Markdown Studio

Print & branding profiles (templates)

A print profile — sometimes called a branding profile or template — is a reusable recipe that controls how a document looks when you print it or export it to PDF: fonts, colours, logo, header/footer, page numbering, watermark, and body-layout rules like justification, line spacing and first-line indent.

Profiles are plain JSON, so you can create them three ways:

In the app — the visual profile editor (no JSON required).
Import a JSON file someone shared with you (or that you exported).
Hand the spec to an AI and import the JSON it produces — see AI profile authoring for a copy-paste prompt.

Each document remembers which profile it uses, and one profile is the app-wide default for new or unassigned documents. So a company report can always print with company branding while your personal notes use a plain profile.

Two profiles ship built in — Personal and Work — plus a Court Filing profile that demonstrates the legal-formatting options (12pt body, double spacing, justified body, 0.5″ first-line indent, centred captions, monochrome output, text flowing continuously across pages).

Why this exists

This feature grew out of a real workflow. If you draft with AI, you’re constantly moving between Markdown and PDF — AI assistants read, write, and reason over Markdown far more efficiently than PDFs, but the world wants a finished PDF. So the natural loop is: keep the source in Markdown, let the AI do the work, and render a properly formatted PDF at the end.

The formatting is where it gets specific. As a pro se litigant, court documents have to follow strict rules — double spacing, a serif face, justified or specific alignment, first-line indents, one-inch margins, page numbers, and no stray colour or branding. The Court Filing profile (and the whole Legal / manuscript section) exists so a plain Markdown draft can come out the other side looking like a compliant filing, without hand-formatting every time.

Legal disclaimer: Markdown Studio is a formatting tool, not legal advice, and its output — including the Court Filing profile — is not guaranteed to meet any court’s requirements. Filing rules vary by jurisdiction; always check your local court’s rules or consult a licensed attorney.

The same machinery serves everyday documents too — contracts, technical specs, branded reports, personal notes — each with its own reusable template. Write once in Markdown, pick the profile, print. And because profiles are just JSON, you can have your AI generate the template itself.

Creating & managing profiles in the app

Open Print / Export PDF (the printer icon in the toolbar). The preview opens in its own tab in the tab strip — switch back to the document any time, and print again to refresh the preview with your latest edits. From there you can:

Action	What it does
＋ New	Create a profile from scratch in the visual editor.
✎ Edit	Modify the selected profile.
⭱ Import	Load a profile from a `.json` file (see below).
⭳ Export	Save the selected profile as `<name>.print-profile.json`.
Set as default	Use this profile for new / unassigned documents.
Pin	Shows that the selected profile is bound to this file; tap to clear the binding (the document falls back to the default).

Selecting a profile for a saved document binds it automatically — the next time you print that file, the same profile is preselected. Unsaved documents have no durable identity yet, so their selection sticks once you save the file and print again.

The visual editor groups the options into Identity, Branding, Branded styling, Header & footer, Confidentiality, Legal / manuscript, and Layout. Every field in the reference below has a control there.

Import / export (the hand-off format)

Profiles round-trip as a single JSON object:

Export writes <name>.print-profile.json (pretty-printed).
Import accepts any .json file whose top level is an object with at least a string id and a string name. Everything else is optional and falls back to sensible defaults, and out-of-range values are clamped on import (so a bad number can never produce a broken profile).

This is exactly the shape an AI should emit. To import an AI-generated profile:

Save the AI’s JSON as my-template.print-profile.json (any .json name works).
In Print / Export PDF, click Import and pick the file.
If a profile with the same id exists, you’ll be asked to Replace it.

Logos don’t travel. logoPath is an absolute path on your machine. When you import a profile from elsewhere, a path that doesn’t exist here is dropped automatically — re-pick the logo in the editor after importing.

Field reference

Every key below is optional except id and name. Types are JSON types. “Clamp” means an out-of-range imported value is pulled into the allowed range.

