Can GitBook apply a custom timezone to dates in exported PDF or ePub files?
27.5K reputation · 09 Sept 2020, 04:10 UTC
When publishing content, GitBook stores all date metadata such as lastModified and publishDate in UTC ISO 8601 format. The viewer’s browser then converts these timestamps to local time using the Intl.DateTimeFormat API, so readers see times adjusted to their own zone.
However, exporting a page to PDF or ePub appears to use the server’s UTC value directly, without applying any regional offset, and there is no documented site‑wide setting or frontmatter property to override this behavior.
Goal: ensure that exported documents display dates in a consistent timezone that matches the intended audience, regardless of where the build server runs.
Is there a configuration option or frontmatter field to force a specific timezone for PDF/ePub export? If not, can a custom export template or plugin be used to adjust timestamps before generation? Are there plans to add timezone‑aware formatting to the export pipeline?
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