PDF Generation Error with Image Paths in Quarto

[abdulwasay1100]

Description

Quarto version: 1.6.39
Operating system: windows 11 pro

I’m automating PDF generation for our SOPs in an MKDocs project using Quarto. (python automation)
The project directory structure looks like this:

guidelines
└── docs/
└── mutiple_sub_dirs/
└── img/
└── sop/
├── supplements/
└── SOP_pdfs/

The PDF is generated from a merged.qmd file that combines multiple .md files from different directories. Some .qmd files reference images with paths like:

Working example: [../../img/Data.png]
Problematic example: [../../../img/Data_img.png]

Issue:
When generating the PDF, I encounter the following error for image paths with three levels up (../../../):

Error running filter C:/Program Files/Quarto/share/filters/main.lua:
File ../../../img/Data.png not found in resource path

The .qmd files with shorter paths (e.g., [../../img/Data.png]) work fine.

When I changed the output directory to be a subdirectory of docs (e.g., SOP_pdfs moved out of supplements), the issue flipped:

Long paths like [../../../img/Data_img.png] started working.
Short paths like [../../img/Data.png] began failing.

Attempted Solution:
I tried using the --resource-path argument to explicitly define the img directory, but the issue persists

Question:
How can I configure Quarto to consistently resolve image paths regardless of the output directory location? Is there a way to set a universal base resource path or another method to avoid these path issues?

[mcanouil]

Could you share a small self-contained "working" (reproducible) example to work with, i.e., a complete Quarto document or a Git repository? The goal is to make it as easy as possible for us to recreate your problem so that we can fix it: please help us help you! Thanks.

---

You can share a self-contained "working" (reproducible) Quarto document using the following syntax, i.e., using more backticks than you have in your document (usually four ````).
See https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#small-is-beautiful-aim-for-a-single-document-with-10-lines.

If you have multiple files (and if it is absolutely required to have multiple files), please share as a Git repository.

R	Python
````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: knitr --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{r} x <- c(1, 2, 3, 4, 5) y <- c(1, 4, 9, 16, 25) plot(x, y) ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````	````qmd --- title: "Reproducible Quarto Document" format: html engine: jupyter --- This is a reproducible Quarto document. {{< lipsum 1 >}} ```{python} import matplotlib.pyplot as plt x = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] y = [1, 4, 9, 16, 25] plt.plot(x, y) plt.show() ``` {#fig-placeholder} {{< lipsum 1 >}} The end after @fig-placeholder. ````

Additionally and if not already given, please share the output of quarto check within a code block (i.e., using three backticks ```txt), see https://quarto.org/bug-reports.html#check.

[s2t2]

I confirm image paths are broken when trying to render PDF from a book project.

Example image paths that work for the website include:

![](/docs/images/normal-distribution.png){height=350}

![](../../images/normal-distribution.png){height=350}

However neither of these paths are valid for the PDF.

Rendering PDF
running xelatex - 1
  This is XeTeX, Version 3.141592653-2.6-0.999996 (TeX Live 2024/Homebrew) (preloaded format=xelatex)
   restricted \write18 enabled.
  entering extended mode
  
updating tlmgr

updating existing packages
ERROR: 
compilation failed- error
Unable to load picture or PDF file 'notes/probability/../../images/normal.png
'.
<to be read again> 
                   }
l.313 ...otes/probability/../../images/normal.png}

I wonder what path would work for both the website and the PDF generation process.

[cderv]

Unable to load picture or PDF file 'notes/probability/../../images/normal.png

Does the two formats shared /docs/images/normal-distribution.png and ../../images/normal-distribution.png leads to same error ?

If you are able to provide a reproducible example, or step to create one, this will definitely helps us look at this quicker