Convert PPT to PNG via python

Question

I want to convert PPT to png, or other image formats using Python.

This question has been asked on SO, but essentially recommends running OpenOffice in headless X server, which was an absolute pain last time I used it. (Mostly due to hard to replicate bugs due to OO crashing.)

Is there any other way, (Hopefully using Linux CLI utilities only, and pure Python above them?)

Answer 1

A basic workflow :

• convert your ppt to pdf by using a pdf printer from PowerPoint or OpenOffice's built in PDF converter

• use ghostscript to convert the pdf to png or other image format (something along the line of gs -dSAFER -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=png16m -r100 -sOutputFile=out.png in.pdf)

You can use Python to script this (and pilot OOo / MSPP using Uno / COM), or any script you want.

As far as I know, there is no Python library handling PPT files or converting PDF files to PNG.

As for the OOo crash handling, I would catch Exceptions and attempt a restart of OOo when such event occurs (and probably skip the file, adding it to a list of suspicious files requiring manual processing).

You may find this article http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1007788 interesting as it provides a class which uses an existing OOo instance to connect or launches one if required in a transparent fashion. It comes with an example of xls -> csv conversion (http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/convert-spreadsheets-csv-files-python-and-pyuno) which can be used as a basis for the conversion you want to attempt.