odt output.
--template=FILE-
Use FILE as a custom template for the generated document.
Implies
--standalone. See Templates below for a description of template
syntax. If no extension is specified, an extension corresponding to the
writer will be added, so that --template=special looks for
special.html for HTML output. If the template is not found,
pandoc will search for it in the user data directory (see
--data-dir). If this option is not used, a default template
appropriate for the output format will be used (see
-D/--print-default-template).
-V KEY[=VAL],
--variable=KEY[:VAL]-
Set the template variable KEY to the value VAL when
rendering the document in standalone mode. This is generally only useful
when the
--template option is used to specify a custom
template, since pandoc automatically sets the variables used in the
default templates. If no VAL is specified, the key will be
given the value true.
-D FORMAT,
--print-default-template=FORMAT-
Print the default template for an output FORMAT. (See
-t for a list of possible FORMATs.)
--no-wrap-
Disable text wrapping in output. By default, text is wrapped
appropriately for the output format.
--columns=NUMBER-
Specify length of lines in characters (for text wrapping).
--toc, --table-of-contents-
Include an automatically generated table of contents (or, in the case of
latex, context, and rst, an
instruction to create one) in the output document. This option has no
effect on man, docbook, slidy,
slideous, or s5 output.
--no-highlight-
Disables syntax highlighting for code blocks and inlines, even when a
language attribute is given.
--highlight-style=STYLE-
Specifies the coloring style to be used in highlighted source code.
Options are
pygments (the default), kate,
monochrome, espresso, zenburn,
haddock, and tango.
-H FILE,
--include-in-header=FILE-
Include contents of FILE, verbatim, at the end of the header.
This can be used, for example, to include special CSS or javascript in
HTML documents. This option can be used repeatedly to include multiple
files in the header. They will be included in the order specified.
Implies
--standalone.
-B FILE,
--include-before-body=FILE-
Include contents of FILE, verbatim, at the beginning of the
document body (e.g. after the
<body> tag in HTML, or
the \begin{document} command in LaTeX). This can be used to
include navigation bars or banners in HTML documents. This option can be
used repeatedly to include multiple files. They will be included in the
order specified. Implies --standalone.
-A FILE,
--include-after-body=FILE-
Include contents of FILE, verbatim, at the end of the document
body (before the
</body> tag in HTML, or the
\end{document} command in LaTeX). This option can be be
used repeatedly to include multiple files. They will be included in the
order specified. Implies --standalone.
Options affecting specific
writers
--self-contained-
Produce a standalone HTML file with no external dependencies, using
data: URIs to incorporate the contents of linked scripts,
stylesheets, images, and videos. The resulting file should be
“self-contained,” in the sense that it needs no external files and no
net access to be displayed properly by a browser. This option works only
with HTML output formats, including html,
html5, html+lhs, html5+lhs,
s5, slidy, slideous, and
dzslides. Scripts, images, and stylesheets at absolute URLs
will be downloaded; those at relative URLs will be sought first relative
to the working directory, then relative to the user data directory (see
--data-dir), and finally relative to pandoc’s default data
directory.
--offline-
Deprecated synonym for
--self-contained.
-5, --html5-
Produce HTML5 instead of HTML4. This option has no effect for writers
other than
html. (Deprecated: Use the
html5 output format instead.)
--ascii-
Use only ascii characters in output. Currently supported only for HTML
output (which uses numerical entities instead of UTF-8 when this option
is selected).
--reference-links-
Use reference-style links, rather than inline links, in writing markdown
or reStructuredText. By default inline links are used.
--atx-headers-
Use ATX style headers in markdown output. The default is to use
setext-style headers for levels 1-2, and then ATX headers.
--chapters-
Treat top-level headers as chapters in LaTeX, ConTeXt, and DocBook
output. When the LaTeX template uses the report, book, or memoir class,
this option is implied. If
--beamer is used, top-level
headers will become \part{..}.
-N, --number-sections-
Number section headings in LaTeX, ConTeXt, or HTML output. By default,
sections are not numbered.
--no-tex-ligatures-
Do not convert quotation marks, apostrophes, and dashes to the TeX
ligatures when writing LaTeX or ConTeXt. Instead, just use literal
unicode characters. This is needed for using advanced OpenType features
with XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX. Note: normally
--smart is
selected automatically for LaTeX and ConTeXt output, but it must be
specified explicitly if --no-tex-ligatures is selected. If
you use literal curly quotes, dashes, and ellipses in your source, then
you may want to use --no-tex-ligatures without
--smart.
--listings-
Use listings package for LaTeX code blocks
-i, --incremental-
Make list items in slide shows display incrementally (one by one). The
default is for lists to be displayed all at once.
--slide-level=NUMBER-
Specifies that headers with the specified level create slides (for
beamer, s5, slidy,
slideous, dzslides). Headers above this level
in the hierarchy are used to divide the slide show into sections;
headers below this level create subheads within a slide. The default is
to set the slide level based on the contents of the document; see Structuring the slide show,
below.
--section-divs-
Wrap sections in
<div> tags (or
<section> tags in HTML5), and attach identifiers to
the enclosing <div> (or <section>)
rather than the header itself. See Section
identifiers, below.
--email-obfuscation=none|javascript|references-
Specify a method for obfuscating
mailto: links in HTML
documents. none leaves mailto: links as they are.
javascript obfuscates them using javascript.
references obfuscates them by printing their letters as decimal
or hexadecimal character references. If --strict is
specified, references is used regardless of the presence of
this option.
--id-prefix=STRING-
Specify a prefix to be added to all automatically generated identifiers
in HTML output. This is useful for preventing duplicate identifiers when
generating fragments to be included in other pages.
-T STRING,
--title-prefix=STRING-
Specify STRING as a prefix at the beginning of the title that
appears in the HTML header (but not in the title as it appears at the
beginning of the HTML body). Implies
--standalone.
-c URL, --css=URL-
Link to a CSS style sheet.
--reference-odt=FILE-
Use the specified file as a style reference in producing an ODT. For
best results, the reference ODT should be a modified version of an ODT
produced using pandoc. The contents of the reference ODT are ignored,
but its stylesheets are used in the new ODT. If no reference ODT is
specified on the command line, pandoc will look for a file
reference.odt in the user data directory (see
--data-dir). If this is not found either, sensible defaults
will be used.
--reference-docx=FILE-
Use the specified file as a style reference in producing a docx file.
For best results, the reference docx should be a modified version of a
docx file produced using pandoc. The contents of the reference docx are
ignored, but its stylesheets are used in the new docx. If no reference
docx is specified on the command line, pandoc will look for a file
reference.docx in the user data directory (see
--data-dir). If this is not found either, sensible defaults
will be used.
