Configuring Renderers

HTML renderer options

The HTML renderer has a couple of options as well. All the options for the renderer need to be specified under the TOML table [output.html].

The following configuration options are available:

  • theme: mdBook comes with a default theme and all the resource files needed for it. But if this option is set, mdBook will selectively overwrite the theme files with the ones found in the specified folder.
  • default-theme: The theme color scheme to select by default in the 'Change Theme' dropdown. Defaults to light.
  • preferred-dark-theme: The default dark theme. This theme will be used if the browser requests the dark version of the site via the 'prefers-color-scheme' CSS media query. Defaults to navy.
  • curly-quotes: Convert straight quotes to curly quotes, except for those that occur in code blocks and code spans. Defaults to false.
  • mathjax-support: Adds support for MathJax. Defaults to false.
  • copy-fonts: Copies fonts.css and respective font files to the output directory and use them in the default theme. Defaults to true.
  • google-analytics: This field has been deprecated and will be removed in a future release. Use the theme/head.hbs file to add the appropriate Google Analytics code instead.
  • additional-css: If you need to slightly change the appearance of your book without overwriting the whole style, you can specify a set of stylesheets that will be loaded after the default ones where you can surgically change the style.
  • additional-js: If you need to add some behaviour to your book without removing the current behaviour, you can specify a set of JavaScript files that will be loaded alongside the default one.
  • print: A subtable for configuration print settings. mdBook by default adds support for printing out the book as a single page. This is accessed using the print icon on the top right of the book.
  • no-section-label: mdBook by defaults adds section label in table of contents column. For example, "1.", "2.1". Set this option to true to disable those labels. Defaults to false.
  • fold: A subtable for configuring sidebar section-folding behavior.
  • playground: A subtable for configuring various playground settings.
  • search: A subtable for configuring the in-browser search functionality. mdBook must be compiled with the search feature enabled (on by default).
  • git-repository-url: A url to the git repository for the book. If provided an icon link will be output in the menu bar of the book.
  • git-repository-icon: The FontAwesome icon class to use for the git repository link. Defaults to fa-github.
  • edit-url-template: Edit url template, when provided shows a "Suggest an edit" button for directly jumping to editing the currently viewed page. For e.g. GitHub projects set this to https://github.com/<owner>/<repo>/edit/master/{path} or for Bitbucket projects set it to https://bitbucket.org/<owner>/<repo>/src/master/{path}?mode=edit where {path} will be replaced with the full path of the file in the repository.
  • redirect: A subtable used for generating redirects when a page is moved. The table contains key-value pairs where the key is where the redirect file needs to be created, as an absolute path from the build directory, (e.g. /appendices/bibliography.html). The value can be any valid URI the browser should navigate to (e.g. https://rust-lang.org/, /overview.html, or ../bibliography.html).
  • input-404: The name of the markdown file used for missing files. The corresponding output file will be the same, with the extension replaced with html. Defaults to 404.md.
  • site-url: The url where the book will be hosted. This is required to ensure navigation links and script/css imports in the 404 file work correctly, even when accessing urls in subdirectories. Defaults to /.
  • cname: The DNS subdomain or apex domain at which your book will be hosted. This string will be written to a file named CNAME in the root of your site, as required by GitHub Pages (see Managing a custom domain for your GitHub Pages site).

Available configuration options for the [output.html.print] table:

  • enable: Enable print support. When false, all print support will not be rendered. Defaults to true.

Available configuration options for the [output.html.fold] table:

  • enable: Enable section-folding. When off, all folds are open. Defaults to false.
  • level: The higher the more folded regions are open. When level is 0, all folds are closed. Defaults to 0.

Available configuration options for the [output.html.playground] table:

  • editable: Allow editing the source code. Defaults to false.
  • copyable: Display the copy button on code snippets. Defaults to true.
  • copy-js: Copy JavaScript files for the editor to the output directory. Defaults to true.
  • line-numbers Display line numbers on editable sections of code. Requires both editable and copy-js to be true. Defaults to false.

Available configuration options for the [output.html.search] table:

  • enable: Enables the search feature. Defaults to true.
  • limit-results: The maximum number of search results. Defaults to 30.
  • teaser-word-count: The number of words used for a search result teaser. Defaults to 30.
  • use-boolean-and: Define the logical link between multiple search words. If true, all search words must appear in each result. Defaults to false.
  • boost-title: Boost factor for the search result score if a search word appears in the header. Defaults to 2.
  • boost-hierarchy: Boost factor for the search result score if a search word appears in the hierarchy. The hierarchy contains all titles of the parent documents and all parent headings. Defaults to 1.
  • boost-paragraph: Boost factor for the search result score if a search word appears in the text. Defaults to 1.
  • expand: True if search should match longer results e.g. search micro should match microwave. Defaults to true.
  • heading-split-level: Search results will link to a section of the document which contains the result. Documents are split into sections by headings this level or less. Defaults to 3. (### This is a level 3 heading)
  • copy-js: Copy JavaScript files for the search implementation to the output directory. Defaults to true.

This shows all available HTML output options in the book.toml:

[book]
title = "Example book"
authors = ["John Doe", "Jane Doe"]
description = "The example book covers examples."

[output.html]
theme = "my-theme"
default-theme = "light"
preferred-dark-theme = "navy"
curly-quotes = true
mathjax-support = false
copy-fonts = true
additional-css = ["custom.css", "custom2.css"]
additional-js = ["custom.js"]
no-section-label = false
git-repository-url = "https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook"
git-repository-icon = "fa-github"
edit-url-template = "https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook/edit/master/guide/{path}"
site-url = "/example-book/"
cname = "myproject.rs"
input-404 = "not-found.md"

[output.html.print]
enable = true

[output.html.fold]
enable = false
level = 0

[output.html.playground]
editable = false
copy-js = true
line-numbers = false

[output.html.search]
enable = true
limit-results = 30
teaser-word-count = 30
use-boolean-and = true
boost-title = 2
boost-hierarchy = 1
boost-paragraph = 1
expand = true
heading-split-level = 3
copy-js = true

[output.html.redirect]
"/appendices/bibliography.html" = "https://rustc-dev-guide.rust-lang.org/appendix/bibliography.html"
"/other-installation-methods.html" = "../infra/other-installation-methods.html"

Markdown Renderer

The Markdown renderer will run preprocessors and then output the resulting Markdown. This is mostly useful for debugging preprocessors, especially in conjunction with mdbook test to see the Markdown that mdbook is passing to rustdoc.

The Markdown renderer is included with mdbook but disabled by default. Enable it by adding an empty table to your book.toml as follows:

[output.markdown]

There are no configuration options for the Markdown renderer at this time; only whether it is enabled or disabled.

See the preprocessors documentation for how to specify which preprocessors should run before the Markdown renderer.

Custom Renderers

A custom renderer can be enabled by adding a [output.foo] table to your book.toml. Similar to preprocessors this will instruct mdbook to pass a representation of the book to mdbook-foo for rendering. See the alternative backends chapter for more detail.

The custom renderer has access to all the fields within its table (i.e. anything under [output.foo]). mdBook checks for two common fields:

  • command: The command to execute for this custom renderer. Defaults to the name of the renderer with the mdbook- prefix (such as mdbook-foo).
  • optional: If true, then the command will be ignored if it is not installed, otherwise mdBook will fail with an error. Defaults to false.