Pandoc Letter Template (DIN 5008)

Description

This template allows you to write simple letters in Markdown and convert them into nice looking PDFs. The template is based on Koma Script and satisfies the German DIN 5008 norm for letters.

Example

A simple letter in Markdown looks like the following:

---
lang: de-DE
author: Max Mustermann
phone: +49 1234 56789
phone-url: \+49123456789
email: max.mustermann@beispiel.de
url: example.com
date: 01.08.2016
place: Musterstadt
subject: Titel vom Brief
keywords:
 - example
 - letter
 - DIN 5008
return-address: [Musterstraße, 12345 Berlin]
address:
 - Musterfirma GmbH
 - Max Mustermann
 - Musterstraße
 - 12345 Musterstadt
opening: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren,
closing: Mit freundlichen Grüßen
enclosed: Muster, Muster, Muster
signature: signature.pdf
ps: |
   \textbf{Postskriptum \today}

   Noch ein Gedanke zum Schluss.
header-includes: |
   \usepackage[oldstylenums]{kpfonts}
---
::: {lang=en-GB}
Far far away, behind the word mountains, …
:::

The compiled result will then look like this:

You can also download the compiled PDF here.

Requirements

In order to use the template you must have installed the following components:

Pandoc
LaTeX

Usage

Before you can make use of the template you need to move the LaTeX template file into Pandocs template directory:

mkdir -p ~/.pandoc/templates
ln -s your-repo-path/letter.latex ~/.pandoc/templates

After creating a letter written in Markdown you can compile it into PDF with the following line:

pandoc letter.md -o letter.pdf --template=letter

Configuration

The following yaml variables are supported:

opening
closing
author
phone
phone-url
email
url
place
subject
keywords
return-address
address
enclosed
signature
ps

If you want to add some options to the scrlttr2 document class, you can list them via the letteroption yaml variable. If you want to add material to the \LaTeX\ preamble, you can use the header-includes yaml variable as in the example above. If you want write all or parts of your letter in different language(s), you can use Pandoc's lang variable.

HalfAnAvocado / pandoc-letter-din5008