Rhino PDF Export

Export Markdown notes to beautifully styled PDFs with configurable themes: colors, logo, header/footer, watermark, PDF bookmarks, legal notice.

What's new in 1.2.0

• External links: show the URL inline (https://…) or as a real footnote
• Configurable pagination format ({page} / {pages})
• Automatic heading numbering (1, 1.1, …), synced with the table of contents
• Clickable table of contents in the exported PDF

See the full changelog for earlier releases (PDF metadata, classification banner, page breaks, cover info block…).

Features

• Built-in themes: Minimal (clean, serif)
• Custom themes: create and configure your own themes (colors, logo, fonts, margins, legal notice)
• Theme import/export: share themes as JSON files
• Theme persistence: custom themes are stored in .obsidian/rhino-pdf-themes.json, outside the plugin folder (survives plugin updates)
• Live preview: PDF preview in the export modal before generating
• Batch export: export all notes in a folder with one click (right-click on folder)
• Merge mode: combine all notes in a folder into a single PDF with a full table of contents
• Table of contents: auto-generated from H2/H3 headings, clickable, with page numbers and customizable title
• Heading numbering: optional automatic numbering of H2/H3 (1, 1.1, …), synced with the table of contents
• External links: optionally show link URLs inline or as page footnotes
• YAML frontmatter: override theme settings per note via the rhino-pdf key
• Export overrides: subtitle can be changed in the export modal without modifying the theme
• Obsidian callouts: full callout rendering with colors and icons (all standard types + Callout Manager compatibility)
• Watermark: optional text watermark on every page (configurable text, color, opacity, font size, rotation)
• Dynamic headers/footers: header, footer and classification text support {title}, {filename}, {author}, {date}, {time} and {fm.key} (any frontmatter field), resolved at export time
• PDF bookmarks: clickable outline (H1/H2/H3) generated automatically in the PDF, visible in any PDF reader's sidebar
• PDF metadata (optional, per theme): title/author/subject/keywords written into the document properties, read from the note frontmatter
• Classification banner: optional text (e.g. "RESTRICTED") centered on every page, including the cover
• Manual page breaks: insert <!-- pagebreak --> in a note to force a new page
• Automatic page breaks: optionally start a new page before every H1/H2/H3 (per theme)
• Cover info block: pick frontmatter fields (author, date, …) to list in a table on the cover, via checkboxes in the export modal
• Edit theme shortcut: "Edit theme" button in the export modal opens the theme editor directly
• Logo: displayed on cover page + small version in the top-right corner of subsequent pages
• Pagination: configurable footer format ({page} / {pages}, via paged.js CSS counters)
• Legal notice: optional block at the end of the document
• CSS Paged Media: rendered via paged.js (running headers, margin boxes, page counters)
• Offline: paged.js is bundled locally, no CDN required

Installation

From Obsidian

Settings → Community plugins → Browse → search "Rhino PDF Export" → Install → Enable.

Manual

Download main.js, manifest.json and styles.css from the latest release, then copy them into your vault at .obsidian/plugins/rhino-pdf-export/.

From source

git clone https://github.com/degun-osint/obsidian-rhino-pdf-export.git
cd obsidian-rhino-pdf-export
npm install && npm run build
cp main.js manifest.json styles.css /path/to/vault/.obsidian/plugins/rhino-pdf-export/

Usage

• Command palette: Export note as PDF
• Right-click on a .md file → Export note as PDF
• Right-click on a folder → Export folder as PDF

The export modal shows a live PDF preview and lets you pick the theme, override the subtitle, jump to the theme editor, and choose the output location.

For folder export, a toggle lets you merge all notes into a single PDF with a global table of contents.

YAML Frontmatter

Add a rhino-pdf block in a note's frontmatter to override theme settings:

---
rhino-pdf:
  primaryColor: "#e63946"
  showCover: false
  subtitle: "My subtitle"
  watermarkText: "DRAFT"
  headerText: "{title} — {date}"
  classificationText: "RESTRICTED"
  pageBreakBeforeH2: true
  margins:
    top: 30mm
    bottom: 30mm
---

All PdfTheme fields are supported.

