creating a PDF document

[Skaperen]

what tools are best for a Python script to produce its output as a PDF document in latest version format (1.4)?

[snippsat]

ReportLab is the most powerful and feature-rich option.
If need a simpler tool or are converting PDFs, Fpdf2 and PikePDF are good choices.

Samples.

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

def create_pdf(output_filename):
    c = canvas.Canvas(output_filename, pagesize=letter)
    c.drawString(100, 750, "Hello, this is a PDF document!")
    c.save()

create_pdf("output.pdf")

from fpdf import FPDF

def create_pdf(output_filename):
    pdf = FPDF()
    pdf.set_auto_page_break(auto=True, margin=15)
    pdf.add_page()
    pdf.set_font("Arial", size=12)
    pdf.cell(200, 10, txt="Hello, this is a PDF document!", ln=True)
    pdf.output(output_filename, version="1.4")

create_pdf("output.pdf")

import pikepdf

def convert_pdf_to_1_4(input_pdf, output_pdf):
    with pikepdf.open(input_pdf) as pdf:
        pdf.save(output_pdf, version=pikepdf.PdfVersion.v1_4)

convert_pdf_to_1_4("input.pdf", "output.pdf")

[Gribouillis]

I often used Python to generate LaTeX source code which can be compiled to pdf document. For the type of documents that I need to produce, this is an easy solution.

I don't have experience with generating specifically pdf 1.4 documents but I think using the pdf14 package in latex documents does the trick.

[DPaul]

Hi, I use reportlab and also FPDF if I need to include a picture in the document.
Starts like this:

pdf1 = FPDF(orientation='P', unit='mm', format='A4')
        pdf1.add_page()
        pdf1.image(fotopath, x=10, y=15, w=50)
        pdf1.set_font('Helvetica', size=18)
        pdf1.cell(220, 10, txt='First line of text ...', ln=1, align="C")
etc...

FPDF produces pdf 1.3 , but since the years i've been using it, I suppose that version 1.4 must be possible.
Paul

[Skaperen]

Hi, I use reportlab and also FPDF if I need to include a picture in the document.
Starts like this:

pdf1 = FPDF(orientation='P', unit='mm', format='A4')
        pdf1.add_page()
        pdf1.image(fotopath, x=10, y=15, w=50)
        pdf1.set_font('Helvetica', size=18)
        pdf1.cell(220, 10, txt='First line of text ...', ln=1, align="C")
etc...

FPDF produces pdf 1.3 , but since the years i've been using it, I suppose that version 1.4 must be possible.
Paul

would i need to learn LaTeX to do more of this? i don't know how complicated the "etc..." part would be but the first 5 lines look guessable (i might want an American page size).

1.3 might work. i'll send a 1.3 to them to try it.