Identity & association

JSON key	Type	Default	Meaning
`id`	string	required	Stable identifier. Also the per-document association key. Use a slug like `"acme-report"`. Importing a profile whose `id` matches an existing one offers to replace it.
`name`	string	required	Display name in the profile picker, e.g. `"Acme — Report"`.

Branding

JSON key	Type	Default	Meaning
`companyName`	string \| null	`null`	Company / entity name shown in the header (and footer band).
`logoPath`	string \| null	`null`	Absolute path to a PNG/JPG logo on the local machine. Not portable across machines (see note above).
`logoAlign`	`"left"` \| `"center"` \| `"right"`	`"left"`	Stored for the logo slot. Note: the running header currently renders the logo left-aligned regardless; this field is persisted for forward compatibility.
`fontFamily`	string	`"Roboto"`	Body font. Must be one of the supported fonts; anything else falls back to Roboto.
`primaryColor`	int (ARGB)	`4279903102` (`0xFF1A237E`)	Colour for headings, the header band and accent rules. See Colours.
`textColor`	int (ARGB)	`4279900698` (`0xFF1A1A1A`)	Body text colour.
`accentColor`	int (ARGB) \| null	`null`	Colour for links / secondary accents. `null` = reuse `primaryColor`.

JSON key	Type	Default	Meaning
`headerText`	string \| null	`null`	Centred header text. If `null` and `showTitleInHeader` is true, the document title is used.
`footerText`	string \| null	`null`	Footer text, e.g. `"© 2026 Acme, Inc."`.
`showTitleInHeader`	bool	`true`	Show the document title in the header (when `headerText` is not set).
`showPageNumbers`	bool	`true`	Show `Page N of M`.
`showDate`	bool	`true`	Show the current date.
`accentRule`	bool	`true`	Thin accent rule under the header / above the footer.
`footerCentered`	bool	`false`	Single centred footer line `Footer — Title \\| Page N of M` with a hairline above, instead of the split left/right footer.
`coverLogo`	bool	`false`	Place the logo once at the top of page 1 (a cover) instead of repeating it in the running header. In this mode the running header also omits the company name.
`headingRule`	bool	`false`	Draw a primary-colour underline beneath section headings (h2/h3) for a branded look.

Confidentiality

JSON key	Type	Default	Meaning
`confidentialLabel`	string \| null	`null`	Classification label shown as a badge in the header band, e.g. `"CONFIDENTIAL"`, `"INTERNAL USE ONLY"`.
`watermarkText`	string \| null	`null`	Diagonal background watermark, e.g. `"CONFIDENTIAL"` or `"DRAFT"`.

Layout

JSON key	Type	Default	Clamp	Meaning
`marginCm`	double	`2.0`	`1.0`–`3.5`	Page margin in centimetres (all four sides). `2.54` = 1 inch.

Legal / manuscript

JSON key	Type	Default	Clamp	Meaning
`legalMode`	bool	`false`	—	Court-filing output. Monochrome: headings, bold emphasis, links and the header/footer chrome (company name, badge, accent rules, footer) all print in the body text colour instead of the brand colour. Also sets body text at a uniform 12pt — captions, list markers and plain `<div>`s included; Markdown headings keep their own sizes (`#####`/h5 renders a 12pt bold title) — keeps one continuous spaced rhythm across paragraph breaks, and lets body paragraphs / list items flow across page boundaries so pages fill top to bottom.
`justifyBody`	bool	`false`	—	Justify body paragraphs (flush left and right) instead of ragged-right.
`lineSpacingMultiple`	double	`1.0`	`1.0`–`2.0`	Line-height multiple for body text. `1.0` = single (the classic look), `1.5` = one-and-a-half, `2.0` = double.
`firstLineIndentIn`	double	`0.0`	`0.0`–`1.0`	First-line indent for body paragraphs, in inches (e.g. `0.5`). `0` = none.
`centerHeadings`	bool	`false`	—	Centre headings horizontally (pleading captions / titles).

Colours

Colours are 32-bit ARGB integers written in decimal (JSON has no hex literals). The format is 0xAARRGGBB:

AA = alpha (opacity). Always use FF (fully opaque). 00 is invisible.
RR, GG, BB = red, green, blue.

