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Creating PDF Documents With Python

Difficulty Level : Medium ● Last Updated : 05 May, 2021

In this article, we will be learning how to create PDFs in Python. A very famous module named
pypdf2 is used to modify and read existing pdfs but its major disadvantage is that it cannot create
new pdf files. So Today we are looking to learn about another python module named reportlab
that helps us to create new pdf files and edit our heart’s content on it.

Module Required:

Reportlab: This module is used to handle PDF files.

pip install reportlab

Step-by-step Approach:

Step 1:

We start by importing the modules and classes. Canvas is used to draw things on the pdf, ttfonts
and pdfmetrics will help us to use custom TTF fonts in the pdf, and colors would help us to pick
colours easily without remembering their hex values.

Python3

# importing modules
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.pdfbase.ttfonts import TTFont
from reportlab.pdfbase import pdfmetrics
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Step 2:
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Next, we initialize all the things we would b writing and drawing in the document to specific
variables to easily call them when needed.

Python3

# initializing variables with values

fileName = 'sample.pdf'
documentTitle = 'sample'
title = 'Technology'
subTitle = 'The largest thing now!!'
textLines = [
'Technology makes us aware of',
'the world around us.',
]
image = 'image.jpg'

Step 3:

Next, we initialize a canvas object with the name of the pdf and set the title to be documentTitle.

Python3

# creating a pdf object

pdf = canvas.Canvas(fileName)

# setting the title of the document

pdf.setTitle(documentTitle)

Step 4:

Next, we register our external font to the reportlab fonts using pdfmetrics and TTFont and
assigned it a name. Next, we set the new font with a size. Then we draw the string on the pdf
using the drawCentredString function that takes the x and y values as the center of the text to the
written and the left, right, top and bottom of the text are adjusted accordingly. Note that we need
the TTF file to be present in the folder to execute the commands.

Python3

# registering a external font in python

pdfmetrics.registerFont(
TTFont('abc', 'SakBunderan.ttf')
)

# creating the title by setting it's font

# and putting it on the canvas
pdf.setFont('abc', 36)
pdf.drawCentredString(300, 770, title)

Step 5:

Next for the subtitle, we do the same thing except for this time the colour of the subtitle to be
blue, and this time we use a standard font that ships in natively with reportlab.

Python3

# creating the subtitle by setting it's font,

# colour and putting it on the canvas
pdf.setFillColorRGB(0, 0, 255)
pdf.setFont("Courier-Bold", 24)
pdf.drawCentredString(290, 720, subTitle)

Step 6:

Next, we draw a line and then enter several lines of text that we defined earlier inside a list. The
first line defines the starting x and y position of the text. The next two lines set the font, font-size
and font-color of the text. The next two lines traverse through each element in the list and add it
as a line to the text. The last line draws the text to the screen.

Python3

# drawing a line
pdf.line(30, 710, 550, 710)

# creating a multiline text using

# textline and for loop
text = pdf.beginText(40, 680)
text.setFont("Courier", 18)
text.setFillColor(colors.red)

for line in textLines:

text.textLine(line)

pdf.drawText(text)

Step 7:

At last, we draw a picture on the pdf using the drawInlineImage function in which the parameters
are the path of the image and the x and y coordinates of the image. In this case, the image was
in the same directory as the py file, so according to the relative path, we need to write only the
name of the file with the extension, if it was in some other directory, a relevant correct relative
path should be used.

Python3

# drawing a image at the

# specified (x.y) position
pdf.drawInlineImage(image, 130, 400)

# saving the pdf

pdf.save()

Below is the complete program:

Python3

# importing modules
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.pdfbase.ttfonts import TTFont
from reportlab.pdfbase import pdfmetrics
from reportlab.lib import colors

# initializing variables with values

fileName = 'sample.pdf'
documentTitle = 'sample'
title = 'Technology'
subTitle = 'The largest thing now!!'
textLines = [
'Technology makes us aware of',
'the world around us.',
]
image = 'image.jpg'

# creating a pdf object

pdf = canvas.Canvas(fileName)

# setting the title of the document

pdf.setTitle(documentTitle)

# registering a external font in python

pdfmetrics.registerFont(
TTFont('abc', 'SakBunderan.ttf')
)

# creating the title by setting it's font

# and putting it on the canvas
pdf.setFont('abc', 36)
pdf.drawCentredString(300, 770, title)

# creating the subtitle by setting it's font,

# colour and putting it on the canvas
pdf.setFillColorRGB(0, 0, 255)
pdf.setFont("Courier-Bold", 24)
pdf.drawCentredString(290, 720, subTitle)

# drawing a line
pdf.line(30, 710, 550, 710)

# creating a multiline text using

# textline and for loop
text = pdf.beginText(40, 680)
text.setFont("Courier", 18)
text.setFillColor(colors.red)
for line in textLines:
text.textLine(line)
pdf.drawText(text)

# drawing a image at the

# specified (x.y) position
pdf.drawInlineImage(image, 130, 400)

# saving the pdf

pdf.save()

Output:

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Article Contributed By : Vote for difficulty

Current difficulty : Medium
saikatsahana91
@saikatsahana91 Easy Normal Medium Hard Expert

Improved By : simranarora5sos

Article Tags : Picked, python-utility, Python

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