--epub-stylesheet=FILE-
Use the specified CSS file to style the EPUB. If no stylesheet is
specified, pandoc will look for a file
epub.css in the user
data directory (see --data-dir). If it is not found there,
sensible defaults will be used.
--epub-cover-image=FILE-
Use the specified image as the EPUB cover. It is recommended that the
image be less than 1000px in width and height.
--epub-metadata=FILE-
Look in the specified XML file for metadata for the EPUB. The file
should contain a series of Dublin Core elements, as documented at http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. For example:
<dc:rights>Creative Commons</dc:rights>
<dc:language>es-AR</dc:language>
By default, pandoc will include the following metadata elements:
<dc:title> (from the document title),
<dc:creator> (from the document authors),
<dc:date> (from the document date, which should be in
ISO 8601 format),
<dc:language> (from the lang variable,
or, if is not set, the locale), and
<dc:identifier id="BookId"> (a randomly generated
UUID). Any of these may be overridden by elements in the metadata
file.
--epub-embed-font=FILE-
Embed the specified font in the EPUB. This option can be repeated to
embed multiple fonts. To use embedded fonts, you will need to add
declarations like the following to your CSS (see
--epub-stylesheet):
@font-face {
font-family: DejaVuSans;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: normal;
src:url("DejaVuSans-Regular.ttf");
}
@font-face {
font-family: DejaVuSans;
font-style: normal;
font-weight: bold;
src:url("DejaVuSans-Bold.ttf");
}
@font-face {
font-family: DejaVuSans;
font-style: italic;
font-weight: normal;
src:url("DejaVuSans-Oblique.ttf");
}
@font-face {
font-family: DejaVuSans;
font-style: italic;
font-weight: bold;
src:url("DejaVuSans-BoldOblique.ttf");
}
body { font-family: "DejaVuSans"; }
--latex-engine=pdflatex|lualatex|xelatex-
Use the specified LaTeX engine when producing PDF output. The default is
pdflatex. If the engine is not in your PATH, the full path
of the engine may be specified here.
Citations
--bibliography=FILE-
Specify bibliography database to be used in resolving citations. The
database type will be determined from the extension of FILE,
which may be
.mods (MODS format), .bib
(BibTeX/BibLaTeX format), .ris (RIS format),
.enl (EndNote format), .xml (EndNote XML
format), .wos (ISI format), .medline (MEDLINE
format), .copac (Copac format), or .json
(citeproc JSON). If you want to use multiple bibliographies, just use
this option repeatedly.
--csl=FILE-
Specify CSL style to be used
in formatting citations and the bibliography. If FILE is not
found, pandoc will look for it in
$HOME/.csl
in unix and
C:\Documents And Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\csl
in Windows. If the --csl option is not specified, pandoc
will use a default style: either default.csl in the user
data directory (see --data-dir), or, if that is not
present, the Chicago author-date style.
--citation-abbreviations=FILE-
Specify a file containing abbreviations for journal titles and other
bibliographic fields (indicated by setting form="short" in
the CSL node for the field). The format is described at http://citationstylist.org/2011/10/19/abbreviations-for-zotero-test-release/.
Here is a short example:
{ "default": {
"container-title": {
"Lloyd's Law Reports": "Lloyd's Rep",
"Estates Gazette": "EG",
"Scots Law Times": "SLT"
}
}
}
--natbib-
Use natbib for citations in LaTeX output.
--biblatex-
Use biblatex for citations in LaTeX output.
Math rendering in HTML
-m [URL],
--latexmathml[=URL]-
Use the LaTeXMathML
script to display embedded TeX math in HTML output. To insert a link to
a local copy of the
LaTeXMathML.js script, provide a
URL. If no URL is provided, the contents of the script
will be inserted directly into the HTML header, preserving portability
at the price of efficiency. If you plan to use math on several pages, it
is much better to link to a copy of the script, so it can be cached.
--mathml[=URL]-
Convert TeX math to MathML (in
docbook as well as
html and html5). In standalone
html output, a small javascript (or a link to such a script
if a URL is supplied) will be inserted that allows the MathML
to be viewed on some browsers.
--jsmath[=URL]-
Use jsMath to
display embedded TeX math in HTML output. The URL should point
to the jsMath load script (e.g.
jsMath/easy/load.js); if
provided, it will be linked to in the header of standalone HTML
documents. If a URL is not provided, no link to the jsMath load
script will be inserted; it is then up to the author to provide such a
link in the HTML template.
--mathjax[=URL]-
Use MathJax to display embedded
TeX math in HTML output. The URL should point to the
MathJax.js load script. If a URL is not provided,
a link to the MathJax CDN will be inserted.
--gladtex-
Enclose TeX math in
<eq> tags in HTML output. These
can then be processed by gladTeX
to produce links to images of the typeset formulas.
--mimetex[=URL]-
Render TeX math using the mimeTeX CGI script. If
URL is not specified, it is assumed that the script is at
/cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi.
--webtex[=URL]-
Render TeX formulas using an external script that converts TeX formulas
to images. The formula will be concatenated with the URL provided. If
URL is not specified, the Google Chart API will be used.
Options for wrapper scripts
--dump-args-
Print information about command-line arguments to stdout, then
exit. This option is intended primarily for use in wrapper scripts. The
first line of output contains the name of the output file specified with
the
-o option, or - (for stdout) if
no output file was specified. The remaining lines contain the
command-line arguments, one per line, in the order they appear. These do
not include regular Pandoc options and their arguments, but do include
any options appearing after a -- separator at the end of
the line.
--ignore-args-
Ignore command-line arguments (for use in wrapper scripts). Regular
Pandoc options are not ignored. Thus, for example,
pandoc --ignore-args -o foo.html -s foo.txt -- -e latin1
is equivalent to
pandoc -o foo.html -s
Templates
When the -s/--standalone option is used, pandoc uses a
template to add header and footer material that is needed for a
self-standing document. To see the default template that is used, just
type
pandoc -D FORMAT
where FORMAT is the name of the output format. A custom
template can be specified using the --template option. You
can also override the system default templates for a given output format
FORMAT by putting a file
templates/default.FORMAT in the user data directory (see
--data-dir, above). Exceptions: For
odt output, customize the default.opendocument
template. For pdf output, customize the
default.latex template. For epub output,
customize the epub-page.html,
epub-coverimage.html, and epub-titlepage.html
templates.
Templates may contain variables. Variable names are
sequences of alphanumerics, -, and _, starting
with a letter. A variable name surrounded by $ signs will
be replaced by its value. For example, the string $title$
in
<title>$title$</title>
will be replaced by the document title.