Help & reference

Text variables

Header, footer and classification text resolve these placeholders at export time:

Manual page break

Put this on its own line anywhere in a note to force a new page:

<!-- pagebreak -->

Automatic page breaks

In the theme editor (Page layout → "Page break before headings"), toggle Before heading 1/2/3 to start a new page before every heading of that level. Cover and table-of-contents headings are never affected.

Classification banner

Set Classification text in the theme editor (or classificationText in frontmatter) to print a centered banner on every page, cover included. It supports the text variables above, so DIFFUSION RESTREINTE — {fm.case_id} works. Color is configurable.

PDF metadata

Enable PDF metadata in the theme editor to fill the generated PDF's document properties from the note frontmatter (off by default):

Cover info block

In the export modal, each frontmatter field of the note appears as a checkbox under Cover info block. Tick the ones you want and they are listed as a label/value table on the cover page (requires a theme with a cover). Example frontmatter:

---
author: Degun
subject: OSINT report
case_id: AFFAIRE-2026-0042
tags: [osint, report]
---

External links

The External links theme option controls how external (http/https) link addresses are rendered:

• Keep as links — unchanged (clickable, address hidden)
• Show inline — appends (https://…) after the link text
• As footnote — moves the address to a numbered footnote at the bottom of the page

Pagination format

The footer page number uses a template with {page} and {pages}, so you can set e.g. {page} / {pages}, Page {page} of {pages} or - {page} -.

Heading numbering

Enable Number headings in the theme editor to automatically prefix H2/H3 with 1, 1.1, … The numbering is computed at print time and stays in sync with the table of contents.

Clickable table of contents

Table-of-contents entries link to their heading and are clickable in the exported PDF (in addition to the PDF bookmarks/outline shown in a reader's sidebar).

Callouts

All standard Obsidian callout types are supported with their colors and icons:

note, abstract/summary/tldr, info, tip/hint/important, success/check/done, question/help/faq, warning/caution/attention, failure/fail/missing, danger/error, bug, example, quote/cite

Nested callouts are supported. Custom callouts from the Callout Manager plugin are also supported (colors via CSS custom properties) — custom icons are not carried over, but styling (color, background) is preserved.

Theme Configuration

Settings → Rhino PDF Export:

• Browse built-in themes
• Create / edit / delete custom themes
• Import / export themes as JSON
• Per theme: colors, logo (vault path), cover page, subtitle, table of contents (+ custom title), header logo, header text, pagination, footer text, classification banner (text + color), watermark (text, color, opacity, size, rotation), legal notice, fonts, font size, page size, orientation, margins, page break before headings (H1/H2/H3)
• Header/footer/classification text support variables (see Help & reference)

Development

npm install
npm run dev     # watch mode
npm run build   # production

Structure

src/
├── main.ts         # Entry point, commands and context menus
├── types.ts        # PdfTheme, PluginSettings interfaces
├── themes.ts       # Built-in themes + factory
├── settings.ts     # Settings tab (theme editor, JSON import/export)
├── modal.ts        # Export modal with live preview
├── batch.ts        # Batch export (full folder)
├── frontmatter.ts  # YAML frontmatter parsing → theme overrides
├── render.ts       # HTML + CSS Paged Media generation
├── pdf.ts          # Electron BrowserWindow + printToPDF
└── vendor/
    └── paged.polyfill.txt  # paged.js v0.4.3 bundled

Tech Stack

• TypeScript + esbuild
• Obsidian API (MarkdownRenderer, Plugin, Modal, SettingTab)
• paged.js v0.4.3 (CSS Paged Media polyfill, bundled locally)
• pdf-lib (PDF bookmarks/outline generation)
• Electron BrowserWindow + printToPDF

Acknowledgments

Inspired by Better Export PDF.

This plugin bundles and redistributes the following MIT-licensed libraries:

• paged.js v0.4.3 — CSS Paged Media polyfill © 2018 Adam Hyde
• pdf-lib v1.17.1 — PDF generation © 2019 Andrew Dillon

Their full license texts are reproduced in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md.

License

GPLv3