Questions[pandoc](ubuntu)

I am using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS

I wanted to convert .rtf files to PDFs using Python.

I found this on stackoverflow:

import pypandoc

def convert_rtf_to_pdf(input_rtf, output_pdf):
    pypandoc.convert_file(input_rtf, 'pdf', outputfile=output_pdf)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    input_rtf_path = "Path to your RTF File"
    output_pdf_path = "path to your pdf file output with name /output.pdf"

    convert_rtf_to_pdf(input_rtf_path, output_pdf_path)

But I get this error:

RuntimeError: Invalid input format! Got "rtf" but expected one of these: commonmark, creole, csv, docbook, docx, dokuwiki, epub, fb2, gfm, haddock, html, ipynb, jats, jira, json, latex, man, markdown, markdown_github, markdown_mmd, markdown_phpextra, markdown_strict, mediawiki, muse, native, odt, opml, org, rst, t2t, textile, tikiwiki, twiki, vimwiki

Can I somehow add .rtf files to Ubuntu pandoc, then convert them to PDF?

Looking further, I found this, which shows rtf is available:

print(pypandoc.get_pandoc_formats())

(['commonmark', 'creole', 'csv', 'docbook', 'docx', 'dokuwiki', 'epub', 'fb2', 'gfm', 'haddock', 'html', 'ipynb', 'jats', 'jira', 'json', 'latex', 'man', 'markdown', 'markdown_github', 'markdown_mmd', 'markdown_phpextra', 'markdown_strict', 'mediawiki', 'muse', 'native', 'odt', 'opml', 'org', 'rst', 't2t', 'textile', 'tikiwiki', 'twiki', 'vimwiki'], ['asciidoc', 'asciidoctor', 'beamer', 'commonmark', 'context', 'docbook', 'docbook4', 'docbook5', 'docx', 'dokuwiki', 'dzslides', 'epub', 'epub2', 'epub3', 'fb2', 'gfm', 'haddock', 'html', 'html4', 'html5', 'icml', 'ipynb', 'jats', 'jats_archiving', 'jats_articleauthoring', 'jats_publishing', 'jira', 'json', 'latex', 'man', 'markdown', 'markdown_github', 'markdown_mmd', 'markdown_phpextra', 'markdown_strict', 'mediawiki', 'ms', 'muse', 'native', 'odt', 'opendocument', 'opml', 'org', 'pdf', 'plain', 'pptx', 'revealjs', 'rst', 'rtf', 's5', 'slideous', 'slidy', 'tei', 'texinfo', 'textile', 'xwiki', 'zimwiki'])

I have an old version of Pandoc installed, but I'd like to install the latest version of Pandoc.

To begin I've run the following to get rid of the old version: sudo apt-get autoremove --purge pandoc

But when I check that everything is uninstalled by running: pandoc --version Then pandoc 2.2.3.2 pops up.

I can't seem to get rid of this old version of pandoc so that I can install a new one.

Could you advise me on how I can get rid of the old version and install the new one please.

Install pandoc:

  $ sudo apt install texlive-latex-base pandoc

Use pandoc to make pdf from a Markdown file:

  $ pandoc file.md -o file.pdf

Error message:

kpathsea: Running mktextfm ecrm1000
/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/mktexnam: Could not map source abbreviation  for ecrm1000.
/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/mktexnam: Need to update ?
mktextfm: Running mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000
This is METAFONT, Version 2.7182818 (TeX Live 2019/Debian) (preloaded base=mf)

kpathsea: Running mktexmf ecrm1000

! I can't find file `ecrm1000'.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000

Please type another input file name
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000

Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: ecrm1000.log: No such file or directory
mktextfm: `mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000' failed to make ecrm1000.tfm.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.

kpathsea: Running mktextfm ecrm1000
/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/mktexnam: Could not map source abbreviation  for ecrm1000.
/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/web2c/mktexnam: Need to update ?
mktextfm: Running mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000
This is METAFONT, Version 2.7182818 (TeX Live 2019/Debian) (preloaded base=mf)

kpathsea: Running mktexmf ecrm1000

! I can't find file `ecrm1000'.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000

Please type another input file name
! Emergency stop.
<*> ...ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000

Transcript written on mfput.log.
grep: ecrm1000.log: No such file or directory
mktextfm: `mf-nowin -progname=mf \mode:=ljfour; mag:=1; nonstopmode; input ecrm1000' failed to make ecrm1000.tfm.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
Error producing PDF.
! Font T1/cmr/m/n/10=ecrm1000 at 10.0pt not loadable: Metric (TFM) file not fou
nd.
<to be read again> 
                   relax 
l.105 \fontencoding\encodingdefault\selectfont

make: *** [Makefile:4: lifting.pdf] Error 43

I want to convert my test.epub to PDF format using Pandoc. I tried (given here)

pandoc -f epub -t test.epub -o outfile.pdf

which throws the following error:

cannot produce pdf output from pdf

I also tried the following command

pandoc test.epub -f epub -t latex -s -o my.pdf --latex-engine=xelatex

which throws the following error:

--latex-engine has been removed.  Use --pdf-engine instead.
Try pandoc --help for more information.

Then I tried

pandoc test.epub -f epub -t latex -s -o my.pdf --pdf-engine=xelatex

which converts the EPUB to PDF format but the final output is not very good. No respect for page break and other stuff. More number of pages than the actual. Any thoughts to convert EPUB to PDF format very efficiently.

I'm using pandoc to author slides. I'd like to see how the beamer PDF output looks, but I'm getting an error:

$ pandoc -t beamer talk.txt -o talk.pdf
pandoc: Unknown writer: beamer

Any ideas?