To write a literal $ in a template, use
$$.
Some variables are set automatically by pandoc. These vary somewhat
depending on the output format, but include:
header-includes-
contents specified by
-H/--include-in-header (may have
multiple values) toc
-
non-null value if
--toc/--table-of-contents was specified
include-before
-
contents specified by
-B/--include-before-body (may have
multiple values) include-after
-
contents specified by
-A/--include-after-body (may have
multiple values) body
-
body of document
title
-
title of document, as specified in title block
author
-
author of document, as specified in title block (may have multiple
values)
date
-
date of document, as specified in title block
lang
-
language code for HTML or LaTeX documents
slidy-url
-
base URL for Slidy documents (defaults to
http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy2)
slideous-url
-
base URL for Slideous documents (defaults to
default)
s5-url
-
base URL for S5 documents (defaults to
ui/default)
fontsize
-
font size (10pt, 11pt, 12pt) for LaTeX documents
documentclass
-
document class for LaTeX documents
geometry
-
options for LaTeX
geometry class,
e.g. margin=1in; may be repeated for multiple options
mainfont, sansfont, monofont,
mathfont
-
fonts for LaTeX documents (works only with xelatex and lualatex)
theme
-
theme for LaTeX beamer documents
colortheme
-
colortheme for LaTeX beamer documents
linkcolor
-
color for internal links in LaTeX documents (
red,
green, magenta, cyan,
blue, black) urlcolor
-
color for external links in LaTeX documents
links-as-notes
-
causes links to be printed as footnotes in LaTeX documents
Variables may be set at the command line using the
-V/--variable option. This allows users to include custom
variables in their templates.
Templates may contain conditionals. The syntax is as follows:
$if(variable)$
X
$else$
Y
$endif$
This will include X in the template if
variable has a non-null value; otherwise it will include
Y. X and Y are placeholders for
any valid template text, and may include interpolated variables or other
conditionals. The $else$ section may be omitted.
When variables can have multiple values (for example,
author in a multi-author document), you can use the
$for$ keyword:
$for(author)$
<meta name="author" content="$author$" />
$endfor$
You can optionally specify a separator to be used between consecutive
items:
$for(author)$$author$$sep$, $endfor$
If you use custom templates, you may need to revise them as pandoc
changes. We recommend tracking the changes in the default templates, and
modifying your custom templates accordingly. An easy way to do this is
to fork the pandoc-templates repository (http://github.com/jgm/pandoc-templates) and merge in
changes after each pandoc release.
Pandoc’s markdown
Pandoc understands an extended and slightly revised version of John
Gruber’s markdown syntax.
This document explains the syntax, noting differences from standard
markdown. Except where noted, these differences can be suppressed by
specifying the --strict command-line option.
Philosophy
Markdown is designed to be easy to write, and, even more importantly,
easy to read:
A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain
text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting
instructions. ' John
Gruber
This principle has guided pandoc’s decisions in finding syntax for
tables, footnotes, and other extensions.
There is, however, one respect in which pandoc’s aims are different
from the original aims of markdown. Whereas markdown was originally
designed with HTML generation in mind, pandoc is designed for multiple
output formats. Thus, while pandoc allows the embedding of raw HTML, it
discourages it, and provides other, non-HTMLish ways of representing
important document elements like definition lists, tables, mathematics,
and footnotes.
Paragraphs
A paragraph is one or more lines of text followed by one or more
blank line. Newlines are treated as spaces, so you can reflow your
paragraphs as you like. If you need a hard line break, put two or more
spaces at the end of a line, or type a backslash followed by a
newline.
There are two kinds of headers, Setext and atx.
A setext-style header is a line of text “underlined” with a row of
= signs (for a level one header) of - signs
(for a level two header):
A level-one header
==================
A level-two header
------------------
The header text can contain inline formatting, such as emphasis (see
Inline formatting, below).
An Atx-style header consists of one to six # signs and a
line of text, optionally followed by any number of # signs.
The number of # signs at the beginning of the line is the
header level:
## A level-two header
As with setext-style headers, the header text can contain
formatting:
# A level-one header with a [link](/url) and *emphasis*
Standard markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a
header. Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning of
the document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too easy
for a # to end up at the beginning of a line by accident
(perhaps through line wrapping). Consider, for example:
I like several of their flavors of ice cream:
#22, for example, and #5.
Header identifiers
in HTML, LaTeX, and ConTeXt
Pandoc extension.
Each header element in pandoc’s HTML and ConTeXt output is given a
unique identifier. This identifier is based on the text of the header.
To derive the identifier from the header text,
- Remove all formatting, links, etc.
- Remove all punctuation, except underscores, hyphens, and
periods.
- Replace all spaces and newlines with hyphens.
- Convert all alphabetic characters to lowercase.
- Remove everything up to the first letter (identifiers may not begin
with a number or punctuation mark).
- If nothing is left after this, use the identifier
section.
Thus, for example,
| Header identifiers in HTML |
header-identifiers-in-html |
| Dogs?'in my house? |
dogs--in-my-house |
| HTML, S5, or RTF? |
html-s5-or-rtf |
| 3. Applications |
applications |
| 33 |
section |
These rules should, in most cases, allow one to determine the
identifier from the header text. The exception is when several headers
have the same text; in this case, the first will get an identifier as
described above; the second will get the same identifier with
-1 appended; the third with -2; and so on.
These identifiers are used to provide link targets in the table of
contents generated by the --toc|--table-of-contents option.
They also make it easy to provide links from one section of a document
to another. A link to this section, for example, might look like
this:
See the section on
[header identifiers](#header-identifiers-in-html).
Note, however, that this method of providing links to sections works
only in HTML, LaTeX, and ConTeXt formats.
If the --section-divs option is specified, then each
section will be wrapped in a div (or a
section, if --html5 was specified), and the
identifier will be attached to the enclosing <div>
(or <section>) tag rather than the header itself.
This allows entire sections to be manipulated using javascript or
treated differently in CSS.
Block quotations
Markdown uses email conventions for quoting blocks of text. A block
quotation is one or more paragraphs or other block elements (such as
lists or headers), with each line preceded by a >
character and a space. (The > need not start at the left
margin, but it should not be indented more than three spaces.)
> This is a block quote. This
> paragraph has two lines.
>
> 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
> 2. Second item.
A “lazy” form, which requires the > character only on
the first line of each block, is also allowed:
> This is a block quote. This
paragraph has two lines.
> 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
2. Second item.
Among the block elements that can be contained in a block quote are
other block quotes. That is, block quotes can be nested:
> This is a block quote.
>
> > A block quote within a block quote.
