A simple letter template for Pandoc

Authors: Aaron Wolen and Andrew Dunning

This template allows you to write letters in Markdown and convert them to nice looking PDFs using Pandoc and LaTeX. It accepts arguments used in the LaTeX letter class, including:

• opening
• closing
• address
• return-address
• postscript
• enclosures list
• carbon-copy list

All of which can be specified in a YAML metadata block. Additional Pandoc/LaTex options can be configured directly in the metadata block. For example:

---
author: Aaron
opening: To whom it may concern,
closing: Sincerely,
address:
- 123 Street Rd
- Chicago, IL
return-address:
- My Home
- 456 Road St.
- New York, NY

# ADDITIONAL ARGUMENTS
links-as-notes: true
...

Note that each address component should start with a hyphen. The provided example letter can be compiled with the following command:

pandoc --template=template-letter.tex example/letter.md -o example/letter.pdf

You can see the PDF output here.

Features

The following can be set either as variables when executing pandoc or added to the YAML metadata.

address : Name and address of the recipient; takes a list for a multi-line address.

subject : Subject of the letter.

author : Writer of the letter; can take a list for a multi-line signature.

blockquote : Changes style of block quotations to match bootstrap (requires the mdframed package).

cc : Recipients to be carbon-copied; can take a list for multiple recipients.

closing : Text for the complementary close.

closing-indentation : Amount for closing signature block to be intended from left margin.

date : Custom date (current date will be automatically inserted if not specified).

encl : List of enclosures.

letterhead : Image file to be used as letterhead (requires the wallpaper package), applied only to the first page.

opening : Text for the salutation.

ps : Text to be added at the end of the letter as a postscript.

return-address : Address of the sender: takes a list to allow a multi-line address.

signature : Image file for a signature.

signature-before, signature-after : Allows adjustment of vertical space surrounding signature.

signature-width : Specify width of signature image file.

Running with Docker

This requires Docker to be installed.

After cloning the repository build the container. cd to the cloned directory and run

  docker build --tag=pandoc-letter .

This has to be executed only once per machine.

To create a letter run

    docker run --volume <path_to_folder_with_letter.md>:/data pandoc-letter --template=template-letter.tex letter.md -o letter.pdf

Make sure you insert the full folder path where letter.md resides.

Images, Attachments

To insert an image into the body of your letter:

![](lalune.jpg){ width=50% }

The curly brackets are optional. This inserts the image into the location of the command, above the signature.

The recommended way to attach images on a new page after the signature is to compile a separate pdf file by other means than pandoc-letter, and then attach the two pdf files with whatever utilities you are familiar with.

License

GPL-3 for pandoc-letter and the underlying Pandoc template.