Skip to main content

PDF Export

The problem​

You need a .it document as a PDF — for email, print, archive, or legal filing.

The solution​

dotit document.it --pdf --theme corporate

This renders the document to PDF using the print renderer with full layout support: page size, fonts, headers, footers, watermarks, and signature lines.

Basic export​

# Default theme
dotit document.it --pdf

# With a specific theme
dotit document.it --pdf --theme legal

# Template merge to PDF
dotit template.it --data data.json --pdf --theme corporate

Theme selection​

Choose a theme that matches the document type:

ThemeBest for
corporateBusiness documents, reports, proposals
legalContracts, agreements, compliance docs
minimalClean, simple documents
printMaximum readability on paper
editorialNewsletters, articles
warmFriendly communications, HR docs
technicalSpecs, runbooks, architecture docs
darkScreen reading (not great for print)
dotit report.it --pdf --theme corporate
dotit contract.it --pdf --theme legal
dotit newsletter.it --pdf --theme editorial

PDF metadata​

The PDF inherits metadata from the .it file:

.it blockPDF metadata
title:PDF Title
summary:PDF Subject
meta: | author: namePDF Author
meta: | domain: categoryPDF Keywords

Control the PDF layout from inside the .it file:

page: | size: A4 | margins: 2.54cm
font: | body: Inter | heading: Inter | size: 11pt
header: Company Name
footer: Page {{page}} of {{pages}}
watermark: CONFIDENTIAL | color: rgba(0,0,0,0.05)

These keywords only affect print/PDF output. They're ignored in standard HTML rendering.

Prerequisites​

PDF generation requires Puppeteer:

npm install puppeteer

Puppeteer uses a headless Chromium instance to convert the print HTML to PDF. It's an optional dependency — not needed for parsing, rendering to HTML, or any other operation.

Server-side PDFs: @dotit/pdf​

For programmatic PDF generation (emailing invoices, compliance archiving, batch runs), use the dedicated package — core keeps a tiny runtime footprint (two small deps):

npm install @dotit/pdf
import { issuePDF } from "@dotit/pdf";

// merge → seal (tamper-evident SHA-256) → real PDF bytes, in one call
const { source, hash, at, pdf } = await issuePDF(templateSource, data, {
  signer: "Billing System",
  role: "Issuer",
  theme: "corporate",
});
// store the sealed .it `source` on the record; email/archive the `pdf` bytes

issueDocument() does the same flow minus Chrome (returns print-ready HTML), and renderPDF() / createPdfRenderer() are the lower-level primitives (the latter reuses one Chrome instance for batch runs).

Accessible (tagged) PDFs​

@dotit/pdf emits tagged PDFs by default — Chrome renders the semantic HTML (renderPrint produces real headings, lists, tables, and alt text) into a PDF structure tree, so the output carries /MarkInfo /Marked true and a /StructTreeRoot. That's what a screen reader, a "reflow" view, or an accessibility checker needs to read a PDF as a document rather than a flat image of text.

Tagging is automatic — there's no flag to set:

import { renderPDF } from "@dotit/pdf";

const pdf = await renderPDF(source, { theme: "corporate" });
// the PDF is tagged: /Marked true + /StructTreeRoot are present

Because the tags come from the rendered HTML, good .it authoring is good accessibility:

  • Use section: / sub: for real headings (they become the document's heading structure), not bold text.
  • Give every image: and x-writer: figure meaningful alt text — the content before the first | is the alt text: 
    image: Q3 revenue by region, bar chart — EU leads at 41% | src: ./charts/q3.png
  • Use headers: / row: for tabular data so it tags as a real table with header cells, not as positioned text.

For archival on top of accessibility, pair tagged output with PDF/A (toPdfA / renderPDF(..., { pdfA })), which adds the XMP metadata, sRGB OutputIntent, and document ID auditors expect — validated in CI with veraPDF. See Forms, Review & Compliance.

Batch export​

Export multiple documents:

# Export all contracts
for f in contracts/*.it; do
  dotit "$f" --pdf --theme legal
done

# Export all with a template
for f in invoices/*.it; do
  dotit "$f" --data clients.json --pdf --theme corporate
done

Next steps​