A Go CLI tool that converts a single Markdown file into a print-ready PDF compliant with the IHK Chemnitz project documentation guidelines (Verordnung 2020) and DIN 5008 formatting rules.

Features

DIN 5008 page layout — correct margins, font, line spacing, Blocksatz
Two-pass rendering for a page-accurate table of contents
Roman/Arabic page numbering with automatic section detection
Multi-line table cells with uniform row height per row
Named tables (Tabellenverzeichnis) and captioned figures (Abbildungsverzeichnis)
Numbered code blocks with line-number gutter and long-line wrapping
Diagram rendering via Kroki — Mermaid, PlantUML, and more
Inline landscape diagram pages (@DiagrammQuer:)
Appendices in portrait and landscape — images, tables, and diagrams
Abbreviation list and glossary from YAML front matter
Bibliography sorted alphabetically from inline @Quelle: directives
Declaration of authenticity page (pre-written legal text)

Prerequisites

Go 1.22 or later
Internet access or a local Kroki instance for diagram rendering (see below)

Build & Run

go build -o ihk-pdf .
./ihk-pdf -i report.md -o projektarbeit.pdf

Or without building:

go run . -i report.md -o projektarbeit.pdf

CLI Flags

Flag	Default	Description
`-i`	`report.md`	Input Markdown file
`-o`	`projektarbeit.pdf`	Output PDF file
`-kroki`	`https://kroki.io`	Kroki base URL for diagram rendering

Diagram Rendering with Kroki

Mermaid and PlantUML fenced code blocks are rendered server-side via Kroki. The resulting PNG is cached locally using a SHA-256 hash of the diagram source, so unchanged diagrams are not re-fetched.

By default the public instance at https://kroki.io is used. If your network blocks it, run a local instance with Docker Compose:

docker-compose.yml

services:
  kroki:
    image: yuzutech/kroki
    environment:
      - KROKI_MERMAID_HOST=mermaid
    ports:
      - "8000:8000"
    depends_on:
      - mermaid
  mermaid:
    image: yuzutech/kroki-mermaid
    expose:
      - "8002"

docker compose up -d
go run . -i report.md -kroki http://localhost:8000 -o projektarbeit.pdf

Note: The base yuzutech/kroki image does not include a Mermaid renderer. The companion yuzutech/kroki-mermaid container is required, wired via KROKI_MERMAID_HOST=mermaid.

YAML Front Matter

Every input file begins with a YAML block delimited by ---. All fields are optional except where noted.

---
student:
  name: "Max Mustermann"                                    # required
  profession: "Fachinformatiker Fachrichtung Anwendungsentwicklung"
  company: "Musterfirma GmbH"
  supervisor: "Sabine Supervisor"

project:
  title: "Titel der Projektarbeit"                         # required
  subtitle: "Optionaler Untertitel"                        # optional
  period: "Sommer 2026"

abbreviations:                                             # optional → Abkürzungsverzeichnis
  - abbr: "API"
    meaning: "Application Programming Interface"
  - abbr: "IHK"
    meaning: "Industrie- und Handelskammer"

glossary:                                                  # optional → Glossar (after appendices)
  - term: "Goldmark"
    definition: "Ein CommonMark-konformer Markdown-Parser für Go."
---

Document Structure

The generated PDF follows the mandatory IHK Chemnitz order:

#	Section	Page Numbering
1	Title page	none
2	Table of contents	Roman (II, III, …)
3	Abbreviation list	Roman (from YAML, optional)
4	Foreword / front-matter sections	Roman
5	Main body chapters	Arabic (1, 2, …)
6	Bibliography	Arabic
7	List of tables	Arabic
8	List of figures	Arabic
9	Appendices	Arabic
10	Glossary	Arabic (from YAML, optional)
11	Declaration of authenticity	none

Front-matter detection

Level-1 headings named Vorwort, Einleitung, or Abkürzungsverzeichnis stay in the Roman-numbered front matter. Every other level-1 heading triggers the switch to Arabic numbering.

DIN 5008 / IHK Formatting Rules

Property	Value
Paper	A4
Left margin	30 mm
Right margin (Korrekturrand)	40 mm
Top margin	20 mm
Bottom margin	25 mm
Body font	Helvetica (Arial) 12 pt, black
Body line spacing	1.5× → 6.35 mm
Heading font	Helvetica Bold 14 pt
Caption / footnote	Helvetica 10 pt
List line spacing	1.2× → 5.0 mm
Alignment	Justified (Blocksatz)
Page number position	Centered at bottom

Directives

Directives are plain paragraphs starting with @. They are consumed by the parser and never appear in the PDF as raw text. Multiple directives may appear in a single paragraph, one per line.

`@Quelle:` — Bibliography entry

@Quelle: Autor, Titel, Verlag, Jahr

Registers a bibliography entry. All entries are collected and rendered alphabetically at the end of the document in the Literaturverzeichnis. May appear anywhere in the document, any number of times.