Standard markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a block
quote. Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning of
the document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too easy
for a > to end up at the beginning of a line by accident
(perhaps through line wrapping). So, unless --strict is
used, the following does not produce a nested block quote in pandoc:
> This is a block quote.
>> Nested.
Verbatim (code) blocks
Indented code blocks
A block of text indented four spaces (or one tab) is treated as
verbatim text: that is, special characters do not trigger special
formatting, and all spaces and line breaks are preserved. For
example,
if (a > 3) {
moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
The initial (four space or one tab) indentation is not considered
part of the verbatim text, and is removed in the output.
Note: blank lines in the verbatim text need not begin with four
spaces.
Delimited code blocks
Pandoc extension.
In addition to standard indented code blocks, Pandoc supports
delimited code blocks. These begin with a row of three or more
tildes (~) or backticks (`) and end with a row
of tildes or backticks that must be at least as long as the starting
row. Everything between these lines is treated as code. No indentation
is necessary:
~~~~~~~
if (a > 3) {
moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
~~~~~~~
Like regular code blocks, delimited code blocks must be separated
from surrounding text by blank lines.
If the code itself contains a row of tildes or backticks, just use a
longer row of tildes or backticks at the start and end:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
code including tildes
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Optionally, you may attach attributes to the code block using this
syntax:
~~~~ {#mycode .haskell .numberLines startFrom="100"}
qsort [] = []
qsort (x:xs) = qsort (filter (< x) xs) ++ [x] ++
qsort (filter (>= x) xs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here mycode is an identifier, haskell and
numberLines are classes, and startFrom is an
attribute with value 100. Some output formats can use this
information to do syntax highlighting. Currently, the only output
formats that uses this information are HTML and LaTeX. If highlighting
is supported for your output format and language, then the code block
above will appear highlighted, with numbered lines. (To see which
languages are supported, do pandoc --version.) Otherwise,
the code block above will appear as follows:
<pre id="mycode" class="haskell numberLines" startFrom="100">
<code>
...
</code>
</pre>
A shortcut form can also be used for specifying the language of the
code block:
```haskell
qsort [] = []
```
This is equivalent to:
``` {.haskell}
qsort [] = []
```
To prevent all highlighting, use the --no-highlight
flag. To set the highlighting style, use
--highlight-style.
Lists
Bullet lists
A bullet list is a list of bulleted list items. A bulleted list item
begins with a bullet (*, +, or
-). Here is a simple example:
* one
* two
* three
This will produce a “compact” list. If you want a “loose” list, in
which each item is formatted as a paragraph, put spaces between the
items:
* one
* two
* three
The bullets need not be flush with the left margin; they may be
indented one, two, or three spaces. The bullet must be followed by
whitespace.
List items look best if subsequent lines are flush with the first
line (after the bullet):
* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.
But markdown also allows a “lazy” format:
* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.
The four-space rule
A list item may contain multiple paragraphs and other block-level
content. However, subsequent paragraphs must be preceded by a blank line
and indented four spaces or a tab. The list will look better if the
first paragraph is aligned with the rest:
* First paragraph.
Continued.
* Second paragraph. With a code block, which must be indented
eight spaces:
{ code }
List items may include other lists. In this case the preceding blank
line is optional. The nested list must be indented four spaces or one
tab:
* fruits
+ apples
- macintosh
- red delicious
+ pears
+ peaches
* vegetables
+ brocolli
+ chard
As noted above, markdown allows you to write list items “lazily,”
instead of indenting continuation lines. However, if there are multiple
paragraphs or other blocks in a list item, the first line of each must
be indented.
+ A lazy, lazy, list
item.
+ Another one; this looks
bad but is legal.
Second paragraph of second
list item.
Note: Although the four-space rule for continuation
paragraphs comes from the official markdown
syntax guide, the reference implementation,
Markdown.pl, does not follow it. So pandoc will give
different results than Markdown.pl when authors have
indented continuation paragraphs fewer than four spaces.
The markdown
syntax guide is not explicit whether the four-space rule applies to
all block-level content in a list item; it only mentions
paragraphs and code blocks. But it implies that the rule applies to all
block-level content (including nested lists), and pandoc interprets it
that way.
Ordered lists
Ordered lists work just like bulleted lists, except that the items
begin with enumerators rather than bullets.
In standard markdown, enumerators are decimal numbers followed by a
period and a space. The numbers themselves are ignored, so there is no
difference between this list:
1. one
2. two
3. three
and this one:
5. one
7. two
1. three
Pandoc extension.
Unlike standard markdown, Pandoc allows ordered list items to be
marked with uppercase and lowercase letters and roman numerals, in
addition to arabic numerals. List markers may be enclosed in parentheses
or followed by a single right-parentheses or period. They must be
separated from the text that follows by at least one space, and, if the
list marker is a capital letter with a period, by at least two spaces.
Pandoc also pays attention to the type of list marker used, and to
the starting number, and both of these are preserved where possible in
the output format. Thus, the following yields a list with numbers
followed by a single parenthesis, starting with 9, and a sublist with
lowercase roman numerals:
9) Ninth
10) Tenth
11) Eleventh
i. subone
ii. subtwo
iii. subthree
Pandoc will start a new list each time a different type of list
marker is used. So, the following will create three lists:
(2) Two
(5) Three
1. Four
* Five
If default list markers are desired, use #.:
#. one
#. two
#. three
Definition lists
Pandoc extension.
Pandoc supports definition lists, using a syntax inspired by PHP Markdown
Extra and reStructuredText:
Term 1
: Definition 1
Term 2 with *inline markup*
: Definition 2
{ some code, part of Definition 2 }
Third paragraph of definition 2.
Each term must fit on one line, which may optionally be followed by a
blank line, and must be followed by one or more definitions. A
definition begins with a colon or tilde, which may be indented one or
two spaces. The body of the definition (including the first line, aside
from the colon or tilde) should be indented four spaces. A term may have
multiple definitions, and each definition may consist of one or more
block elements (paragraph, code block, list, etc.), each indented four
spaces or one tab stop.
If you leave space after the definition (as in the example above),
the blocks of the definitions will be considered paragraphs. In some
output formats, this will mean greater spacing between term/definition
pairs. For a compact definition list, do not leave space between the
definition and the next term:
Term 1
~ Definition 1
Term 2
~ Definition 2a
~ Definition 2b
Numbered example lists
Pandoc extension.
The special list marker @ can be used for sequentially
numbered examples. The first list item with a @ marker will
be numbered ‘1’, the next ‘2’, and so on, throughout the document. The
numbered examples need not occur in a single list; each new list using
@ will take up where the last stopped. So, for example:
(@) My first example will be numbered (1).
(@) My second example will be numbered (2).
