---
title: "ADR-006: Document Formats as HTML Printed to PDF"
manual: "nr_repurpose"
version: "main"
permalink: "https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-repurpose:adr-006@main"
source: "Adr/Adr006DocumentFormatsAsPrintedHtml.rst"
rendered: "2026-09-30T16:39:51+00:00"
---

# ADR-006: Document Formats as HTML Printed to PDF {#adr-006}

-   *Status:* Accepted
-   *Date:* 2026-09-26
-   *Authors:* Netresearch DTT GmbH

## Context {#adr-006-context}

Two formats are meant to leave the backend as a file: a slide deck to present
and a handout to print. Their content is structured text, like the text
formats of [ADR-004](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-repurpose:adr-004@main), but the editor needs a finished document,
not only text to paste.

The extension already drives Chromium through Playwright to render HTML to PNG
([ADR-002](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-repurpose:adr-002@main)). Chromium also prints HTML to PDF, and the CSS paged
media rules (`@page` size and margins, `break-after`) decide page size and
page breaks. A PDF library in PHP (TCPDF, mPDF, Dompdf) would be a new
dependency with its own layout model and a partial CSS implementation.

Every stored file must carry the machine-readable AI label
([ADR-005](https://docs.typo3.org/permalink/netresearch/nr-repurpose:adr-005@main)). Chromium writes only `Title`, `Creator` and
`Producer` into the PDF; it ignores `<meta>` description and keywords.

## Decision {#adr-006-decision}

**The document formats are text formats that also print a PDF.** A slide deck
and a handout are written by one schema-validated completion each, exactly as
in ADR-004, and stored with `script_text` and `metadata.content`. The
abstract `AbstractDocumentGenerator` then renders the content through a
branded Fluid template (`Resources/Private/Templates/Generated/SlideDeck` and
`Handout`, one per theme) and prints it with `render.cjs --pdf`, which calls
`page.pdf()` with `printBackground` and `preferCSSPageSize`. The slide
deck declares `@page { size: 1920px 1080px }`, the handout
`@page { size: A4 }`. The PDF is stored in FAL (`file_uid`) and the HTML it
was printed from in `source_html`.

**The PDF is labelled by an incremental update, written in PHP.**
`AiContentMarker::markPdf()` appends to the file, and leaves the bytes
Chromium wrote unchanged: a new document information dictionary with the old
entries plus `Subject` (the AI statement), `Keywords`, `AIGenerated` and
`DigitalSourceType`; the catalog with a `/Metadata` stream holding the same
XMP packet as the PNG files (`Iptc4xmpExt:DigitalSourceType`); and a
cross-reference section for these three objects with `/Prev` pointing at
Chromium's table. Only a complete, unencrypted PDF with a classic
cross-reference table is accepted, which is what Chromium 153 writes (PDF 1.4,
no object streams). Any other file is refused, and the artifact fails, as for a
truncated PNG.

**A failed print fails the row.** The text alone is not the format the editor
asked for; the error names the render failure ("file error").

## Consequences {#adr-006-consequences}

-   **●  No new PHP dependency; the layout lives in HTML and CSS next to the other**

    generated templates, and a theme is one more template file.

-   **●  The label is readable by standard tools: checked with `qpdf --check`**

    (no errors), `pdfinfo` (metadata stream present, pages unchanged) and
    `exiftool` (`XMP-iptcExt:DigitalSourceType`).

-   **◐  The labelling depends on Chromium's PDF layout. A Chromium that writes a**

    cross-reference stream or object streams makes every document artifact fail
    with "the PDF has no classic cross-reference table" instead of storing an
    unlabelled file. That failure is the signal to extend the marker.

-   **◐  Headings, bullets and slide counts are capped in the generator, not only**

    in the prompt, because a slide has a fixed size. Text that still does not
    fit is cut by the page (`overflow: hidden`), not reflowed.

-   **✕  The documents need Chromium on the worker, like the Schaubild and story**

    renders. Without it the text is stored nowhere either, because the row
    fails.