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Markdown to PDF with footnotes

Footnotes are a small feature that takes a long time to get right. The converter doesn't render them natively yet - but there are workable paths.

Elia Kuratli
By Elia Kuratli
·2 min read
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What works today

  • Inline references - write `1` for a superscript number in the body.
  • End-of-document Notes section - H2 'Notes' with a numbered list.
  • Cross-reference by hand - name the reference '1' in the body and 'Note 1' in the list.

What's coming

Native footnote rendering - `[^1]` in the body produces a superscript link, and the matching `[^1]: text` block at the end of the section becomes a page-bottom footnote in the PDF. This is on the near-term roadmap.

When you really need footnotes today

If the document is academic, has a citation database, or uses footnotes substantively - Pandoc + LaTeX is the right tool. The browser converter is built for documents that read clean as endnotes.

FAQ

Will pandoc-style footnotes work when I paste them?

The syntax `[^1]` and `[^1]: text` is recognized but rendered inline rather than as page-bottom footnotes. The body text shows the superscript-style reference correctly; the definition appears as a regular paragraph.

What about endnotes via JSON-LD?

Out of scope - JSON-LD is for structured data on the web, not in PDFs.

Is there a workaround for chapter-level footnotes?

Per-chapter Notes sections work. Use H1 or H2 'Notes' at the end of each chapter and number references continuously within the chapter.

Related

https://md2document.com/markdown-to-pdf-with-footnotes/

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