Explanation of examples.
(@) My third example will be numbered (3).
Numbered examples can be labeled and referred to elsewhere in the
document:
(@good) This is a good example.
As (@good) illustrates, ...
The label can be any string of alphanumeric characters, underscores,
or hyphens.
Compact and loose lists
Pandoc behaves differently from Markdown.pl on some
“edge cases” involving lists. Consider this source:
+ First
+ Second:
- Fee
- Fie
- Foe
+ Third
Pandoc transforms this into a “compact list” (with no
<p> tags around “First”, “Second”, or “Third”), while
markdown puts <p> tags around “Second” and “Third”
(but not “First”), because of the blank space around “Third”. Pandoc
follows a simple rule: if the text is followed by a blank line, it is
treated as a paragraph. Since “Second” is followed by a list, and not a
blank line, it isn’t treated as a paragraph. The fact that the list is
followed by a blank line is irrelevant. (Note: Pandoc works this way
even when the --strict option is specified. This behavior
is consistent with the official markdown syntax description, even though
it is different from that of Markdown.pl.)
Ending a list
What if you want to put an indented code block after a list?
- item one
- item two
{ my code block }
Trouble! Here pandoc (like other markdown implementations) will treat
{ my code block } as the second paragraph of item two, and
not as a code block.
To “cut off” the list after item two, you can insert some
non-indented content, like an HTML comment, which won’t produce visible
output in any format:
- item one
- item two
<!-- end of list -->
{ my code block }
You can use the same trick if you want two consecutive lists instead
of one big list:
1. one
2. two
3. three
<!-- -->
1. uno
2. dos
3. tres
Horizontal rules
A line containing a row of three or more *,
-, or _ characters (optionally separated by
spaces) produces a horizontal rule:
* * * *
---------------
Tables
Pandoc extension.
Three kinds of tables may be used. All three kinds presuppose the use
of a fixed-width font, such as Courier.
Simple tables look like this:
Right Left Center Default
------- ------ ---------- -------
12 12 12 12
123 123 123 123
1 1 1 1
Table: Demonstration of simple table syntax.
The headers and table rows must each fit on one line. Column
alignments are determined by the position of the header text relative to
the dashed line below it:
- If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the right side
but extends beyond it on the left, the column is right-aligned.
- If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the left side
but extends beyond it on the right, the column is left-aligned.
- If the dashed line extends beyond the header text on both sides, the
column is centered.
- If the dashed line is flush with the header text on both sides, the
default alignment is used (in most cases, this will be left).
The table must end with a blank line, or a line of dashes followed by
a blank line. A caption may optionally be provided (as illustrated in
the example above). A caption is a paragraph beginning with the string
Table: (or just :), which will be stripped
off. It may appear either before or after the table.
The column headers may be omitted, provided a dashed line is used to
end the table. For example:
------- ------ ---------- -------
12 12 12 12
123 123 123 123
1 1 1 1
------- ------ ---------- -------
When headers are omitted, column alignments are determined on the
basis of the first line of the table body. So, in the tables above, the
columns would be right, left, center, and right aligned,
respectively.
Multiline tables allow headers and table rows to
span multiple lines of text (but cells that span multiple columns or
rows of the table are not supported). Here is an example:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Centered Default Right Left
Header Aligned Aligned Aligned
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
First row 12.0 Example of a row that
spans multiple lines.
Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note
the blank line between
rows.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Table: Here's the caption. It, too, may span
multiple lines.
These work like simple tables, but with the following
differences:
- They must begin with a row of dashes, before the header text (unless
the headers are omitted).
- They must end with a row of dashes, then a blank line.
- The rows must be separated by blank lines.
In multiline tables, the table parser pays attention to the widths of
the columns, and the writers try to reproduce these relative widths in
the output. So, if you find that one of the columns is too narrow in the
output, try widening it in the markdown source.
Headers may be omitted in multiline tables as well as simple
tables:
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
First row 12.0 Example of a row that
spans multiple lines.
Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note
the blank line between
rows.
-------------------------------------------------------------
: Here's a multiline table without headers.
It is possible for a multiline table to have just one row, but the
row should be followed by a blank line (and then the row of dashes that
ends the table), or the table may be interpreted as a simple table.
Grid tables look like this:
: Sample grid table.
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Fruit | Price | Advantages |
+===============+===============+====================+
| Bananas | $1.34 | - built-in wrapper |
| | | - bright color |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Oranges | $2.10 | - cures scurvy |
| | | - tasty |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
The row of =s separates the header from the table body,
and can be omitted for a headerless table. The cells of grid tables may
contain arbitrary block elements (multiple paragraphs, code blocks,
lists, etc.). Alignments are not supported, nor are cells that span
multiple columns or rows. Grid tables can be created easily using Emacs table mode.
Title block
Pandoc extension.
If the file begins with a title block
% title
% author(s) (separated by semicolons)
% date
it will be parsed as bibliographic information, not regular text. (It
will be used, for example, in the title of standalone LaTeX or HTML
output.) The block may contain just a title, a title and an author, or
all three elements. If you want to include an author but no title, or a
title and a date but no author, you need a blank line:
%
% Author
% My title
%
% June 15, 2006
The title may occupy multiple lines, but continuation lines must
begin with leading space, thus:
% My title
on multiple lines
If a document has multiple authors, the authors may be put on
separate lines with leading space, or separated by semicolons, or both.
So, all of the following are equivalent:
% Author One
Author Two
% Author One; Author Two
% Author One;
Author Two
The date must fit on one line.
All three metadata fields may contain standard inline formatting
(italics, links, footnotes, etc.).
Title blocks will always be parsed, but they will affect the output
only when the --standalone (-s) option is
chosen. In HTML output, titles will appear twice: once in the document
head ' this is the title that will appear at the top of the window in a
browser ' and once at the beginning of the document body. The title in
the document head can have an optional prefix attached
(--title-prefix or -T option). The title in
the body appears as an H1 element with class “title”, so it can be
suppressed or reformatted with CSS. If a title prefix is specified with
-T and no title block appears in the document, the title
prefix will be used by itself as the HTML title.
The man page writer extracts a title, man page section number, and
other header and footer information from the title line. The title is
assumed to be the first word on the title line, which may optionally end
with a (single-digit) section number in parentheses. (There should be no
space between the title and the parentheses.) Anything after this is
assumed to be additional footer and header text. A single pipe character
(|) should be used to separate the footer text from the
header text. Thus,
% PANDOC(1)
will yield a man page with the title PANDOC and section
1.
% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals
will also have “Pandoc User Manuals” in the footer.
% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals | Version 4.0
will also have “Version 4.0” in the header.