To convert a web hex colour #RRGGBB to the decimal value you put in JSON:

decimal = 4278190080 + (R × 65536) + (G × 256) + B

where 4278190080 is 0xFF000000 (opaque black) and R/G/B are the 0–255 channel values. Common values:

Name	Hex (`0xAARRGGBB`)	Decimal (use this in JSON)
Black	`0xFF000000`	`4278190080`
Near-black (default text)	`0xFF1A1A1A`	`4279900698`
White	`0xFFFFFFFF`	`4294967295`
Slate	`0xFF37474F`	`4281812815`
Navy	`0xFF0D3B66`	`4279057254`
Indigo (default primary)	`0xFF1A237E`	`4279903102`
Brand blue	`0xFF4C6FFF`	`4283199487`
Teal	`0xFF00695C`	`4278217052`
Green	`0xFF2E7D32`	`4281236786`
Purple	`0xFF6A1B9A`	`4285143962`
Red	`0xFFB71C1C`	`4290190364`
Orange	`0xFFEF6C00`	`4293880832`
Mid grey	`0xFF666666`	`4284900966`

Supported fonts

fontFamily must be one of these (fetched from Google Fonts at print time, with a built-in PDF standard-font fallback when offline). Anything else falls back to Roboto.

Roboto · Inter · Lato · Open Sans · Montserrat · Merriweather · Noto Serif

For legal / print documents a serif (Merriweather or Noto Serif) reads best; Noto Serif maps to a Times-like fallback offline.

Worked examples

Each block is a complete, importable profile. Save as <something>.print-profile.json and import it.

Plain personal

{
  "id": "personal",
  "name": "Personal",
  "fontFamily": "Roboto",
  "primaryColor": 4281812815,
  "textColor": 4279900698,
  "showPageNumbers": true,
  "showDate": true,
  "accentRule": false
}

Branded company report (logo cover + confidentiality)

{
  "id": "acme-report",
  "name": "Acme — Report",
  "companyName": "Acme, Inc.",
  "fontFamily": "Lato",
  "primaryColor": 4279057254,
  "textColor": 4279900698,
  "accentColor": 4283199487,
  "footerText": "© 2026 Acme, Inc.",
  "confidentialLabel": "CONFIDENTIAL",
  "watermarkText": "CONFIDENTIAL",
  "showPageNumbers": true,
  "showDate": true,
  "accentRule": true,
  "headingRule": true,
  "coverLogo": true,
  "marginCm": 2.0
}

Court filing (double-spaced, justified, indented, monochrome)

{
  "id": "court-filing",
  "name": "Court Filing",
  "fontFamily": "Noto Serif",
  "primaryColor": 4278190080,
  "textColor": 4278190080,
  "showPageNumbers": true,
  "showDate": false,
  "showTitleInHeader": false,
  "accentRule": false,
  "marginCm": 2.54,
  "legalMode": true,
  "justifyBody": true,
  "lineSpacingMultiple": 2.0,
  "firstLineIndentIn": 0.5,
  "centerHeadings": true
}

Troubleshooting & gotchas

Colours look wrong / invisible. They must be decimal ARGB integers with an opaque FF alpha (add 4278190080). A value under ~16 million is missing its alpha and will render transparent.
Font ignored. fontFamily must match the supported list exactly (case-sensitive); otherwise it silently falls back to Roboto.
Logo missing after import. logoPath is machine-local and is dropped on import when the file isn’t found — re-pick it in the editor.
Import rejected. The file must be a JSON object (not an array) with string id and name. Remember JSON has no comments and no trailing commas.
My number didn’t stick. marginCm (1.0–3.5), lineSpacingMultiple (1.0–2.0) and firstLineIndentIn (0.0–1.0) are clamped to their ranges on import.
First-line indent + justify. The indent is exact, but on a first line that wraps after only a word or two the justification can leave a slightly larger gap right after the indent. This is a rare, cosmetic limitation of the PDF engine’s justification and is safe to ignore.