How to convert asciidoc to pdf?

Question

I attempted to convert my mybook.adoc to mybook.pdf using pandoc, and got the following error.

$ pandoc -s mybook.adoc -t asciidoc -o mybook.pdf
pandoc: cannot produce pdf output with asciidoc writer

Is there another tool that I should use instead of or in concert with pandoc? How can I convert asciidoc to pdf?

Answer 1

If you have Docker installed, you can use the AsciiDoctor Docker Image. Then you can use the image interactively or in batch mode as explained below:

Prerequisites

1. Install Docker

2. Install the Docker image:

   $ docker pull asciidoctor/docker-asciidoctor
   

Create the pdf by executing the following command:

$ cd [directory to where my book.adoc is located]
$ docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/documents/ asciidoctor/docker-asciidoctor asciidoctor-pdf mybook.adoc

Explanation

• docker run starts a Docker container
• --rm cleanup - removes the Docker container after the command has been executed
• -v mount a volume to the image
• $(pwd) get the path to the current directory, e.g. the value of [directory to where my book.adoc is located] above
• documents the name of the mounted volume in the running container
• asciidoctor/docker-asciidoctor the name of the Docker image that is used to create the Docker container
• asciidoctor-pdf the command that actually triggers the pdf generation
• mybook.adoc the name of the AsciiDoc source file to generate the pdf from

See also the docker run documentation

Answer 2

I now realize the ideal route from asciidoc to pdf is to first convert the asciidoc to docbook. This employs the intended sphere of asciidoc and a docbook->pdf converter using each in its separate area of concern.

Furthermore, instead of pandoc I have found that when mathematical formulas are included, it was easier to use dblatex for docbook->pdf conversion. Thus my conversion pipeline is the following:

asciidoc -> asciidoctor -> docbook -> dblatex -> pdf

A sample make file:

make: my.adoc
  asciidoc -b docbook my.adoc
  dblatex my.xml

This discussion page suggests that asciidoc is primarily designed to compile to docbook.