diff --git a/ci/Jenkinsfile b/ci/Jenkinsfile
index 06c4366..8b145c6 100644
--- a/ci/Jenkinsfile
+++ b/ci/Jenkinsfile
@@ -141,12 +141,23 @@ def run_docs() {
         '''
     }
 
+    /* does not work with too many quote levels
+     * alternatively use pdf (based on rst2pdf)
+     * or singlehtml converted to pdf manually from a browser (may produce nicer output)
     stage('build latexpdf') {
         sh '''
         . /home/jenkins/secopvenv/bin/activate
         make -C doc latexpdf
         '''
     }
+    */
+
+    stage('build pdf') {
+        sh '''
+        . /home/jenkins/secopvenv/bin/activate
+        make -C doc pdf
+        '''
+    }
 
     stage('build man') {
         sh '''
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
index b9006c3..f76e1d7 100644
--- a/doc/source/conf.py
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -43,7 +43,9 @@ extensions = ['sphinx.ext.autodoc',
               'sphinx.ext.intersphinx',
               'sphinx.ext.todo',
               'sphinx.ext.mathjax',
-              'sphinx.ext.viewcode']
+              'sphinx.ext.viewcode',
+              'rst2pdf.pdfbuilder',
+]
 
 # Add any paths that contain templates here, relative to this directory.
 templates_path = ['_templates']
@@ -220,3 +222,80 @@ from frappy.lib.classdoc import class_doc_handler
 
 def setup(app):
     app.connect('autodoc-process-docstring', class_doc_handler)
+
+
+# -- Options for PDF output --------------------------------------------------
+# Grouping the document tree into PDF files. List of tuples
+# (source start file, target name, title, author, options).
+#
+# If there is more than one author, separate them with \\.
+# For example: r'Guido van Rossum\\Fred L. Drake, Jr., editor'
+#
+# The options element is a dictionary that lets you override
+# this config per-document. For example:
+#
+# ('index', 'MyProject', 'My Project', 'Author Name', {'pdf_compressed': True})
+#
+# would mean that specific document would be compressed
+# regardless of the global 'pdf_compressed' setting.
+pdf_documents = [
+    ('index', project, project, author),
+]
+# A comma-separated list of custom stylesheets. Example:
+pdf_stylesheets = ['sphinx', 'a4']
+# A list of folders to search for stylesheets. Example:
+pdf_style_path = ['.', '_styles']
+# Create a compressed PDF
+# Use True/False or 1/0
+# Example: compressed=True
+# pdf_compressed = False
+# A colon-separated list of folders to search for fonts. Example:
+# pdf_font_path = ['/usr/share/fonts', '/usr/share/texmf-dist/fonts/']
+# Language to be used for hyphenation support
+# pdf_language = "en_US"
+# Mode for literal blocks wider than the frame. Can be
+# overflow, shrink or truncate
+# pdf_fit_mode = "shrink"
+# Section level that forces a break page.
+# For example: 1 means top-level sections start in a new page
+# 0 means disabled
+# pdf_break_level = 0
+# When a section starts in a new page, force it to be 'even', 'odd',
+# or just use 'any'
+# pdf_breakside = 'any'
+# Insert footnotes where they are defined instead of
+# at the end.
+# pdf_inline_footnotes = True
+# verbosity level. 0 1 or 2
+# pdf_verbosity = 0
+# If false, no index is generated.
+# pdf_use_index = True
+# If false, no modindex is generated.
+# pdf_use_modindex = True
+# If false, no coverpage is generated.
+# pdf_use_coverpage = True
+# Name of the cover page template to use
+# pdf_cover_template = 'sphinxcover.tmpl'
+# Documents to append as an appendix to all manuals.
+# pdf_appendices = []
+# Enable experimental feature to split table cells. Use it
+# if you get "DelayedTable too big" errors
+# pdf_splittables = False
+# Set the default DPI for images
+# pdf_default_dpi = 72
+# Enable rst2pdf extension modules
+# pdf_extensions = []
+# Page template name for "regular" pages
+# pdf_page_template = 'cutePage'
+# Show Table Of Contents at the beginning?
+# pdf_use_toc = True
+# How many levels deep should the table of contents be?
+pdf_toc_depth = 9999
+# Add section number to section references
+pdf_use_numbered_links = False
+# Background images fitting mode
+pdf_fit_background_mode = 'scale'
+# Repeat table header on tables that cross a page boundary?
+pdf_repeat_table_rows = True
+# Enable smart quotes (1, 2 or 3) or disable by setting to 0
+pdf_smartquotes = 0
diff --git a/requirements-dev.txt b/requirements-dev.txt
index 2c97239..3098842 100644
--- a/requirements-dev.txt
+++ b/requirements-dev.txt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ sphinx_rtd_theme
 Sphinx>=1.2.1
 # for generating docu
 markdown>=2.6
+rst2pdf
 # test suite
 pytest
 pytest-randomly>=1.1