Making e-books with Bash PubKit
Instant E-Books
Generate e-books from Markdown-formatted text files quickly and reliably using Bash PubKit.
When it comes to producing ready-to-publish e-books, you have plenty of tools to choose from: You could write an entire book using a word processor like LibreOffice Writer and then convert the final result to the EPUB format, or if you prefer a more direct approach, you can opt for a dedicated e-book editor like Sigil, and Calibre can come in useful when you need to convert an existing HTML document into an e-book.
However, if you happen to use a text editor as your writing tool of choice and Markdown as the preferred formatting system, then you have another option: You can use Pandoc [1] to convert Markdown-formatted text files into an e-book. This powerful and flexible tool is perfect for generating e-books in the EPUB and other formats from the command line. In fact, you can generate an e-book in the EPUB format complete with a cover image, a table of contents, and a custom layout with a simple shell one-liner:
pandoc -f markdown -t epub \ --epub-cover-image=cover.jpg \ -o foo.epub --toc \ --epub-stylesheet=stylesheet.css foo.md
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.