Creating PDF Documents With Python

Last Updated : 21 Mar, 2024

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 report lab that helps us to create new pdf files and edit our heart's content on them.

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 colours 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
from reportlab.lib import colors

Step 2:

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 the document title.

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 centre 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 this time the colour of the subtitle be blue, and this time we use a standard font that ships natively with report lab.

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 colour 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()