# Features

React and CSS give you the design tools. Satzstrom takes care of pages, typesetting, and PDF output.

## React and CSS — your document, your design

Design with ordinary HTML and CSS, your fonts and images, reusable React components, and project data. The website's PDF example imports a real shadcn/ui Card and styles it for the page with CSS. Interactive components need a meaningful static state for PDF output.

### Fixed and flowing pages

Compose a single page with `Page`, or let content flow across pages with `PageMaster`. A custom layout places `Flow` between repeating headers and footers. Combine fixed and flowing pages, paper sizes, orientations, bleed, and crop marks in one document.

## Automatic typesetting

Paragraphs, tables, lists, and footnotes continue across pages. CSS break rules keep related content together. Satzstrom plans line breaks across the paragraph, supports English and German hyphenation, handles widows and orphans, and supports CJK, RTL, and mathematical notation.

The PageMaster demonstration switches between two pre-rendered text lengths: one page and three pages with the same layout.

## Agent-First

Satzstrom builds on the strengths of coding agents. React and CSS are familiar tools. The official skills teach the document model; the local MCP server exposes rendered pages and layout checks. An agent edits the source, inspects the results, refines the document, and renders the final PDF locally. The editable project stays yours.

Use the [agent setup guide](/agent-setup.md) to install the CLI and skill, connect MCP, and verify a real document.

## References that keep up

Chapter numbers, contents, and cross-references follow your content. `Sequence` registers entries, `Contents` shows the table of contents, and `Ref` links to a number, title, or page. Page numbers are calculated during typesetting. The same hierarchy can supply PDF bookmarks.

## A preview that matches the PDF

Work on the actual pages in the local live preview. Changes update the preview; the PDF uses the same page breaks. `check` reports layout issues and `inspect` returns individual pages as PNG images or visible text. Agents can use the local MCP server for these operations.

## Accessible and archival output

Semantic HTML supplies the structure of tagged PDFs. Text stays selectable. PDF/A-2a and PDF/UA-1 are available as output profiles. Accessible output depends on suitable HTML structure, language, alternative text, and link names. PDF/UA-1 also requires a document title.

## Current limits

Output uses sRGB. CMYK, spot colors, and PDF/X are not supported. Some complex CSS layouts cannot split across pages; Satzstrom reports layout issues when these structures cannot fit safely. See the [preview notes](/preview.md).

## Markdown navigation

- [Quickstart](/quickstart.md)
- [Primitives reference](/docs/primitives.md)
- [Examples](/examples.md)
- [Preview status and limitations](/preview.md)
- [Complete Markdown index](/llms.txt)