Render-PDF-Doc Skill

This skill handles layout only (CJK fonts, table column widths) with raw pandoc + xelatex — no Quarto, whose tbl-colwidths has reported PDF regressions (issues 6089/9200). Not for: a manuscript with a bibliography (/manage-refs scripts/render_pandoc.sh), an institutional .docx form (/fill-protocol), the ICMJE COI form (/fill-icmje-coi), figures or PPTX (/make-figures, /present-paper).

Dependencies

Python 3 is required by the wrapper. FontTools is optional for the font-file coverage check (python3 -m pip install fonttools).

# macOS
brew install pandoc
brew install --cask mactex-no-gui          # xelatex + xeCJK (~5 GB)

# Linux
sudo apt-get install pandoc texlive-xetex texlive-lang-cjk fonts-noto-cjk

# Windows (PowerShell) — run in Git Bash afterwards
winget install --id JohnMacFarlane.Pandoc
winget install --id MiKTeX.MiKTeX          # xelatex; installs missing LaTeX packages on demand
# No CJK font download needed: Malgun Gothic ships with Windows 7+ and is the default here.

Detection:

bash scripts/check_deps.sh

On Windows / Git Bash, MiKTeX's bin directory (%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64) is often not on PATH; both check_deps.sh and render_pdf.sh probe it. If xelatex still reads [MISS], add that directory to PATH.

Workflow

Step 1 — Author markdown with frontmatter

---
title: "Paper 2 Calibration Anchor — Q&A Grid"
author: "<Author Group>"
date: "2026-05-01"
mainfont: "Apple SD Gothic Neo"        # macOS default
CJKmainfont: "Apple SD Gothic Neo"
geometry: "margin=0.85in"
fontsize: 11pt
linestretch: 1.25
colorlinks: true
---

• Set both mainfont and CJKmainfont: without CJKmainfont, Hangul falls back to Times New Roman (broken glyphs or blanks). Use Noto Sans CJK KR on Linux/CI and Malgun Gothic on Windows; the render script auto-detects the per-OS default when the fields are absent.
• Read every number in a table from the source CSV or analysis output. Do not retype a number from prose or carry one forward from an earlier draft — a table correct in v3 is not evidence it is correct in v4.
• A circulation PDF carries no change history, internal version numbers (e.g. v3.2.2) or PI attribution: put them in a separate circulation file or a supplementary. Keep the received primary source (the .docx or .eml a co-author sent) unmodified as its own artifact — the PDF is a derivative, and the next round is diffed against the source. If that source was AI-drafted by a collaborator, re-derive every number, denominator and author-year in it from the underlying paper or analysis output before it reaches the PDF.

Step 2 — Infer column widths

Never split pipe-table columns equally: a column holding only short labels then gets the same width as the data columns, which cramps them. Size from content instead:

python3 scripts/infer_colwidths.py input.md > input.colwidths.md

For each pipe table it computes per-column display width = max(len(header), max(len(cell))) (CJK = 2 cells, ASCII = 1) and rewrites the separator row with proportional dash counts. To set widths by hand, write the separator dashes yourself and render without --infer-colwidths.

Step 3 — Render

bash scripts/render_pdf.sh -i input.colwidths.md -o output.pdf

Or one-shot:

bash scripts/render_pdf.sh -i input.md -o output.pdf --infer-colwidths

Frontmatter wins over wrapper defaults, including --font / --cjk-font. Missing fields use the wrapper or OS defaults. This also applies to geometry, fontsize, linestretch and colorlinks (including false). Explicit pandoc -V / -M arguments after -- still override frontmatter; for example, -- -V fontsize=10pt. The wrapper logs font fallbacks, not the final fonts.

The standard article class honours only 10pt, 11pt and 12pt and silently ignores any other size. When the effective fontsize is anything else and no documentclass is set, the wrapper switches to KOMA-Script scrartcl (pandoc's documented route), adds classoption: fontsize=<size> when you set no classoption (KOMA reads a fractional size such as 8.5pt only that way), and logs the switch. Set documentclass yourself to override it.

Step 3.5 — Scientific-symbol + CJK glyph scan (before render)

xelatex can finish successfully with missing glyphs. render_pdf.sh counts the Missing character warnings pandoc relays: if there are any, it lists each glyph (code point, count, font) and exits 4 — the PDF is written but incomplete. It reads them from pandoc's JSON --log (yours if you pass one after --), so a pass-through --quiet does not hide them. --allow-missing-glyphs prints the same list and exits 0. Academic markdown routinely carries glyphs a default Latin font misses: transition arrows (→ ↑ ↓), math operators (− ≤ ≥ ± √ ∪ × ≈ ≠), stats Greek (κ μ σ β), bullets/marks (• ★ ✓), and CJK. Scan the source first so a silent drop is caught before it ships:

python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --strict
# real cmap check when you have the font file + fonttools:
python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --font "/path/to/body.otf" --strict
# TTC/OTC collections require the zero-based face index used by the renderer:
python3 scripts/scan_glyph_coverage.py input.md --font "/path/to/body.ttc" --font-index 0 --strict --json glyphs.json

Without --font it groups the risky glyphs by class (advisory); with --font + fonttools it checks every non-ASCII character of the source that the font is asked to draw — not only the five classes, so °, µ, ², ‰, ∞ and – are covered too — and reports which are absent from one face's preferred Unicode cmap (format characters such as a BOM or zero-width joiner, and the no-break spaces and … that pandoc writes as ASCII TeX, are not looked up), never combining coverage across collection faces — choose the face (index and PostScript name are in the report) that matches the rendered font. A missing dependency, unreadable font, missing face selection or invalid index is reported as font_checked: false with a reason in font_check; an empty missing_in_font list then means unverified, not full coverage. Default mode exits 0; --strict exits 1 when risky glyphs are unverified or missing (ASCII-only input still exits 0). The scan does not verify shaping, fallback fonts, math fonts or final PDF glyphs.

If risky glyphs are present, make sure mainfont/CJKmainfont cover them — a CJK-capable font such as Apple SD Gothic Neo / Noto Sans CJK usually covers arrows and Hangul but can still miss the true-minus − U+2212 and ★. The DOCX is authoritative; the PDF is a convenience copy — never let a PDF render drop a glyph the document needs.

Step 4 — Visual verify

Open the PDF and check:

• First-column labels stay on one line; data columns have enough width.
• No broken Korean glyphs (a Times New Roman fallback means CJKmainfont was not applied).
• No missing scientific symbols (arrows, −, ≤, ±, √) — the Step 3.5 scan flags candidates.
• No change history or internal version numbers exposed.

Read references/known_pitfalls.md when a render still looks wrong (em-dash overflow, smart quotes under CJKmainfont, | inside a cell), and references/pandoc_korean_cheatsheet.md for Korean frontmatter and font patterns.

Templates

Starter markdown in templates/ (English default; a Korean variant *_ko.md ships alongside each), with slots marked <!-- TODO: -->:

• anchor-doc.md — Q&A grid
• proposal-cover.md — research-proposal cover page
• briefing-handout.md — meeting brief (1-page)
• reference-table.md — comparison-table format