Pandoc
A Haskell library and command-line tool for converting between dozens of markup formats, including Markdown, LaTeX, HTML, DOCX, and EPUB.
What is Pandoc?
Pandoc is a Haskell library and command-line tool designed to convert documents from one markup format to another. It solves the problem of content lock-in by providing a universal translator for dozens of text-based formats, enabling users to write once and publish everywhere.
Technical writers, academics, researchers, developers, and anyone who needs to publish documents in multiple formats (e.g., converting Markdown to PDF, LaTeX to HTML, or DOCX to EPUB).
Developers choose Pandoc for its unparalleled format support, reliability, and extensibility through filters. Its robust handling of citations, math, and complex document structures makes it the de facto standard for academic and technical document conversion.
Overview
Universal markup converter
Use Cases
Best For
- Converting academic papers written in LaTeX to HTML for web publication
- Generating EPUB ebooks from Markdown source files
- Creating presentation slides (Beamer, reveal.js) from a Markdown document
- Batch converting a collection of DOCX files to plain text or Markdown
- Processing Jupyter notebooks into standalone reports or websites
- Building documentation pipelines that output multiple formats (PDF, HTML, man pages) from a single source
Not Ideal For
- Projects requiring pixel-perfect visual formatting, such as graphic design layouts or precise print-ready documents where exact margins and styling are critical
- Real-time collaborative editing or live preview applications that need instant format updates without command-line processing delays
- Users who exclusively prefer graphical user interfaces and have no familiarity or patience for terminal commands and scripting
Pros & Cons
Pros
Converts between over 40 input and 60 output formats, including Markdown, LaTeX, DOCX, EPUB, and Jupyter notebooks, as listed in the README, making it a universal translator for document types.
Supports custom Lua filters and readers/writers to modify the document AST or add new formats, allowing for highly tailored conversions and extensibility.
Enhances Markdown with native syntax for citations, footnotes, tables, and mathematical equations, ideal for research papers and technical documentation.
Uses a common abstract syntax tree for conversions, enabling consistent handling of document structures across different formats with separate readers and writers.
Cons
Admits that conversions from more expressive formats like LaTeX or DOCX can be lossy, as the AST cannot fully capture complex formatting or document elements such as intricate tables.
Lacks a built-in graphical interface, requiring users to rely on terminal commands, which can be a barrier for those unfamiliar with CLI tools or preferring visual workflows.
PDF output via LaTeX requires a full LaTeX installation, which is large, complex to set up, and can slow down workflows on systems without it pre-installed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Projects
ExcalidrawVirtual whiteboard for sketching hand-drawn like diagrams
tesseractTesseract Open Source OCR Engine (main repository)
carbon:black_heart: Create and share beautiful images of your source code
OCRmyPDFOCRmyPDF adds an OCR text layer to scanned PDF files, allowing them to be searched
Found a gem we're missing?
Open-Awesome is built by the community, for the community. Submit a project, suggest an awesome list, or help improve the catalog on GitHub.