code-to-pdf

Convert code repositories and directories to beautifully formatted PDFs with syntax highlighting.

Features

• Syntax Highlighting - Automatic syntax highlighting for 20+ programming languages
• Directory Tree - Interactive table of contents with clickable file links
• Smart Filtering - Respects .gitignore files (including nested ones) and skips binary files automatically
• PDF Pagination - Automatically splits large repositories into multiple PDFs for reliable export
• GitHub Support - Clone and convert GitHub repositories directly
• Configurable - Customize output path, file size limits, and pagination settings

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ouuyu/code-to-pdf.git
cd code-to-pdf

# Install dependencies
pnpm install
# or
npm install

# Install Puppeteer Chrome (if not already installed)
npx puppeteer browsers install chrome

Usage

Basic Usage

# Convert current directory
node generate-pdf.cjs .

# Convert a specific directory
node generate-pdf.cjs ./src

# Convert with custom output name
node generate-pdf.cjs ./src -o my-code.pdf

GitHub Repository

# Using owner/repo format
node generate-pdf.cjs facebook/react

# Using full URL
node generate-pdf.cjs https://github.com/facebook/react

# With custom file size limit (200KB)
node generate-pdf.cjs facebook/react --max-size 200

# With pagination (100 files per PDF)
node generate-pdf.cjs facebook/react --files-per-pdf 100

Command Line Options

Usage:
  node generate-pdf.cjs [options] [input]

Arguments:
  input                      Path to local directory or GitHub repository

Options:
  -i, --input <path>         Input path (default: ./src)
  -o, --output <path>        Output PDF file path (auto-generated if not specified)
  -s, --max-size <kb>        Maximum file size in KB to include (default: 100)
  -f, --files-per-pdf <n>    Maximum files per PDF for pagination (default: 50)
  -h, --help                 Show this help message
  -v, --version              Show version information

Examples

# Show help
node generate-pdf.cjs --help

# Show version
node generate-pdf.cjs --version

# Convert with all options
node generate-pdf.cjs -i ./my-project -o output.pdf -s 150 -f 100

# Short form options
node generate-pdf.cjs -i ./src -o docs.pdf

# Convert GitHub repo with size limit
node generate-pdf.cjs microsoft/vscode --max-size 200

# Large repository with pagination
node generate-pdf.cjs torvalds/linux --files-per-pdf 50

How It Works

1. Scans the directory or clones the GitHub repository
2. Filters files using .gitignore rules (including nested .gitignore files) and skips binary files
3. Generates HTML documents with:
   • Interactive directory tree
   • Syntax-highlighted code for each file
4. Converts HTML to PDF using Puppeteer
5. Paginates large repositories into multiple PDFs for reliability

File Filtering

The tool automatically skips:

• Files and directories in .gitignore (respects nested .gitignore files)
• Binary files (images, executables, etc.)
• Files larger than the size limit (default: 100KB)
• Default system directories: .git, node_modules, dist, .vscode
• .gitignore files themselves

PDF Pagination

For large repositories, the tool automatically splits output into multiple PDFs:

• Default: 50 files per PDF
• Customize with --files-per-pdf option
• Output files named: output-part1.pdf, output-part2.pdf, etc.
• Each part includes the full directory tree for reference

Supported Languages

JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, C++, C, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, C#, CSS, SCSS, LESS, HTML, XML, Markdown, JSON, YAML, Bash, SQL, and more...

Requirements

• Node.js 18.11.0 or higher (for native parseArgs support)
• Chrome/Chromium (installed automatically by Puppeteer)

License

MIT