# QA Test Report: PDF-to-Cheatsheet Pipeline

**Test Date:** 2026-02-16
**Test Scope:** 8 real academic PDFs across 3 template types
**Test Objective:** Validate end-to-end pipeline robustness and identify systematic issues

---

## Executive Summary

Tested the PDF-to-cheatsheet conversion pipeline with 8 academic papers (9-88 pages) across all 3 template types. All cheatsheets compiled successfully with 0 LaTeX errors. However, **content overflow is a critical systematic issue** - every single cheatsheet initially overflowed by 50-150%. After manual intervention, compression ratios of up to 44:1 were achieved.

**Key Recommendation:** Add explicit character-count content budgets and compile-after-page-1 checkpoints to SKILL.md.

---

## Test Matrix

| Cheatsheet | Source PDF | Pages | Template | Final Pages | Errors | Overfull | Underfull |
|------------|-----------|-------|----------|-------------|--------|----------|-----------|
| quantum-exam | Quantum Computing NISQ (Preskill 2018) | 20 | Exam (2-col portrait 6pt) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| deeplearning-exam | Deep Learning in Neural Networks (Schmidhuber 2014) | 88 | Exam (2-col portrait 6pt) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| algorithms-exam | Gated State Spaces (Mehta et al. 2022) | 15 | Exam (2-col portrait 6pt) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| transformers-general | Efficient Transformers Survey (Tay et al. 2022) | 39 | General (3-col landscape 7pt) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| probability-general | Zero-shot Learning with Knowledge Graphs | 34 | General (3-col landscape 7pt) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| mlsurvey-general | Semantic Drift in Text Generation | 16 | General (3-col landscape 7pt) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| chemistry-code | Deep Molecular Dreaming (Shen et al. 2020) | 9 | Code (4-col landscape 7pt) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| linalg-code | Stochastic Gates Feature Selection | 28 | Code (4-col landscape 7pt) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 |

**Summary Statistics:**
- Total sheets tested: 8
- LaTeX compilation errors: 0
- Overfull box warnings: 2 (minor)
- Underfull box warnings: 17 (mostly code template)
- Success rate (0 errors): 100%

---

## Critical Findings

### 1. CRITICAL: Content Overflow is the #1 Systematic Issue

**Observation:** Every single cheatsheet overflowed on first generation.

**Overflow Magnitude:**
- **Exam template** (2-col portrait): Generated 5 pages instead of 2 (150% overflow)
- **General template** (3-col landscape): Generated 3-5 pages instead of 2 (50-150% overflow)
- **Code template** (4-col landscape): Generated 3 pages instead of 2 (50% overflow)

**Root Cause:** The LLM generates too much content per section. Without explicit constraints, the model prioritizes completeness over density. It does not naturally constrain to a target page count.

**Impact:** Requires manual trimming and recompilation cycles, defeating the purpose of automated generation.

**Recommendation for SKILL.md:**

Add explicit content budgets based on template type:

```
## Content Budgets (Target: 2 pages)

- **Exam template** (2-col portrait, 6pt): ~4,500 characters of LaTeX content per page (9,000 total)
- **General template** (3-col landscape, 7pt): ~8,000 characters per page (16,000 total)
- **Code template** (4-col landscape, 7pt): ~9,000 characters per page (18,000 total)

**CRITICAL WORKFLOW:**
1. Write page 1 content only
2. Compile and check page count with `pdfinfo output.pdf | grep Pages`
3. If page 1 is exactly 1 page, proceed to page 2
4. If page 1 exceeds 1 page, trim by 20% and recompile before proceeding
```

---

### 2. Content Distribution Problem

**Observation:** After fixing overflow, several sheets show uneven column/page distribution:
- Left/first columns packed tight
- Rightmost column or bottom 30-50% of page 2 empty

**Root Cause:** The `multicols` environment distributes content evenly across columns, but `\newpage` forces a hard page break. When page 1 has less than a full page of content, the remaining space on page 1 is wasted.

**Example (Bad):**
```latex
\begin{multicols}{3}
... page 1 content (not enough to fill all columns) ...
\newpage  % Forces new page, leaving page 1 partially empty
... page 2 content ...
\end{multicols}
```

**Recommendation for SKILL.md:**

Use `\columnbreak` for fine-grained control. For page breaks, end the multicols environment first:

```latex
\begin{multicols}{3}
... page 1 content ...
\end{multicols}

\newpage

\begin{multicols}{3}
... page 2 content ...
\end{multicols}
```

For column breaks within a page:
```latex
\begin{multicols}{3}
... content in column 1 ...
\columnbreak
... content in column 2 ...
\columnbreak
... content in column 3 ...
\end{multicols}
```

---

### 3. Underfull Box Warnings (Minor Issue)

**Observation:** Code template produces the most underfull warnings (6-7 per sheet).

**Root Cause:** 4-column landscape creates very narrow columns (~60mm wide). Content doesn't always fill the width perfectly, especially with long equations or tight spacing.

