jgm/pandoc

Pandoc is a command-line tool and Haskell library for converting documents between different markup and file formats, the "universal markup converter." The core problem it solves is document format lock-in: you might have content in Markdown that needs to become a Word document, or a LaTeX file that needs to be an EPUB ebook, or a Jupyter notebook that should become a PDF. Without Pandoc, each conversion requires a different tool or a painful manual process. Pandoc works by first parsing the source document into its own internal abstract representation of the content (a kind of format-neutral document model), and then rendering that representation into the target format. This two-step approach means a single conversion engine handles dozens of formats without each needing to know about all the others. The input formats it reads are extensive: Markdown (in several flavors including CommonMark, GitHub-Flavored, and MultiMarkdown), HTML, LaTeX, reStructuredText, EPUB, DOCX (Word), ODT (LibreOffice), PowerPoint, AsciiDoc, MediaWiki and other wiki markups, Org mode, Jupyter notebooks, CSV tables, bibliography formats like BibTeX and RIS, and more. The output formats include HTML, PDF (via LaTeX or other intermediaries), DOCX, EPUB, Beamer slide presentations, man pages, Typst, and many others. Beyond simple conversion, Pandoc supports bibliography management through integration with citation styles, applies templates for custom output styling, accepts Lua filters that let you programmatically transform the internal document model during conversion, and can handle mathematical notation. Writers and academics reach for Pandoc to convert their Markdown notes into polished PDFs or Word documents. Documentation teams use it to generate HTML documentation from reStructuredText or Markdown source. It is particularly popular in scientific and academic writing workflows where content is authored in plain text but needs to be delivered in multiple formats. The tool is written in Haskell and installable via Homebrew, package managers, or pre-built binaries.