pandoc doesn't text-wrap code blocks when converting to pdf

pdf pandoc pdflatex xelatex

15,035

Solution 1

Not having the text wrapped is (part of) the point of code blocks. As far as I know, the only way to wrap the code is manually. For most languages, not exceeding a certain line length is considered good style anyway.

If your lines are length-limited but still too long for your LaTeX-generated pdf, consider reducing the font size for code blocks. For this you need to change the LaTeX template used by pandoc. A look at this answer to "How to set font size for all verbatims in Beamer presentation?" should get you started.

Solution 2

If you have a recent installation of LaTeX that includes the fvextra package, then there is a simple solution, recently suggested by jannick0.

Modify your YAML header options to include

\usepackage{fvextra}
\begin{Highlighting}[breaklines,numbers=left]

and compile with xelatex.

For instance,

---
header-includes:
 - \usepackage{fvextra}
 - \DefineVerbatimEnvironment{Highlighting}{Verbatim}{breaklines,commandchars=\\\{\}}
---

~~~~~{.java}
this is a very long long long long long long long long long long long long long line which is broken
~~~~~~

when compiled with

pandoc input.md --pdf-engine=xelatex -o output.pdf

gives

If you had the .numberLines option, i.e.,

---
header-includes:
 - \usepackage{fvextra}
 - \DefineVerbatimEnvironment{Highlighting}{Verbatim}{breaklines,commandchars=\\\{\}}
---


~~~~~{.java .numberLines}
this is a very long long long long long long long long long long long long long line which is broken
~~~~~~

then the same command would produce

15,035

Author by

skud

JavaScript/Node.js/Backbone.js/CSS3/HTML5

Updated on June 03, 2022

Comments

skud almost 2 years
I'm using pandoc with xelatex engine to convert markdown to pdf. I'm running pandoc like this:
```
pandoc -s 'backbone-fundamentals'.md -o 'backbone-fundamentals'.pdf \
    --title-prefix 'Developing Backbone.js Applications' \
    --normalize \
    --smart \
    --toc \
    --latex-engine=`which xelatex`
```
If a code line is longer than the pdf document width it just gets cutoff. Is there anyway to have pandoc text wrap long code lines?
pimpampoum almost 10 years

There is really no way to automatically warp the lines that are too long in code blocks?
A. Donda almost 10 years

@pimpampoum Since the rendering is done by LaTeX, I guess there might be some way to do so. But I suspect it might necessitate hacking LaTeX, which I don't know anything of. You might want to ask on tex.SE whether knows how to make the verbatim environment break lines, and then put that code into the pandoc template.
user766353 over 9 years

I use Pandoc for md -> html and then wkhtmltopdf for html -> pdf just because the LaTeX issues are too much to deal with. What I found is that Pandoc inserts <style type="text/css">code{white-space: pre;}</style> in the HTML file's head, and so overriding it with CSS doesn't work. Since I use a script to run all this, I just strip the style out with a sed command.
Beni Cherniavsky-Paskin almost 9 years

pre, code { white-space: pre-wrap !important; } worked for me. But if you're using .numberLines the numbers will be off after wrapping.
chimeric over 7 years

When you say wrap the code manually, do you mean just inserting a newline? For me LaTeX formats the first element of the next line as green, so it doesn't look wrapped...it looks like the start of a new line
Wolf almost 7 years

@user766353 you may replace the HTML template for removing the inline style for the code tag.
Wolf over 6 years

Good to know, thanks :) Are the original line numbers (if shown) preserved?
fommil over 5 years

thank you! I am creating some 2pdf scripts based on this. Is there a way to specify the line width before breaking the line? It seems to be extremely conservative compared to the page size. I have a font size that can handle 80 characters but it seems to break at 60.
fommil over 5 years

to answer my own question, add \usepackage[textwidth=6in]{geometry}
ajendrex almost 5 years

Thanks @Clément, Do you know of a way to allow linebreaks anywhere? I have a dynamically markdown document which tends to have very long strings that I also would like to be wrapped....
Clément almost 5 years

@ajendrex There should be a way with the breakanywhere option of fvextra. Try adding breakanywhere after breaklines, i.e., replace ` - \DefineVerbatimEnvironment{Highlighting}{Verbatim}{breakline‌s,commandchars=\\\{\‌}}` by ` - \DefineVerbatimEnvironment{Highlighting}{Verbatim}{breakline‌s,breakanywhere,comm‌andchars=\\\{\}}`, and let me know how it goes.
Clément almost 5 years

@ajendrex Indeed… I don't know the solution to your issue. I'll let you know if I find out how to do it. You could open another question on this website, or at github.com/jgm/pandoc/issues/4302#issuecomment-360669013
Leo almost 4 years

Is there a way to do this with R Markdown styled blocks? E.g. ````{shell}`? For some reason I'm not getting wrapped or colored output, though it is styled as monospaced code text.
Clément almost 4 years

@Leo Ask with details in a different question and let me know here, and I'll have a look. Based on your comment, I have no idea what it is that you are trying to achieve.
Sergey Vyacheslavovich Brunov almost 3 years

Additional definition is should be added to work with the languages that do not have the corresponding highlighting: for example, plain text (```text): \DefineVerbatimEnvironment{verbatim}{Verbatim}{breaklines,co‌mmandchars=\\\{\}}.
Greenfly77 over 2 years

This should be the accepted answer instead! Works like a charm, thanks!