What it does
rst2pdf converts reStructuredText markup into PDF documents and slide decks. It keeps content separate from presentation and supports reusable styles and optional rendering extensions.
Write reStructuredText, select a named PDF output and apply styles with -s. Multiple styles are layered in order, so later files override earlier settings; reusable font and page styles can change several documents together. The manual converts footnotes to endnotes and documents SVG/font limitations, so review those features before relying on a layout. Choose Python for the selected release: the current repository requires 3.11 or later, while the older getting-started page still says 3.8. The MIT-licensed project renders through ReportLab, with optional extras for diagrams and other content.
Strengths
- Reuses text sources and styles across documents and slide decks.
Watch out for
- Footnotes become endnotes; SVG and other optional content have dependency and rendering limitations.
Best for
- Authors producing version-controlled PDF documents from plain text
Sources
- rst2pdf documentation (Oct 26, 2026)
- rst2pdf output, stylesheet ordering and rendering limits (Oct 26, 2026)
- rst2pdf current source licence and Python requirement (Oct 26, 2026)