Advanced PDF Export — Obsidian Plugin

Export Obsidian notes as pixel-perfect PDFs with seven style presets, manual page breaks, full layout control, and a live preview — all from a full-screen modal panel.

Desktop only — requires the Obsidian desktop app (uses Electron's print pipeline).

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Table of Contents

• Features
• Screenshots
• Installation
• Usage
• Settings Reference
• License

Features

• Live preview — markdown editor on the left, paginated page preview on the right; render with ⟳ Render PDF or Ctrl+Enter
• Auto-loads active note — opening from the right-click menu or command palette pre-fills the editor (edits are local, non-destructive)
• Seven style presets — Default, Minimal, Academic, Colorful, Modern, Newspaper, Dark; each fully customisable and resettable
• Code syntax themes — 10+ themes (GitHub Light/Dark, Dracula, Tokyo Night, Monokai, Catppuccin, and more) applied independently of your Obsidian theme
• Mermaid diagrams — renders flowcharts, sequence diagrams, and all other Mermaid diagram types
• Page breaks — /// on its own line for a manual break; optionally auto-insert before every H1 or H2
• Page size & orientation — A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, or a fully custom size (mm) × Portrait / Landscape
• Full layout control — margins, font family/size/line height, paragraph spacing, heading scale, colors
• Page frame — optional border drawn around the outer edge of every page (solid, dashed, dotted, double, groove, or ridge)
• Background — solid color or a background image with fit, scope (full page or content area only), and opacity controls
• Header & footer — custom text, customizable page numbers ({{current}} / {{total}} template placeholders), alignment, font size/color, optional banner image, and first-page suppression
• PDF outline (bookmarks) — heading-based bookmark tree embedded in the exported PDF; most PDF readers display it in a side panel

Screenshots

Panel Overview

Page Breaks

Type /// on its own line, or click Insert Page Break in the toolbar.

Style Presets

Installation

Community Plugins (Recommended)

Search for Advanced PDF Export in Settings → Community Plugins → Browse, then install and enable it.

Manual (GitHub Releases)

1. Go to the Releases page.
2. Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from the latest release.
3. Place them in your vault at .obsidian/plugins/advanced-pdf-export/.
4. Reload Obsidian and enable the plugin under Settings → Community Plugins.

Usage

Open the panel — right-click any .md file in the file explorer, or use Ctrl/Cmd+P → Advanced PDF Export: Open Panel. The panel opens as a full-screen modal and auto-loads the target note.

Edit markdown — type or paste markdown in the left editor. Changes are not synced back to your vault.

Insert a page break — type /// on its own line, or click Insert Page Break in the topbar. Use --- for a horizontal rule.

Render the preview — click ⟳ Render PDF or press Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter.

Change style or page settings — use the Style, Size, and Orient dropdowns in the topbar. Changes re-render automatically.

Export — click ⬇ Export PDF to open a native save dialog and write the PDF to disk.

Open settings — click the ⚙ icon in the topbar, or go to Settings → Advanced PDF Export.

Settings Reference

All settings take effect after closing the settings panel.

Style Preset

Setting	Description
Preset	Style theme: Default, Minimal, Academic, Colorful, Modern, Newspaper, Dark
Reset Preset	Restores all typographic and color values for the current preset to defaults

Page

Setting	Description
Page size	A4, A3, A5, Letter, Legal, or Custom
Custom page size	Width × Height in mm (visible only when Custom is selected)
Orientation	Portrait or Landscape

Margin & Frame

Setting	Description
Margins	Top · Bottom · Left · Right in mm
Enable frame	Draws a border around the outer edge of every page
Frame color	Color of the page frame
Frame thickness	Border width in px
Frame margin	Gap between the page edge and the frame, equal on all sides (px)
Frame style	Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Double, Groove, or Ridge

Typography

Setting	Options
Font family	Georgia, Times New Roman, Palatino, Arial, Helvetica, Trebuchet, Courier New, Custom
Custom font name	Any CSS font-family value (e.g. Inter, sans-serif); font must be installed on your system
Font size	10 – 16 px
Code font size	0.75em – 1.00em
Line height	Tight (1.4) → Double (2.0)
Paragraph spacing	None → Wide (1em)
Heading scale	0.8× → 1.2× multiplier applied to all heading sizes

Background

Setting	Description
Use image background	When on, a background image replaces the solid background color
Page background color	Solid fill color behind the page content (shown when image background is off)
Background image	Vault-relative path or https:// URL (shown when image background is on)
Fit	How the image fills the page: Cover (fill, crop edges), Contain (fit, show gaps), Fill (stretch), Tile (repeat)
Scope	Full page (behind header, content, and footer) or Content area only (text zone only)
Opacity	5% – 100%

Colors

Setting	Description
Accent color	Primary accent used for links, borders, and highlights
Body text color	Main document text color
Heading color	Color applied to all heading levels
Blockquote background	Fill color behind blockquote blocks
Blockquote border	Left border color on blockquotes
Table header background	Background color of table header rows
Code background	Background color of inline and fenced code
Code syntax theme	Colors fenced code blocks independently of your Obsidian theme. Options: None, GitHub Light, GitHub Dark, Atom One Light, Atom One Dark, Monokai, Dracula, Tokyo Night, Solarized Light, Catppuccin Macchiato, Catppuccin Mocha

Header

Setting	Description
Show header	Toggle the header on or off
Show on first page	When off, the header is hidden on page 1 (useful for title pages)
Header text	Custom text shown on every page
Alignment	Left, Center, or Right
Font size	Header text size in px
Height	Explicit header band height in px (0 = auto-sized from font size)
Font color	Header text color
Border	Separator line below the header
Image	Vault-relative path or https:// URL — fills the header band as a background banner
Image left/right margin	Insets the banner from the left and right page edges (px)

Footer

Setting	Description
Show footer	Toggle the footer on or off
Show on first page	When off, the footer and page numbers are hidden on page 1; numbering starts from page 2
Footer text	Custom text shown in the footer
Alignment	Left, Center, or Right
Font size	Footer text size in px
Height	Explicit footer band height in px (0 = auto-sized from font size)
Font color	Footer text color
Border	Separator line above the footer
Image	Vault-relative path or https:// URL — fills the footer band as a background banner
Image left/right margin	Insets the banner from the left and right page edges (px)
Show page numbers	Toggle Page X / Y display
Page number position	Left, Center, or Right
Page number format	Custom template using {{current}} and {{total}} placeholders, e.g. Page {{current}} of {{total}}, {{current}}/{{total}}, or just {{current}} (default: {{current}} / {{total}})
Page number start	Number assigned to the first visible page number (default 1)

Behaviour

Setting	Description
Hide frontmatter	Strip the YAML frontmatter block (--- … ---) from preview and PDF
Include file name as title	Prepends the note's filename as an H1 at the top of the PDF
Underline links	Applies to both internal and external links
Auto page break before H1	Inserts a page break before every # heading
Auto page break before H2	Inserts a page break before every ## heading
H1 bottom border	Draws a line under every H1
H2 bottom border	Draws a subtle line under every H2
Center H1	Centers all H1 headings
Striped table rows	Alternating row background on even rows
Include PDF outline (bookmarks)	Embeds a bookmark tree built from headings H1–H6 into the exported PDF; most PDF readers display it in a side panel for quick navigation

License

Open source under GPL-3.0 License.

Contributions are welcome — feel free to open issues or pull requests.