briefutil is a small Qt Quick desktop utility for turning short letters into PDF files.

Letter layout, markdown body parsing, and PDF rendering are handled natively in C++ with Qt 6 and libHaru.

• lets you pick a sender profile from JSON files
• collects recipient, subject, and body text in a small desktop UI
• supports Markdown in the letter body
• generates DIN 5008 PDF letters
• can use either built-in PDF fonts or custom .ttf / .otf font files

The default sender profiles cover two letter styles:

• simple
• commercial

.
|- briefutil/              # CMake project root
|- example.png             # README screenshot
|- sample_screenshot.png   # README screenshot
|- LICENSE.txt
\- README.md

The project root for the application code is briefutil/. That directory contains:

• app/ for the Qt Quick application, QML, and app resources
• core/ for the reusable briefutil_core library
• tests/ for development test executables and test data
• the top-level CMake build entry point

• CMake 3.24 or newer
• a C++20 compiler
• Qt 6 with:
  • Core
  • Gui
  • Qml
  • Quick
  • QuickControls2
• network access on first configure, because CMake fetches:
  • libHaru
  • zlib
  • libpng

From the repository root:

cmake -S briefutil -B briefutil/build -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH="C:/Qt/6.x/<toolchain>"
cmake --build briefutil/build --config Release

Adjust CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH to your local Qt installation, for example msvc2022_64 or llvm-mingw_64.

With multi-config generators such as Visual Studio, the main executable will be built as:

briefutil/build/app/Release/briefutil.exe

After building:

briefutil/build/app/Release/briefutil.exe

On Windows, the CMake build also runs Qt deployment steps so the build output contains the required Qt DLLs, plugins, and QML modules.

On first launch, the app creates and seeds:

%USERPROFILE%/briefutil/templates/

This folder contains default sender profiles such as:

• Max Mustermann.json
• Max Mustermann, Mustermann AG.json
• mustermann_signature.png

Generated PDFs are written by default to:

%USERPROFILE%/briefutil/output/

The app also stores UI and typography settings with QSettings, including:

• dark mode
• selected template directory
• font configuration
• body size and leading

An optional output_dir.conf file in the current working directory can override the default output directory.

Sender profiles are JSON files loaded from the active template directory.

The important fields are:

• id
• style
• sender_lines
• email
• return_address_line
• signer_name
• signature_image

Commercial profiles can additionally define:

• company_name
• company_name_color
• top_rule_color
• footer_lines
• signer_title

The signature_image path is interpreted relative to the profile directory.

The body field supports Markdown. The implemented subset includes:

• paragraphs
• bold
• italic
• headings
• bullet lists
• ordered lists
• images
• tables

Plain text without Markdown syntax also works.

The settings window allows changing the fonts used for PDF generation.

There are two supported modes:

• built-in PDF base-14 font names for all configured faces
• .ttf / .otf file paths for all configured faces

Do not mix the two modes in one configuration. If you do, PDF generation is rejected with an error.

The font configuration covers:

• sans regular
• sans bold
• sans italic
• sans bold italic
• monospace

The CMake project also defines a few development-only test executables:

• test_renderer
• test_letter_builder
• test_markdown_parser
• test_md_to_pdf

Typical examples:

briefutil/build/tests/Release/test_markdown_parser.exe
briefutil/build/tests/Release/test_letter_builder.exe briefutil/build/tests/Release/sample.pdf
briefutil/build/tests/Release/test_md_to_pdf.exe briefutil/tests/data/test_sample.md briefutil/build/tests/Release/md.pdf

Install:

cmake --install briefutil/build --config Release --prefix C:/apps/briefutil

Package:

cpack -C Release --config briefutil/build/CPackConfig.cmake

The Windows packaging path is NSIS-based.

Source code is provided under the Simplified BSD License. See LICENSE.txt.