# PDF Guide Generation

**URL:** <https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112>\
**Category:** Compiling the engine\
**Created:** [May 22, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112 "2026-05-22T01:59:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Milby](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex037/user_avatar/hyperxtalk.discourse.group/brian_milby/32/163_2.png) [@Brian\_Milby](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/u/Brian_Milby)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 1:59am UTC](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112/1 "2026-05-22T01:59:49Z")

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I guess this isn’t technically the engine, but it is part of the build process…

Do we have a solution for generating the PDF files (guides mainly) at this time? The original build system used `wkhtmltopdf` but that has not been maintained in many years. I found an open source program that may work if we don’t already have a solution: `weasyprint`. It can be installed with brew (it has a ton of dependencies).

I’m in the process of going back to the original open source repo trying to figure out how to properly generate the documentation so we can restore it to the project. The `buildbot.mk` file got dropped at some point along the way but the scripts is uses still seem to be available.

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**Author:** ![Emily-Elizabeth](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex037/user_avatar/hyperxtalk.discourse.group/emily-elizabeth/32/6_2.png) [@Emily-Elizabeth](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/u/Emily-Elizabeth)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:50am UTC](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112/2 "2026-05-22T02:50:10Z")

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What PDF files?

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Milby](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex037/user_avatar/hyperxtalk.discourse.group/brian_milby/32/163_2.png) [@Brian\_Milby](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/u/Brian_Milby)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 4:00am UTC](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112/3 "2026-05-22T04:00:27Z")

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The guides are generated into a PDF along with the HTML version displayed in the IDE.

The build process also creates a PDF from the notes file which were used to document every change that was made to the repo.

The last 2 files generated are in the repo (9.7.0dp1)

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Milby](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex037/user_avatar/hyperxtalk.discourse.group/brian_milby/32/163_2.png) [@Brian\_Milby](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/u/Brian_Milby)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 10:09pm UTC](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112/4 "2026-05-22T22:09:37Z")

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Turns out that `weasyprint` doesn’t like the HTML that is in the dictionary, so it won’t be as quick and easy as I had hoped.

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**Author:** ![Brian\_Milby](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex037/user_avatar/hyperxtalk.discourse.group/brian_milby/32/163_2.png) [@Brian\_Milby](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/u/Brian_Milby)\
**Post date:** [June 1, 2026, 11:48am UTC](https://hyperxtalk.discourse.group/t/pdf-guide-generation/112/5 "2026-06-01T11:48:54Z")

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On Linux, you can still apt-get wkhtmltopdf so building the PDF works fine there. I was able to install the last compiled version and run it using Rosetta on my Mac. I’ve got a branch/PR where it is working.