I love it writing short and medium notes in Markdown. For printing or sharing with others I often use the PDF format.
To convert Markdown files into other formats, like PDF, HTML, etc., you can use pandoc.
Using Latex
Installation in Ubuntu
For installation just install package pandoc. For PDF conversion you need some latex packages too.
sudo apt install texlive-latex-base texlive-fonts-recommended texlive-fonts-extra texlive-latex-extra pandoc
Conversion to PDF
To convert your markdown file test.md into test.pdf you need to run the following command:
pandoc -t latex -o test.pdf test.md
Sometimes I had some problems with “complex” markdown files. Especially if i use nested ordered / unordered lists. One solution is to use the html5 engine of pandoc.
Using HTML
Currently this is my preferred way for conversation, because it is more stable. You can also setup some styling with a simple CSS file.
Installation in Ubuntu
For installation just install package pandoc and the rendered wkhtmltopdf.
sudo apt install wkhtmltopdf pandoc
Conversion to PDF
Now it is like the usage of latex, but with a small different parameter (example is with paper size A4):
pandoc -t html5 -V papersize=a4 -o test.pdf test.md
Further variables can be read in the manual of pandoc.