Octa Engineering Notes                                   Christian Elías
Request for Comments: OCTA-12                                  octa.page
Category: Informational                                         May 2026


    CV as Code: Generating a PDF from an Astro page with Playwright

Abstract

   Generating a print-ready PDF CV from a static Astro page using
   Playwright headlessly — why @page margins are ignored by Playwright,
   why astro-pdf was skipped, and ATS compatibility pitfalls with em
   dashes and special characters.

Status of This Memo

   This memo documents notes notes for the Internet community. It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited. The canonical version lives at
   https://octa.page/doc/cv-as-code-playwright-pdf/ and the
   machine-readable source at
   https://octa.page/doc/cv-as-code-playwright-pdf.md

   The CV lives in "src/pages/cv-print.astro" — a fully static,
   print-optimized HTML page with "noindex". Playwright visits it
   headlessly and saves the output to "public/", where the download link
   already points.

   pnpm dev          # start local server on :4321
   pnpm cv:pdf       # run scripts/generate-cv-pdf.mjs

   The generation script:

   import { chromium } from 'playwright';

   const browser = await chromium.launch();
   const page = await browser.newPage();

   await page.goto('http://localhost:4321/cv-print', { waitUntil: 'networkidle' });
   await page.pdf({
     path: 'public/Christian_Elias_Cruz_Gonzalez_esp.pdf',
     format: 'A4',
     printBackground: false,
     margin: { top: '18mm', right: '18mm', bottom: '14mm', left: '18mm' },
   });

   await browser.close();

   The page uses "@page { size: A4; margin: ... }" so margins are
   declared twice — once in CSS for browser preview, once in
   "page.pdf()" for the headless render. In practice Playwright ignores
   "@page" margins and uses the ones passed to "pdf()".

1.  Why not "astro-pdf"

   "astro-pdf" hooks into the build and visits pages post-build via a
   preview server. That works but adds build time and a dev dependency
   that trails Astro major releases. A standalone script is simpler:
   edit the page, run "pnpm cv:pdf", commit the PDF. No build coupling.

2.  ATS considerations

   The resulting PDF is text-based (not a rasterized image), so ATS
   parsers extract content correctly. A few patterns that break ATS even
   in text PDFs:

   o  Em dashes ("—") in date ranges — some parsers (Greenhouse, Lever)
      misread them as unknown characters. Use simple hyphens.
   o  "+N" prefix on numbers inside bullets — some parsers treat "+" as
      a boolean search operator. Write "más de N" or "over N".
   o  "→" and "<" in prose — replace with plain text equivalents before
      generating.


Christian Elías              Informational                      [Page 1]