`@Tabelle:` — Named table

Place immediately before a Markdown table to assign it a name and record it in the Tabellenverzeichnis:

@Tabelle: Übersicht der Programmiersprachen

| Sprache | Paradigma | Typsystem |
|---------|-----------|-----------|
| Go      | Imperativ | Statisch  |
| Python  | Multi     | Dynamisch |

`@TabelleAnhang:` — Table as portrait appendix

Sends the following table to the appendix on a portrait A4 page as a numbered Anlage:

@TabelleAnhang: Vollständige Fehlerliste

| Code | Beschreibung       | Schwere  |
|------|--------------------|----------|
| E001 | Datei nicht gefunden | Kritisch |

`@TabelleAnhangQuer:` — Table as landscape appendix

Same as @TabelleAnhang: but placed on a landscape A4 page (297 × 210 mm, 15 mm symmetric margins). Use for wide tables that do not fit in portrait:

@TabelleAnhangQuer: Breite Vergleichsmatrix

| Kriterium | Option A | Option B | Option C | Option D |
|-----------|----------|----------|----------|----------|
| Leistung  | Gut      | Sehr gut | Befriedigend | Gut  |

`@Anhang:` — Image as portrait appendix

@Anhang: Netzwerkdiagramm | diagrams/network.png

Adds an image file as a numbered Anlage on a portrait appendix page. The format is Title | relative/path/to/image.

`@AnhangBildQuer:` — Image as landscape appendix

@AnhangBildQuer: Großes Architekturdiagramm | diagrams/arch.png

Same as @Anhang: but placed on a landscape A4 page. Useful for wide images.

`@AnhangUML:` — Diagram as portrait appendix

Renders the immediately following Mermaid or PlantUML code block via Kroki and places the result as a numbered Anlage on a portrait appendix page:

@AnhangUML: Datenbankschema

` ``plantuml
@startuml
entity User {
  + id : int
  + name : string
}
@enduml
` ``

`@AnhangUMLQuer:` — Diagram as landscape appendix

Same as @AnhangUML: but placed on a landscape A4 page with 15 mm symmetric margins. Use for complex diagrams that need more horizontal space:

@AnhangUMLQuer: Vollständige Modulübersicht

` ``mermaid
graph TD
    A --> B --> C
` ``

`@DiagrammQuer:` — Inline landscape diagram page

Renders the following diagram on a dedicated landscape page inline in the document (not in the appendix). A figure caption is added and the figure is recorded in the Abbildungsverzeichnis. A fresh portrait page opens automatically afterwards:

@DiagrammQuer: Systemarchitektur – Zwei-Pass-Rendering

` ``mermaid
graph LR
    MD[report.md] --> Parser --> AST --> Renderer --> PDF
` ``

Directive Summary Table

Directive	Format	Placement	Orientation
`@Quelle:`	`@Quelle: Text`	Inline anywhere	—
`@Tabelle:`	`@Tabelle: Name`	Before a table	—
`@TabelleAnhang:`	`@TabelleAnhang: Name`	Before a table	Portrait appendix
`@TabelleAnhangQuer:`	`@TabelleAnhangQuer: Name`	Before a table	Landscape appendix
`@Anhang:`	`@Anhang: Title \| path`	Standalone	Portrait appendix
`@AnhangBildQuer:`	`@AnhangBildQuer: Title \| path`	Standalone	Landscape appendix
`@AnhangUML:`	`@AnhangUML: Title`	Before diagram block	Portrait appendix
`@AnhangUMLQuer:`	`@AnhangUMLQuer: Title`	Before diagram block	Landscape appendix
`@DiagrammQuer:`	`@DiagrammQuer: Caption`	Before diagram block	Landscape inline page

File Structure

.
├── main.go              # Entry point, CLI flags, two-pass pipeline
├── config.go            # Config struct matching the YAML front matter
├── markdown_parser.go   # Goldmark AST walker, directive handling
├── pdf_renderer.go      # IHKRenderer struct, DIN 5008 constants, appendix registry
├── pdf_content.go       # Paragraphs, lists, tables, images, code blocks
├── pdf_toc.go           # TOC, list of tables, list of figures
├── pdf_pages.go         # Title page, declaration, bibliography, appendices, glossary
├── pdf_numbering.go     # Roman/Arabic page numbering helpers
├── diagram.go           # Kroki HTTP client, SHA-256 image cache
├── docker-compose.yml   # Local Kroki + kroki-mermaid containers
└── report.md            # Sample document demonstrating all features

Two-Pass Rendering

The tool renders the document twice:

Pass 1 — full render into a scratch PDF to collect the page number of every heading, table, and figure.
Pass 2 — final render using the TOC index from pass 1, producing the output PDF.

Only tocItems are transferred between passes. tableItems and figureItems are rebuilt during pass 2 to avoid duplicates in the respective lists.

Landscape Pages — Technical Notes

Landscape appendices and @DiagrammQuer: use fpdf.AddPageFormat("L", {Wd:297, Ht:210}) with 15 mm symmetric margins. No 40 mm Korrekturrand — examiners do not annotate diagram or data pages.
After any landscape page, AddPage() reverts to the default portrait orientation (A4 "P") set at construction time — no explicit orientation restore is needed for subsequent content.
Portrait margins (30/20/40 mm) are restored immediately after the landscape page is closed so all following content is formatted correctly.

License

MIT

README.md Unescape Escape

MarkdownToIHKChemnitz