How to generate a PDF from an HTML / CSS (including images) source in Python? [closed]

Question

Let's say I've got an HTML / CSS page with some images in it, and I wanted to generate a PDF from that source in Python - possible?

Answer 1

http://www.xhtml2pdf.com/

install was a little quirky for me, but otherwise it worked fine.

Answer 2

You can do something like this using Pisa:

def receipt(request, id):
    import ho.pisa as pisa
    from django.template.loader import render_to_string
    from datetime import datetime

    r = get_or_404(id, request.affiliate)    
    now = datetime.now()
    contents = render_to_string('home/reservations/receipt.html', {
        'reservation': r,
        'today': now
    })
    filename = now.strftime('%Y-%m-%d') + '.pdf'
    response = HttpResponse(mimetype='application/pdf')
    response['Content-Disposition'] = 'attachment; filename=' + filename
    pdf = pisa.CreatePDF(contents, response)
    if pdf.err:
        message(request, 'Unable to generate the receipt.')
        return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('view_reservation', args=[r.id]))    
    else:
        return response

(This is a Django view that generates a receipt but obviously you can use Pisa in whatever setting)

You're going to have to tweak the HTML to make it play as nice as possible with Pisa, though.

Answer 3

There is wkhtmltopdf a possibly better option which I recently started using for my project. It not only supports almost complete CSS but also javascript. Try wkhtmltopdf command first to understand it's power. Then you use it's python extension.

Here are links

• https://github.com/mreiferson/py-wkhtmltox
• http://code.google.com/p/wkhtmltopdf/

It was slightly tricky to install for me. So I wrote this quick and dirty script.

• https://github.com/shon/cowspa3/blob/master/wkhtmltox-installer.sh