Desktop publishing with YAML

The technology of the year 2000…today!

YMPrint is a Python-based PDF authoring application geared towards professionals who need to generate lots of PDF documents. You write the content of your report in YAML (as opposed to Markdown) and YMPrint renders it to PDF with near-instant speeds. YMPrint lets you use Python scripting within your document, create variables, render variable values, and pass live Python objects between report blocks to create a truly expressive authoring system—the likes of which have not been created before.

YMPrint is built upon the incredible ReportLab library.

Site inspection report:
  - >
    This is the first paragraph. The `>` character tells YAML you are entering a
    multi-line string that should be word-wrapped. Leave a blank line to start a
    new paragraph.
  - Findings:
    - Bullets:
      - The handrail is loose on the north stair.
      - Two ceiling tiles are water-stained in the lobby.
    - Items observed:
      - Item Number: 12.01
        Description: There is a problem here. This report documents it.
        Location: Under the stairs

ym convert report.yml
# ✍️ .... 📝 ... PDF created: report.pdf

Why YMPrint?

• Readable source. Your document is the outline. YAML nesting is the document hierarchy — no markup soup, no LaTeX, no HTML.
• Batteries included. Bundled fonts, sensible default styles, and a set of blocks for the content markdown can't express.
• Dynamic content. Interpolate variables with Jinja, execute _py blocks, load JSON, embed matplotlib figures, and auto-fill PDF form fields.
• Custom templates. Overlay your document onto a designed PDF background and auto-populate its form fields from document variables.

Installation

Requires Python 3.14+.

# With uv (recommended) — installs the `ym` command
uv tool install ymprint

# Or with pip
pip install ymprint

From source:

git clone https://github.com/StructuralPython/yamlreports.git
cd yamlreports
uv sync
uv run ym --help

Usage

YMPrint installs a single command, ym, with two subcommands.

ym convert — render once

ym convert report.yml               # writes report.pdf next to the source
ym convert report.yml out/doc.pdf   # choose an output path

ym live — hot-reload preview

Renders the PDF, opens it in the Okular viewer, and rebuilds on every save. Great for drafting.

ym live report.yml

Core concepts

• Keys are headings. A mapping key whose value is content becomes a heading; the value is laid out underneath it. Lists render in order, lists of mappings render as tables.

• Configuration lives in underscore-prefixed front matter — _doc (page template), _style (text styles), and _tablestyle (table styles) — resolved across three inheriting priority levels: internal defaults → project config → document front matter.

• Variables are defined in _vars, interpolated into text with Jinja ({{name}}), and passed as real Python objects into blocks with the $name syntax.

• Blocks are underscore-prefixed keys that expand into custom content:

  Block	Purpose
  _img	Embed an image with a caption
  _matplotfig	Embed a matplotlib figure
  _info / _warning / _danger / _tip / _note	Admonition callouts
  _blockquote	A quotation with attribution
  _code	A non-executable, syntax-highlighted code block
  _py	Execute Python and optionally show the source
  _loadjson	Load variables from a JSON file
  _pagebreak	Force a page break
  _hrule	A configurable horizontal rule
  _spacer	Insert vertical whitespace

Examples

The Examples/ directory contains a runnable report for each major feature — a simple document, document configuration, variables, PDF backgrounds, Python execution, and the full set of blocks. Render any of them with ym convert.

Documentation

The full documentation site lives in docs/ (Sphinx + the Shibuya theme). Build it locally with:

uv run --with-requirements docs/requirements.txt \
    sphinx-build -b html docs docs/_build/html

Then open docs/_build/html/index.html. See docs/README.md for details.

License

See LICENSE.