Branded PDF with contents page from Markdown

Branded PDF with contents page from Markdown

An n8n workflow that turns Markdown into a finished PDF. You send Markdown and a title to a web address. The workflow numbers the
headings, adds a cover and a contents page, has PDFMint render the file, and answers with the PDF itself.

What is inside

• workflow.json: the workflow as n8n exports it, 20 nodes, nine of them sticky notes. It holds no credential. One note is a
  long overview with setup steps, and the others are short frames above each step.
• README.md: these notes.

What we changed from the original copy

• The two PDFMint nodes were linked to a credential in their author's n8n. The link is gone, so select your own.
• The webhook carried saved test data, called pinned data. It is gone, so the first run uses what you send.
• The Webhook's id is gone, and n8n makes a new one when you import the file.
• The first sticky note named, in the first person, who wrote the template. That line is gone.
• Nothing else. The nodes, the code and the wiring are as in the original copy.

Before you start

• An n8n instance that can receive web requests, on n8n Cloud or on your own server.
• The PDFMint community node, n8n-nodes-pdfmint. PDFMint's docs call it a verified node, so n8n Cloud can add it from the nodes
  panel. On a self-hosted n8n, install it under Settings, Community nodes.
• A PDFMint account and its API key. The free plan covers 10 documents a month and needs no card.

Set it up

1. Install the PDFMint community node if your n8n does not have it yet.
2. In n8n, create a workflow, open its menu and choose Import from File. Pick workflow.json.
3. Add a PDFMint credential with your API key. Select it in Check remaining quota and in Render the Markdown as PDF.
4. Open Set your document branding and change the brand name, the accent colour, the page format, the contents switch and the
   watermark. Nothing else needs editing.
5. Press Execute workflow on the trigger, or publish the workflow. Send a POST request with a JSON body that holds markdown,
   title and, if you like, author.
6. Save the reply as a .pdf file and open it.

A request from a terminal looks like this, with the address of your own webhook:

curl -X POST "<YOUR_WEBHOOK_URL>" -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"markdown":"## Intro\nHello","title":"Test"}' -o test.pdf

How a run goes

1. Receive the Markdown document takes the POST at the path markdown-to-pdf and waits for a node to answer it.
2. Set your document branding holds the brand name, accent colour, page format, contents switch and watermark. It also keeps the
   request body in a field named request.
3. Check the request is usable needs both a markdown and a title that are not empty. If one is missing, the run goes to
   Explain what went wrong.
4. Check remaining quota asks PDFMint for the credits left, and Is there quota left? goes on only when the number is above zero.
5. Build the cover, contents and body does the work in one Code node. It numbers every second and third level heading and skips
   the ones inside fenced code blocks. It builds the contents list from the same numbers and counts the words. It works out a
   reading time at 200 words a minute. It also writes a cover block and, from your accent colour, the running header and the
   stylesheet.
6. Render the Markdown as PDF sends the result to PDFMint, with the page format, 20 mm margins, page numbers in the form Page 1 of 3,
   the header, the CSS, the title and author, and the watermark text.
7. Did the render succeed? checks the reply for an error. Return the PDF answers the request with the file. Otherwise
   Explain what went wrong and Return the error as JSON answer with a status code and a reason.

Change the look

• Brand name, colour, page format, contents and watermark: the fields of Set your document branding.
• The cover, the contents and the headings: the code in Build the cover, contents and body.
• Margins, page numbers and header: the options of Render the Markdown as PDF.
• Where the file goes: replace Return the PDF with a Gmail, Google Drive or S3 node.
• A nightly report: replace the webhook with a Schedule Trigger.

Good to know

• Open address: the webhook has no sign-in. Anyone who learns its address can make PDFs and spend your credits. Set an
  authentication method on the Webhook node before you publish.
• Plans: PDFMint's docs, read on 12 November 2026, list Free at $0 for 10 documents a month and Starter at $9 for 5,000. Pro is $29 for
  50,000 and Scale is $99 for 250,000. A credit is reserved before a render and refunded if the render fails.
• The quota check: reading the account costs nothing. A render that runs out of credits anyway is answered with a 402 by PDFMint,
  and this workflow then reports the render as failed.
• Headings: only second and third level headings are numbered, and a document with one heading gets no contents page. The
  accent colour must be a hex value such as #123a5f, or the code falls back to that colour.
• Chinese, Japanese, Korean and emoji: PDFMint's docs say its renderer has fonts for them.
• Your data: the Markdown goes to PDFMint's servers.
• Not run: nothing here was run against PDFMint. These notes come from the file, n8n's source and PDFMint's docs, read on 12
  November 2026.