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title: "PDF Exporting" last_updated: 2026-03-25 #

For the full multi-format export flow, see Exporting.

Pipeline #

PDF export is split into two stages:

1. Backend markdown parse for PDF (markdown_render_for_pdf).
2. Frontend PDF rendering and file write (@react-pdf/renderer + Tauri dialog/fs plugins).

Frontend Flow #

• UI entry: toolbar export action + ExportDialog (unified multi-format dialog supporting PDF, DOCX, and plaintext).
• Runtime export hook: src/hooks/usePdfExport.tsx.
• Document renderer: PDF components under src/components/export/.
• PDF preview: src/components/export/preview/PdfPreview.tsx (uses pdfjs-dist with zoom, fit mode, and page navigation).
• Local image hydration: src/pdf/images.ts resolves location-scoped markdown asset paths, fetches raster images through Tauri asset URLs, and converts SVGs through the backend before handing them to @react-pdf/renderer.

Backend Flow #

• Command handler lives in src-tauri/src/commands.rs.
• Markdown conversion is provided by crates/markdown.
• Asset resolution is validated in Tauri/store (asset_resolve) so preview and PDF export share the same location-scoped path rules.

Export Options #

The dialog supports page/layout options (size, orientation, font size, line height, margins, header/footer).

Rendered PDF font selection is persisted separately from the editor font in UI layout settings. PDF-style reading preview and export preview/export all use the rendered font selection, while the editor keeps its own independent font family.

PDF export state is tracked in a dedicated Zustand store slice (isExportingPdf, pdfExportError).

Failure Handling #

• User cancel exits cleanly without writes.
• Export failures are surfaced through export error state.
• Font fallback handling is implemented in src/pdf/fonts.ts — custom font fetch failures automatically fall back to builtin fonts.
• Bundled CJK coverage is provided by Maple Mono and Noto Sans CJK SC from public/fonts/. When the chosen rendered font lacks CJK glyphs, PDF rendering auto-selects a bundled fallback instead of attempting an on-demand download.
• Missing or invalid local images are skipped per-image with debug logging instead of aborting the whole preview/export.
• Images inside markdown list items are preserved in the PDF AST and renderer instead of being flattened into plain text.