Backslash escapes
Except inside a code block or inline code, any punctuation or space
character preceded by a backslash will be treated literally, even if it
would normally indicate formatting. Thus, for example, if one writes
*\*hello\**
one will get
<em>*hello*</em>
instead of
<strong>hello</strong>
This rule is easier to remember than standard markdown’s rule, which
allows only the following characters to be backslash-escaped:
\`*_{}[]()>#+-.!
(However, if the --strict option is supplied, the
standard markdown rule will be used.)
A backslash-escaped space is parsed as a nonbreaking space. It will
appear in TeX output as ~ and in HTML and XML as
\  or \ .
A backslash-escaped newline (i.e. a backslash occurring at the end of
a line) is parsed as a hard line break. It will appear in TeX output as
\\ and in HTML as <br />. This is a nice
alternative to markdown’s “invisible” way of indicating hard line breaks
using two trailing spaces on a line.
Backslash escapes do not work in verbatim contexts.
Smart punctuation
Pandoc extension.
If the --smart option is specified, pandoc will produce
typographically correct output, converting straight quotes to curly
quotes, --- to em-dashes, -- to en-dashes, and
... to ellipses. Nonbreaking spaces are inserted after
certain abbreviations, such as “Mr.”
Note: if your LaTeX template uses the csquotes package,
pandoc will detect automatically this and use \enquote{...}
for quoted text.
Emphasis
To emphasize some text, surround it with *s or
_, like this:
This text is _emphasized with underscores_, and this
is *emphasized with asterisks*.
Double * or _ produces strong
emphasis:
This is **strong emphasis** and __with underscores__.
A * or _ character surrounded by spaces, or
backslash-escaped, will not trigger emphasis:
This is * not emphasized *, and \*neither is this\*.
Because _ is sometimes used inside words and
identifiers, pandoc does not interpret a _ surrounded by
alphanumeric characters as an emphasis marker. If you want to emphasize
just part of a word, use *:
feas*ible*, not feas*able*.
Strikeout
Pandoc extension.
To strikeout a section of text with a horizontal line, begin and end
it with ~~. Thus, for example,
This ~~is deleted text.~~
Superscripts and subscripts
Pandoc extension.
Superscripts may be written by surrounding the superscripted text by
^ characters; subscripts may be written by surrounding the
subscripted text by ~ characters. Thus, for example,
H~2~O is a liquid. 2^10^ is 1024.
If the superscripted or subscripted text contains spaces, these
spaces must be escaped with backslashes. (This is to prevent accidental
superscripting and subscripting through the ordinary use of
~ and ^.) Thus, if you want the letter P with
‘a cat’ in subscripts, use P~a\ cat~, not
P~a cat~.
Verbatim
To make a short span of text verbatim, put it inside backticks:
What is the difference between `>>=` and `>>`?
If the verbatim text includes a backtick, use double backticks:
Here is a literal backtick `` ` ``.
(The spaces after the opening backticks and before the closing
backticks will be ignored.)
The general rule is that a verbatim span starts with a string of
consecutive backticks (optionally followed by a space) and ends with a
string of the same number of backticks (optionally preceded by a
space).
Note that backslash-escapes (and other markdown constructs) do not
work in verbatim contexts:
This is a backslash followed by an asterisk: `\*`.
Attributes can be attached to verbatim text, just as with delimited code blocks:
`<$>`{.haskell}
Math
Pandoc extension.
Anything between two $ characters will be treated as TeX
math. The opening $ must have a character immediately to
its right, while the closing $ must have a character
immediately to its left. Thus, $20,000 and $30,000 won’t
parse as math. If for some reason you need to enclose text in literal
$ characters, backslash-escape them and they won’t be
treated as math delimiters.
TeX math will be printed in all output formats. How it is rendered
depends on the output format:
- Markdown, LaTeX, Org-Mode, ConTeXt
-
It will appear verbatim between
$ characters.
- reStructuredText
-
It will be rendered using an interpreted text role
:math:,
as described here.
- AsciiDoc
-
It will be rendered as
latexmath:[...].
- Texinfo
-
It will be rendered inside a
@math command.
- groff man
-
It will be rendered verbatim without
$’s.
- MediaWiki
-
It will be rendered inside
<math> tags.
- Textile
-
It will be rendered inside
<span class="math"> tags.
- RTF, OpenDocument, ODT
-
It will be rendered, if possible, using unicode characters, and will
otherwise appear verbatim.
- Docbook
-
If the
--mathml flag is used, it will be rendered using
mathml in an inlineequation or
informalequation tag. Otherwise it will be rendered, if
possible, using unicode characters.
- Docx
-
It will be rendered using OMML math markup.
- HTML, Slidy, Slideous, DZSlides, S5, EPUB
-
The way math is rendered in HTML will depend on the command-line
options selected:
The default is to render TeX math as far as possible using
unicode characters, as with RTF, DocBook, and OpenDocument output.
Formulas are put inside a span with
class="math", so that they may be styled differently from
the surrounding text if needed.
If the --latexmathml option is used, TeX math will
be displayed between $ or $$ characters and put in
<span> tags with class LaTeX. The LaTeXMathML script will be
used to render it as formulas. (This trick does not work in all
browsers, but it works in Firefox. In browsers that do not support
LaTeXMathML, TeX math will appear verbatim between $
characters.)
If the --jsmath option is used, TeX math will be put
inside <span> tags (for inline math) or
<div> tags (for display math) with class
math. The jsMath script will be
used to render it.
If the --mimetex option is used, the mimeTeX CGI script will
be called to generate images for each TeX formula. This should work in
all browsers. The --mimetex option takes an optional URL as
argument. If no URL is specified, it will be assumed that the mimeTeX
CGI script is at /cgi-bin/mimetex.cgi.
If the --gladtex option is used, TeX formulas will
be enclosed in <eq> tags in the HTML output. The
resulting htex file may then be processed by gladTeX,
which will produce image files for each formula and an html
file with links to these images. So, the procedure is:
pandoc -s --gladtex myfile.txt -o myfile.htex
gladtex -d myfile-images myfile.htex
# produces myfile.html and images in myfile-images
If the --webtex option is used, TeX formulas will be
converted to <img> tags that link to an external
script that converts formulas to images. The formula will be URL-encoded
and concatenated with the URL provided. If no URL is specified, the
Google Chart API will be used
(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=).
Raw HTML
Markdown allows you to insert raw HTML (or DocBook) anywhere in a
document (except verbatim contexts, where <,
>, and & are interpreted
literally).
The raw HTML is passed through unchanged in HTML, S5, Slidy,
Slideous, DZSlides, EPUB, Markdown, and Textile output, and suppressed
in other formats.
