Export Formats

Templates can be exported to PDF, SVG, and PNG.

PDF export

The PDF export supports all standards that Typst has to offer. The default in Oicana is PDF/A-3b (PDF 1.7).

You can configure the default PDF standards to use when exporting a given template in the template’s manifest file.

[tool.oicana.export.pdf]
standards = ["ua-1"]

The manifest above would configure this template to produce PDF files for Universal Access.

Strict standards have prerequisites

Accessibility-oriented standards like PDF/UA-1 (and several PDF/A profiles) require additional metadata in your template. At minimum a document title and language, plus alt text on every image and equation are required. Typst surfaces a precise error per missing piece (e.g. PDF/UA-1 error: missing document title); see Typst’s PDF reference for the full list of prerequisites for each standard.

Tagged PDFs

By default, Oicana produces tagged (accessible) PDFs. You can turn tagging off in the template’s manifest:

[tool.oicana.export.pdf]
tagged = false

Note

Tagging is always disabled when exporting only a subset of a document’s pages, because Typst cannot tag partial exports.

Combining standards

The standards array accepts three kinds of entries (see the Typst docs for a complete list of supported standards):

• Versions: 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 2.0
• PDF/A profiles: every a-* entry (e.g. a-2b, a-3b, a-4)
• PDF/UA: ua-1

You can list at most one of each kind, and they all have to share a compatible base PDF version. In particular, a PDF/A profile and PDF/UA-1 combine into an accessible, archivable document when both build on the same PDF version. For example, PDF/A-3b and PDF/UA-1 (both based on PDF 1.7):

[tool.oicana.export.pdf]
standards = ["ua-1", "a-3b"]

This is exactly the combination our invoice example template exports, and what an accessible e-invoice needs.

Incompatible combinations are rejected. For example, ["a-4", "ua-1"] fails because PDF/A-4 builds on PDF 2.0 while PDF/UA-1 requires PDF 1.7 or earlier. Listing two PDF/A profiles or two versions is rejected as well. oicana validate catches invalid combinations in your manifest.

Embedded files and e-invoices

Oicana’s PDF export can attach files to the document and write custom XMP metadata. Together with the default PDF/A-3b standard, this is what e-invoice formats such as ZUGFeRD and Factur-X require: a human-readable PDF/A-3b document with the structured invoice XML embedded as an associated file and the matching metadata declared in the document’s XMP.

PNG export

In many scenarios, PNG export is an easy option for previews.

Oicana integrations allow configuring the pixels per point in a PNG export. A smaller ratio leads to faster file generation and smaller files, but lower resolution. The default is 1px/pt.

Note

When a PNG export covers more than one page, the pages are merged into a single, vertically stacked image. Export pages individually (see below) if you need separate files.

Note

Typst’s PNG export is optimized for speed, not file size. Before you save the images or send them over the network, consider optimizing them.

Exporting specific pages

Every export accepts an optional page range, so you can export just a part of a document instead of the whole thing. Page indices are 0-based and inclusive: the range 0–2 exports the first three pages. Both bounds are optional. Omitting the start exports from the first page, omitting the end exports through the last page.

Each integration exposes this as a pages argument on the export methods (exportPdf, exportPng, exportSvg, and the generic export), together with a PageRange helper to construct the range.

Reusing a compilation

The export methods above compile the template and export it in a single call. When you need several exports of the same inputs, for example a full PDF plus a per-page PNG preview, compiling once and exporting repeatedly avoids the redundant compilation work.

Call compile instead of an export method to get a compiled document handle. It exposes the same exportPdf / exportPng / exportSvg methods and reports its page count, so you can export individual pages or page ranges without recompiling. Release the handle when you are done to free memory.