Introduction
Papyrus is a Composer package and CLI for authors who write books in Markdown and need more than one delivery format from a single tree of chapters.
One project layout yields:
- PDF — print interiors and shareable digital books
- EPUB — stores, e-readers, and Kindle upload
- HTML — a single file with light / dark mode
- Site — a multi-page static website with grouped nav, On this page outline, popup search, code Copy, and Edit this page (this handbook)
- KDP helpers — Kindle EPUB, print PDF, covers, wrap estimates, metadata, package zip
This handbook is itself a Papyrus book. The Markdown source lives in
examples/the-papyrus-handbook/
on GitHub. Prebuilt PDF, HTML, and site outputs are published from that
example so you can read without installing anything. Chapter pages link back
to the source via Edit this page.
Who it is for
- Authors shipping a technical or long-form book from Markdown
- Teams migrating off ibis-next
- Anyone who wants PDF and a hosted docs site from the same chapters
Project shape
Every book is a directory with:
| Path | Role |
|---|---|
papyrus.php |
Title, trim, themes, Mermaid, samples, KDP |
content/ |
Markdown chapters (natural filename order) |
assets/ |
Your overrides (covers, banner, custom themes/fonts); bundled defaults used when absent |
export/ |
Build outputs (usually gitignored) |
Next steps
Install Papyrus (next chapter), run papyrus doctor, then papyrus build or
papyrus build:site. Later chapters document every build and KDP command and
the full papyrus.php option set.
Source and releases: github.com/milon/papyrus.