Pandoc extension.
Standard markdown allows you to include HTML “blocks”: blocks of HTML
between balanced tags that are separated from the surrounding text with
blank lines, and start and end at the left margin. Within these blocks,
everything is interpreted as HTML, not markdown; so (for example),
* does not signify emphasis.
Pandoc behaves this way when --strict is specified; but
by default, pandoc interprets material between HTML block tags as
markdown. Thus, for example, Pandoc will turn
<table>
<tr>
<td>*one*</td>
<td>[a link](http://google.com)</td>
</tr>
</table>
into
<table>
<tr>
<td><em>one</em></td>
<td><a href="http://google.com">a link</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
whereas Markdown.pl will preserve it as is.
There is one exception to this rule: text between
<script> and <style> tags is not
interpreted as markdown.
This departure from standard markdown should make it easier to mix
markdown with HTML block elements. For example, one can surround a block
of markdown text with <div> tags without preventing
it from being interpreted as markdown.
Raw TeX
Pandoc extension.
In addition to raw HTML, pandoc allows raw LaTeX, TeX, and ConTeXt to
be included in a document. Inline TeX commands will be preserved and
passed unchanged to the LaTeX and ConTeXt writers. Thus, for example,
you can use LaTeX to include BibTeX citations:
This result was proved in \cite{jones.1967}.
Note that in LaTeX environments, like
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}\hline
Age & Frequency \\ \hline
18--25 & 15 \\
26--35 & 33 \\
36--45 & 22 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
the material between the begin and end tags will be interpreted as
raw LaTeX, not as markdown.
Inline LaTeX is ignored in output formats other than Markdown, LaTeX,
and ConTeXt.
Macros
For output formats other than LaTeX, pandoc will parse LaTeX
\newcommand and \renewcommand definitions and
apply the resulting macros to all LaTeX math. So, for example, the
following will work in all output formats, not just LaTeX:
\newcommand{\tuple}[1]{\langle #1 \rangle}
$\tuple{a, b, c}$
In LaTeX output, the \newcommand definition will simply
be passed unchanged to the output.
Links
Markdown allows links to be specified in several ways.
Automatic links
If you enclose a URL or email address in pointy brackets, it will
become a link:
<http://google.com>
<sam@green.eggs.ham>
Inline links
An inline link consists of the link text in square brackets, followed
by the URL in parentheses. (Optionally, the URL can be followed by a
link title, in quotes.)
This is an [inline link](/url), and here's [one with
a title](http://fsf.org "click here for a good time!").
There can be no space between the bracketed part and the
parenthesized part. The link text can contain formatting (such as
emphasis), but the title cannot.
Reference links
An explicit reference link has two parts, the link itself
and the link definition, which may occur elsewhere in the document
(either before or after the link).
The link consists of link text in square brackets, followed by a
label in square brackets. (There can be space between the two.) The link
definition must begin at the left margin or indented no more than three
spaces. It consists of the bracketed label, followed by a colon and a
space, followed by the URL, and optionally (after a space) a link title
either in quotes or in parentheses.
Here are some examples:
[my label 1]: /foo/bar.html "My title, optional"
[my label 2]: /foo
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org (The free software foundation)
[my label 4]: /bar#special 'A title in single quotes'
The URL may optionally be surrounded by angle brackets:
[my label 5]: <http://foo.bar.baz>
The title may go on the next line:
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org
"The free software foundation"
Note that link labels are not case sensitive. So, this will work:
Here is [my link][FOO]
[Foo]: /bar/baz
In an implicit reference link, the second pair of brackets
is empty, or omitted entirely:
See [my website][], or [my website].
[my website]: http://foo.bar.baz
Internal links
To link to another section of the same document, use the
automatically generated identifier (see Header identifiers
in HTML, LaTeX, and ConTeXt, below). For example:
See the [Introduction](#introduction).
or
See the [Introduction].
[Introduction]: #introduction
Internal links are currently supported for HTML formats (including
HTML slide shows and EPUB), LaTeX, and ConTeXt.
Images
A link immediately preceded by a ! will be treated as an
image. The link text will be used as the image’s alt text:
![movie reel]
[movie reel]: movie.png
Pictures with captions
Pandoc extension.
An image occurring by itself in a paragraph will be rendered as a
figure with a caption. (In LaTeX, a figure environment will
be used; in HTML, the image will be placed in a div with
class figure, together with a caption in a p
with class caption.) The image’s alt text will be used as
the caption.
If you just want a regular inline image, just make sure it is not the
only thing in the paragraph. One way to do this is to insert a
nonbreaking space after the image:
\
Pandoc extension.
Pandoc’s markdown allows footnotes, using the following syntax:
Here is a footnote reference,[^1] and another.[^longnote]
[^1]: Here is the footnote.
[^longnote]: Here's one with multiple blocks.
Subsequent paragraphs are indented to show that they
belong to the previous footnote.
{ some.code }
The whole paragraph can be indented, or just the first
line. In this way, multi-paragraph footnotes work like
multi-paragraph list items.
This paragraph won't be part of the note, because it
isn't indented.
The identifiers in footnote references may not contain spaces, tabs,
or newlines. These identifiers are used only to correlate the footnote
reference with the note itself; in the output, footnotes will be
numbered sequentially.
The footnotes themselves need not be placed at the end of the
document. They may appear anywhere except inside other block elements
(lists, block quotes, tables, etc.).
Inline footnotes are also allowed (though, unlike regular notes, they
cannot contain multiple paragraphs). The syntax is as follows:
Here is an inline note.^[Inlines notes are easier to write, since
you don't have to pick an identifier and move down to type the
note.]
Inline and regular footnotes may be mixed freely.
Citations
Pandoc extension.
Pandoc can automatically generate citations and a bibliography in a
number of styles (using Andrea Rossato’s hs-citeproc). In
order to use this feature, you will need a bibliographic database in one
of the following formats:
| MODS |
.mods |
| BibTeX/BibLaTeX |
.bib |
| RIS |
.ris |
| EndNote |
.enl |
| EndNote XML |
.xml |
| ISI |
.wos |
| MEDLINE |
.medline |
| Copac |
.copac |
| JSON citeproc |
.json |
You will need to specify the bibliography file using the
--bibliography command-line option (which may be repeated
if you have several bibliographies).
By default, pandoc will use a Chicago author-date format for
citations and references. To use another style, you will need to use the
--csl option to specify a CSL 1.0 style file. A primer on
creating and modifying CSL styles can be found at http://citationstyles.org/downloads/primer.html. A
repository of CSL styles can be found at https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles. See
also http://zotero.org/styles for easy browsing.
Citations go inside square brackets and are separated by semicolons.
