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PandocEdit

Pandoc is a versatile, platform-agnostic document converter designed to bridge the gaps between different markup and publishing formats. At its core is an intermediate representation, the Pandoc Abstract Syntax Tree, which allows content to be transformed in a structured way from one format to another. Developed by John MacFarlane and maintained by a broad community of contributors, Pandoc is implemented in Haskell and distributed as open-source software. Its design emphasizes plain-text workflows, reproducible publishing pipelines, and interoperability across a wide ecosystem of tools and formats.

The project is widely used by researchers, educators, technical writers, and developers who need to move content between formats such as Markdown, reStructuredText, HTML, and LaTeX while preserving structure and semantics. Its ability to serve as both a conversion engine and a component in larger tooling makes it a staple in environments that prize efficiency, clarity, and control over the publishing process. Pandoc’s ecosystem also includes support for EPUB and DOCX output, making it a practical backbone for cross-format documentation and lightweight digital publishing.

History

Pandoc emerged in the mid-2000s as a practical response to the fragmentation of lightweight markup and traditional typesetting formats. Its author, John MacFarlane, designed Pandoc to be a single, extensible converter that can understand many markup languages and produce a consistent output across formats. Over time, the project grew through community contributions, adding filters, templates, and an increasingly capable set of input and output formats. The software’s governance model emphasizes openness and collaboration, with ongoing development hosted on platforms such as GitHub and driven by real-world workflow needs.

Core capabilities

  • Universal format conversion: Pandoc can translate between a large set of input and output formats, enabling a single source document to serve multiple publishing channels.

  • Pandoc AST: The internal representation preserves document structure, enabling precise transformations and easier customization of output.

  • Citation and references: The tool supports citation workflows through pandoc-citeproc and related features, enabling automated bibliography formatting across formats.

  • Templates and customization: A default template system lets users control the appearance of output, while custom templates offer deeper control over structure and styling. See also Templates.

  • Filters and extensibility: Pandoc supports filters written in multiple languages (for example, Lua filters) to modify the document during conversion, enabling automation and integration with other tools. See also Lua.

  • Command-line and library usage: Pandoc is usable as a standalone command-line utility and can be embedded as a library in larger workflows, making it suitable for automation and server-side publishing.

  • Open-source and cross-platform: The project’s open-source license and cross-platform support align with cost-conscious, efficiency-focused environments. See also Open-source software.

Formats and interoperability

Input formats

Output formats

Pandoc’s design emphasizes fidelity of meaning over cosmetic fidelity. In practice, highly complex layouts, specialized typography, or proprietary features in some formats may not map perfectly to every target format. However, the strength of Pandoc lies in enabling a single, maintainable source document to feed into multiple channels—academic papers, web content, e-books, and editable office documents—without lock-in to any one vendor or platform.

Architecture and design

  • Language and ecosystem: Pandoc is implemented in Haskell and is designed to be modular and composable, making it feasible to extend with new input and output formats or with custom processing steps. See also Haskell.

  • Pandoc AST: The central abstraction is the Pandoc Abstract Syntax Tree, which captures the document’s hierarchical structure and semantics in a machine-readable form that can be systematically transformed. See also Abstract syntax tree.

  • Filters and templates: Users can write filters in languages such as Lua or other supported languages to modify the AST or the output, enabling automation, policy-enforced formatting, or integration with larger pipelines. See also Lua and Templates.

  • Documentation and workflow: Pandoc is designed to fit into scriptable workflows, often used in academic writing, software documentation, and publishing pipelines that require predictable, repeatable conversions. See also Open-source software.

  • PDF and external tooling: Generating PDF typically relies on a LaTeX toolchain (for example, using the LaTeX engine), reflecting a pragmatic approach that separates content from presentation while leveraging mature typesetting technology. See also LaTeX.

Usage and workflow

  • Basic conversion: A typical workflow starts with content in a source format (for example, Markdown) and ends with a target format (for example, HTML). A simple command looks like: pandoc input.md -o output.html. For standalone HTML with headers and CSS, use the -s option.

  • Standalone documents and templates: The -s or --standalone flag produces a complete document with a header. Users can apply a custom template to influence layout and presentation; see Templates for details.

  • Citations and bibliographies: When used with the appropriate citation workflow, Pandoc can render bibliographies in the target format, integrating with tools such as pandoc-citeproc or alternative citation filters.

  • Filters and customization: Advanced users leverage Lua filters or other external filters to modify the document during conversion, enabling workflow automation or policy-compliant formatting. See also Lua.

  • Practical publishing pipelines: Pandoc is widely adopted in environments that require reliable, repeatable publishing across formats, from lecture notes and articles to e-books and documentation portals. See also Open-source software.

See also