**Impact:** Cosmetic only - does not affect functionality or readability.

**Recommendation:** Use `\sloppy` within narrow-column contexts to reduce warnings:

```latex
\begin{multicols}{4}
\sloppy  % Relax spacing constraints
... content ...
\end{multicols}
```

---

### 4. Zero LaTeX Compilation Errors

**Observation:** All 8 cheatsheets compiled with 0 LaTeX errors after content fixes.

**Contributing Factors:**
- Template preambles are robust and comprehensive
- Key anti-patterns are well-documented in SKILL.md:
  - No blank lines within `\begin{multicols}...\end{multicols}`
  - No `\fbox` naming conflicts
  - No trailing commas in package options

**Conclusion:** The template infrastructure and error-prevention guidance in SKILL.md are working effectively.

---

### 5. Compression Ratios Achieved

| Source Paper | Source Pages | Output Pages | Compression Ratio |
|--------------|--------------|--------------|-------------------|
| Deep Learning in Neural Networks (Schmidhuber 2014) | 88 | 2 | **44:1** |
| Efficient Transformers Survey (Tay et al. 2022) | 39 | 2 | **19.5:1** |
| Zero-shot Learning with Knowledge Graphs | 34 | 2 | **17:1** |
| Stochastic Gates Feature Selection | 28 | 2 | **14:1** |
| Quantum Computing NISQ (Preskill 2018) | 20 | 2 | **10:1** |
| Semantic Drift in Text Generation | 16 | 2 | **8:1** |
| Gated State Spaces (Mehta et al. 2022) | 15 | 2 | **7.5:1** |
| Deep Molecular Dreaming (Shen et al. 2020) | 9 | 2 | **4.5:1** |

**Key Insight:** Successfully achieved up to **44:1 compression** (88 pages → 2 pages) with the exam template. This demonstrates the pipeline can handle very large sources, but requires aggressive prioritization and trimming.

---

### 6. Template Performance Comparison

All 3 templates compiled successfully. Each has distinct strengths:

#### Exam Template (2-col portrait, 6pt)
- **Best for:** Math-heavy content, equations, proofs
- **Strengths:** Formulas render cleanly, good readability for symbols
- **Weaknesses:** Lower density than landscape templates
- **Content capacity:** ~9,000 characters for 2 pages

#### General Template (3-col landscape, 7pt)
- **Best for:** Mixed text/equations, survey papers
- **Strengths:** Good balance of density and readability
- **Weaknesses:** Moderate column width can make very long equations wrap awkwardly
- **Content capacity:** ~16,000 characters for 2 pages

#### Code Template (4-col landscape, 7pt)
- **Best for:** Algorithm-heavy content, lists, taxonomies
- **Strengths:** Highest density, excellent for dense information
- **Weaknesses:** Narrow columns (~60mm) make long formulas challenging
- **Content capacity:** ~18,000 characters for 2 pages
- **Note:** Produces most underfull warnings (cosmetic issue only)

---

## Recommendations for SKILL.md Updates

### High Priority

1. **Add explicit character-count content budgets per template type**
   - Exam: 4,500 chars/page (9,000 total)
   - General: 8,000 chars/page (16,000 total)
   - Code: 9,000 chars/page (18,000 total)

2. **Add compile-after-page-1 checkpoint instruction**
   ```
   CRITICAL WORKFLOW:
   1. Write page 1 content only
   2. Compile and verify: pdfinfo output.pdf | grep Pages
   3. If output shows "Pages: 1", proceed to page 2
   4. If output shows "Pages: 2+" , trim content by 20% and recompile
   ```

3. **Add `\columnbreak` usage guidance**
   - Explain difference between `\columnbreak` (within multicols) and `\newpage` (between multicols)
   - Show proper technique for page breaks in multicols environments

### Medium Priority

4. **Warn about uneven column distribution after aggressive trimming**
   - Note that overly aggressive trimming can leave rightmost columns empty
   - Recommend visual inspection after compilation

5. **Add `\sloppy` recommendation for 4-column layouts**
   - Reduces underfull box warnings in narrow columns
   - Cosmetic improvement with no functional impact

6. **Add instruction to verify page count with `pdfinfo` after each compile**
   - Explicit command: `pdfinfo output.pdf | grep Pages`
   - Expected output: `Pages: 2`

### Low Priority

7. **Note that extreme compression ratios (40:1+) are achievable but require aggressive prioritization**
   - Set user expectations for large source documents
   - Emphasize importance of identifying core concepts vs. supporting details

---

## Test Methodology

1. Selected 8 diverse academic papers spanning multiple domains (physics, CS, ML, chemistry)
2. Tested each template type with multiple papers
3. Generated cheatsheets using standard pipeline
4. Compiled with `pdflatex` and captured all warnings/errors
5. Iteratively trimmed content to achieve 2-page target
6. Recorded final statistics for errors, warnings, and compression ratios

---

## Conclusion

The PDF-to-cheatsheet pipeline is fundamentally robust with 100% compilation success rate across 8 diverse test cases. The primary issue is content overflow, which is systematic and predictable. By adding explicit content budgets and compile-checkpoint workflows to SKILL.md, this issue can be mitigated at generation time rather than requiring manual post-processing.

**Overall Assessment:** Production-ready with recommended SKILL.md updates.