Each citation must have a key, composed of ‘@’ + the citation identifier
from the database, and may optionally have a prefix, a locator, and a
suffix. Here are some examples:
Blah blah [see @doe99, pp. 33-35; also @smith04, ch. 1].
Blah blah [@doe99, pp. 33-35, 38-39 and *passim*].
Blah blah [@smith04; @doe99].
A minus sign (-) before the @ will suppress
mention of the author in the citation. This can be useful when the
author is already mentioned in the text:
Smith says blah [-@smith04].
You can also write an in-text citation, as follows:
@smith04 says blah.
@smith04 [p. 33] says blah.
If the style calls for a list of works cited, it will be placed at
the end of the document. Normally, you will want to end your document
with an appropriate header:
last paragraph...
# References
The bibliography will be inserted after this header.
Producing slide shows with
Pandoc
You can use Pandoc to produce an HTML + javascript slide presentation
that can be viewed via a web browser. There are four ways to do this,
using S5, DZSlides, Slidy, or Slideous. You can also
produce a PDF slide show using LaTeX beamer.
Here’s the markdown source for a simple slide show,
habits.txt:
% Habits
% John Doe
% March 22, 2005
# In the morning
## Getting up
- Turn off alarm
- Get out of bed
## Breakfast
- Eat eggs
- Drink coffee
# In the evening
## Dinner
- Eat spaghetti
- Drink wine
------------------
## Going to sleep
- Get in bed
- Count sheep
To produce the slide show, simply type
pandoc -t s5 -s habits.txt -o habits.html
for S5,
pandoc -t slidy -s habits.txt -o habits.html
for Slidy,
pandoc -t slideous -s habits.txt -o habits.html
for Slideous,
pandoc -t dzslides -s habits.txt -o habits.html
for DZSlides, or
pandoc -t beamer habits.txt -o habits.pdf
for beamer.
With all HTML slide formats, the --self-contained option
can be used to produce a single file that contains all of the data
necessary to display the slide show, including linked scripts,
stylesheets, images, and videos.
Structuring the slide show
By default, the slide level is the highest header level in
the hierarchy that is followed immediately by content, and not another
header, somewhere in the document. In the example above, level 1 headers
are always followed by level 2 headers, which are followed by content,
so 2 is the slide level. This default can be overridden using the
--slide-level option.
The document is carved up into slides according to the following
rules:
A horizontal rule always starts a new slide.
A header at the slide level always starts a new slide.
Headers below the slide level in the hierarchy create
headers within a slide.
Headers above the slide level in the hierarchy create
“title slides,” which just contain the section title and help to break
the slide show into sections.
A title page is constructed automatically from the document’s
title block, if present. (In the case of beamer, this can be disabled by
commenting out some lines in the default template.)
These rules are designed to support many different styles of slide
show. If you don’t care about structuring your slides into sections and
subsections, you can just use level 1 headers for all each slide. (In
that case, level 1 will be the slide level.) But you can also structure
the slide show into sections, as in the example above.
For Slidy, Slideous and S5, the file produced by pandoc with the
-s/--standalone option embeds a link to javascripts and CSS
files, which are assumed to be available at the relative path
s5/default (for S5) or slideous (for
Slideous), or at the Slidy website at w3.org (for Slidy).
(These paths can be changed by setting the slidy-url,
slideous-url or s5-url variables; see
--variable, above.) For DZSlides, the (relatively short)
javascript and css are included in the file by default.
Incremental lists
By default, these writers produces lists that display “all at once.”
If you want your lists to display incrementally (one item at a time),
use the -i option. If you want a particular list to depart
from the default (that is, to display incrementally without the
-i option and all at once with the -i option),
put it in a block quote:
> - Eat spaghetti
> - Drink wine
In this way incremental and nonincremental lists can be mixed in a
single document.
Styling the slides
You can change the style of HTML slides by putting customized CSS
files in $DATADIR/s5/default (for S5),
$DATADIR/slidy (for Slidy), or
$DATADIR/slideous (for Slideous), where
$DATADIR is the user data directory (see
--data-dir, above). The originals may be found in pandoc’s
system data directory (generally
$CABALDIR/pandoc-VERSION/s5/default). Pandoc will look
there for any files it does not find in the user data directory.
For dzslides, the CSS is included in the HTML file itself, and may be
modified there.
To style beamer slides, you can specify a beamer “theme” or
“colortheme” using the -V option:
pandoc -t beamer habits.txt -V theme:Warsaw -o habits.pdf
Literate Haskell support
If you append +lhs to an appropriate input or output
format (markdown, rst, or latex
for input or output; beamer, html or
html5 for output only), pandoc will treat the document as
literate Haskell source. This means that
In markdown input, “bird track” sections will be parsed as
Haskell code rather than block quotations. Text between
\begin{code} and \end{code} will also be
treated as Haskell code.
In markdown output, code blocks with classes haskell
and literate will be rendered using bird tracks, and block
quotations will be indented one space, so they will not be treated as
Haskell code. In addition, headers will be rendered setext-style (with
underlines) rather than atx-style (with ‘#’ characters). (This is
because ghc treats ‘#’ characters in column 1 as introducing line
numbers.)
In restructured text input, “bird track” sections will be parsed
as Haskell code.
In restructured text output, code blocks with class
haskell will be rendered using bird tracks.
In LaTeX input, text in code environments will be
parsed as Haskell code.
In LaTeX output, code blocks with class haskell will
be rendered inside code environments.
In HTML output, code blocks with class haskell will
be rendered with class literatehaskell and bird
tracks.
Examples:
pandoc -f markdown+lhs -t html
reads literate Haskell source formatted with markdown conventions and
writes ordinary HTML (without bird tracks).
pandoc -f markdown+lhs -t html+lhs
writes HTML with the Haskell code in bird tracks, so it can be copied
and pasted as literate Haskell source.
Authors
© 2006-2011 John MacFarlane (jgm at berkeley dot edu). Released under
the GPL, version 2 or greater. This
software carries no warranty of any kind. (See COPYRIGHT for full
copyright and warranty notices.) Other contributors include Recai Oktaş,
Paulo Tanimoto, Peter Wang, Andrea Rossato, Eric Kow, infinity0x, Luke
Plant, shreevatsa.public, Puneeth Chaganti, Paul Rivier, rodja.trappe,
Bradley Kuhn, thsutton, Nathan Gass, Jonathan Daugherty, Jérémy Bobbio,
Justin Bogner, qerub, Christopher Sawicki, Kelsey Hightower, Masayoshi
Takahashi, Antoine Latter, Ralf Stephan, Eric Seidel, B. Scott Michel,
Gavin Beatty.
