A2PDF

A2PDF is an unofficial PDF converter for Anki SRS learning cards. It accepts Anki deck exports in text format and outputs two PDF files per deck:

  • deckname_0.pdf for front side
  • deckname_1.pdf for back side

Key features:

  • convert Anki decks to PDF
  • print Anki cards (using Adobe reader)
  • customizable HTML templates

Requirements

Java 6 or better

Installation

Either

  • download the JAR or
  • build it yourself using Maven.

Quick Start

Create an export directory

Create a directory on your computer to use for deck exports.

Export deck

Open Anki. choose File - Export - with the following settings:

  • Export format: Cards in plain text
  • Include: Your deck name

Export into the directory you just created.

If your deck contains any images you want to include, you have to copy those into the export directory manually before running the program.

Run A2PDF

Start A2PDF on the command-line:

java -jar a2pdf.jar PATH_TO_DECK_FILE PATH_TO_OUTPUT_FILE

with:

PATH_TO_DECK_FILE (required): the absolute path name of the deck file you just exported, eg. C:\anki\deckname.txt.

PATH_TO_OUTPUT_FILE (optional): the absolute path name of the target file. If you choose not to set this, A2PDF will save to your system’s temporary directory.

Print Anki cards

You can now open the resulting PDFs using Adobe Reader to print them. 4 pages per sheet (“2 x 2”) with landscape orientation is usually a good mix between readability and amount of paper.

Some duplex printers also allow you to automatically print two PDFs at the same time.

Tweak PDF output

You may edit template_front.txt and template_back.txt in the application directory to change PDF appearance.

This requires a basic understanding of HTML and/or CSS. For example, you can resize the text on your cards by changing the font-size attribute.

Limitations

While PDF export works great for simple cards, here are some limitations:

  • Obviously, you won’t be able to print audio and video cards.
  • Cards with images are okay, but make sure they are not too big to print on a single page.
  • LaTEX cards may or may not work since I never looked into those exports.
  • Complex cards using third-party add-ons will prove to be problematic.

Source Code

https://github.com/nordicway/a2pdf

Contribution

Please feel welcome to fork this project on Github, send pull requests and report any bugs you come across.

Attribution

This software makes heavy use of the Flying Saucer library which is available at https://code.google.com/p/flying-saucer/

License

A2PDF
Copyright (C) 2013, Bjoern Zielke

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.