CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonclipboard
Henry B.
Henry B.

Reputation: 487

Storing a file in the clipboard in python

Is there a way to use the win32clipboard module to store a reference to a file in the windows clipboard in python. My goal is to paste an image in a way that allows transparency. If I drag and drop a 'png' file into OneNote or I copy the file and then paste it into OneNote, this seems to preserve transparency. As far as I can tell, the clipboard can't store transparent images which is why it has to be a reference to a file.

My research suggests that it might involve the win32clipboard.CF_HDrop attribute but I'm not sure.

So, just to summarize, my goal is to have a bit of python code which I can click and which uses a specific file on my Desktop named 'img.png' for instance. The result is that 'img.png' gets stored in the clipboard and can be pasted into other programs. Essentially, the same behavior as if I selected the file on the Desktop myself, right-clicked and selected 'Copy'.

EDIT: This page seems to suggest there is a way using win32clipboard.CF_HDrop somehow: http://timgolden.me.uk/pywin32-docs/win32clipboard__GetClipboardData_meth.html

It says "CF_HDROP" is associated with "a tuple of Unicode filenames"

Upvotes: 7

Views: 4082

Answers (2)

tzot
tzot

Reputation: 95971

I write this as an answer, although it's just a step that might help you, because comments don't have a lot of formatting options.

I wrote this sample script:

import win32clipboard as clp, win32api

clp.OpenClipboard(None)

rc= clp.EnumClipboardFormats(0)
while rc:
    try: format_name= clp.GetClipboardFormatName(rc)
    except win32api.error: format_name= "?"
    print "format", rc, format_name
    rc= clp.EnumClipboardFormats(rc)

clp.CloseClipboard()

Then I selected an image file in explorer and copied it; then, the script reports the following available clipboard formats:

format 49161 DataObject
format 49268 Shell IDList Array
format 15 ?
format 49519 DataObjectAttributes
format 49292 Preferred DropEffect
format 49329 Shell Object Offsets
format 49158 FileName
format 49159 FileNameW
format 49171 Ole Private Data

This “Preferred DropEffect” seems suspicious, although I'm far from a Windows expert. I would try first with FileNameW, though, since this might do the job for you (I don't have OneNote installed, sorry). It seems it expects as data only the full pathname encoded as 'utf-16-le' with a null character (i.e encoded as '\0\0') at the end.

Upvotes: 1

Burhan Khalid
Burhan Khalid

Reputation: 174622

from PythonMagick import Image
Image("img.png").write("clipboard:")

Grab the windows binaries for PythonMagick

Upvotes: 1

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