PDF Skill

PDF Skill

When to use

• Read or review PDF content where layout and visuals matter.
• Create PDFs programmatically with reliable formatting.
• Validate final rendering before delivery.

Workflow

• Prefer visual review: render PDF pages to PNGs and inspect them.
• Use `pdftoppm` if available.
• If unavailable, install Poppler or ask the user to review the output locally.
• Use `reportlab` to generate PDFs when creating new documents.
• Use `pdfplumber` (or `pypdf`) for text extraction and quick checks; do not rely on it for layout fidelity.
• After each meaningful update, re-render pages and verify alignment, spacing, and legibility.

Temp and output conventions

• Use `tmp/pdfs/` for intermediate files; delete when done.
• Write final artifacts under `output/pdf/` when working in this repo.
• Keep filenames stable and descriptive.

Dependencies (install if missing)

Prefer `uv` for dependency management.

Python packages:

uv pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

If `uv` is unavailable:

python3 -m pip install reportlab pdfplumber pypdf

System tools (for rendering):

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install poppler

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt-get install -y poppler-utils

If installation isn't possible in this environment, tell the user which dependency is missing and how to install it locally.

Environment

No required environment variables.

Rendering command

pdftoppm -png $INPUT_PDF $OUTPUT_PREFIX

Quality expectations

• Maintain polished visual design: consistent typography, spacing, margins, and section hierarchy.
• Avoid rendering issues: clipped text, overlapping elements, broken tables, black squares, or unreadable glyphs.
• Charts, tables, and images must be sharp, aligned, and clearly labeled.
• Use ASCII hyphens only. Avoid U+2011 (non-breaking hyphen) and other Unicode dashes.
• Citations and references must be human-readable; never leave tool tokens or placeholder strings.

Final checks

• Do not deliver until the latest PNG inspection shows zero visual or formatting defects.
• Confirm headers/footers, page numbering, and section transitions look polished.
• Keep intermediate files organized or remove them after final approval.