Search code examples
syntax-highlightingpandoc

Pandoc: What are the available syntax highlighters?

Bullet point 18 of http://pandoc.org/demos.html#examples shows how to change the syntax highlighter used by giving an argument to --highlight-style. For example:

pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style pygments -o example18a.html
pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style kate -o example18b.html
pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style monochrome -o example18c.html
pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style espresso -o example18d.html
pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style haddock -o example18e.html
pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style tango -o example18f.html
pandoc code.text -s --highlight-style zenburn -o example18g.html

I am wondering if these are the only color schemes available. If not, how can I load a different syntax highlighter? Can I define my own?

Solution

  • The Pandoc README says:

    --highlight-style=STYLE|FILE

    Specifies the coloring style to be used in highlighted source code. Options are pygments (the default), kate, monochrome, breezeDark, espresso, zenburn, haddock, and tango. For more information on syntax highlighting in pandoc, see Syntax highlighting, below. See also --list-highlight-styles.

    Instead of a STYLE name, a JSON file with extension .theme may be supplied. This will be parsed as a KDE syntax highlighting theme and (if valid) used as the highlighting style. To see a sample theme that can be modified, pandoc --print-default-data-file default.theme.

    The library skylighting (in older versions highlighting-kate) is used for the highlighting. If you don't like any of the provided color schemes, you can either:

    • Specify a .theme file as mentioned above,
    • when exporting to HTML, <span> tags are generated that you can style with your custom CSS, or
    • when exporting to LaTeX/PDF, you need to use a custom Pandoc LaTeX template and replace the $highlighting-macros$ part with your custom color definitions, as described in this issue.