The Print PDF Specifically

Unlike DOCX/EPUB (which place text on the page or in an XHTML flow), the PDF target is real typesetting: smaragd embeds the Typst compiler directly (no separate install, no network access) and generates a Typst document from your manuscript and the chosen style, then lets Typst do the actual page layout — the same category of tool as LaTeX or InDesign, not a “print to PDF” of a web page.

That gets you, for free or close to it: automatic widow/orphan avoidance (Typst’s default), a running header that tracks which chapter you’re actually on per page, and a true sunk drop cap — the enlarged first letter with the next couple of lines wrapped narrower beside it, not just an oversized inline glyph — computed with hand-rolled layout math rather than a network-fetched Typst package, which smaragd deliberately avoids. The wrapped lines are always ragged-right even in a justified style, and how many lines the cap spans is an approximation rather than derived from the font’s exact metrics, so it may run slightly loose or tight for an unusual custom style.

After a successful PDF export, the status bar reports an estimated spine width for the resulting page count — useful for sizing a paperback cover, but a rough estimate based on a standard white-paper thickness constant, not a print-broker-grade figure. Confirm against your printer’s own spine-width calculator (e.g. KDP’s) before sending a cover to print.