(Python) Change pagesize and format of PDF file generated with xtopdf

Question

I want to convert an xlsx with Python. I used the modules tablib and xtopdf to build a well structured table. Works excellent! Unfortunately the content does not fit on one pdf page. So I wanted to change the pagesize and format to horizontal A3. But I don't know how that could work. My code:

import random
import tablib
from openpyxl import load_workbook
from xtopdf import PDFWriter
from pyPdf import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader


workbook = load_workbook('C:/Users/user1/Testexcel.xlsx', guess_types=True, data_only=True)
worksheet = workbook.get_sheet_by_name('Testsheet')
ws_range = worksheet.iter_rows('A4:H6')

# Helper function to output a string to both screen and PDF.
def print_and_write(pw, strng):
    print strng
    pw.writeLine(strng)

# Create an empty Dataset and set its headers.
data = tablib.Dataset()
data.headers = ['col1', 'col2', 'col3', 'col4']
widths = [30, 20, 10, 20] # Display widths for columns.

for row in ws_range:
    col1 = str(row[0].value)
    col2 = str(row[1].value)
    col3 = str(row[2].value)
    col4 = str(row[3].value)
    columns = [col1, col2, col3, col4]
    row = [ str(col).center(widths[idx]) for idx, col in enumerate(columns) ]
    data.append(row)

# Set up the PDFWriter.
pw = PDFWriter('C:/Users/user1/Test.pdf')
pw.setFont('Courier', 10)
pw.setHeader('Test')
pw.setFooter('Test')

# Generate header and data rows as strings; output them to screen and PDF.

separator = '-' * sum(widths)
print_and_write(pw, separator)

# Output headers
header_strs = [ header.center(widths[idx]) for idx, header in enumerate(data.headers) ]
print_and_write(pw, ''.join(header_strs))
print_and_write(pw, separator)

# Output data
for row in data:
    print_and_write(pw, ''.join(row))

print_and_write(pw, separator)
pw.close()

Found out that the PDFWriter from xtopdf itself instanciates an canvas object of the reportlab library. In the canvas class an attribute pagesize is declared which is setted by default to 'A4'. But if I change the entry to 'A3' the result pdf still is in 'A4'.

class Canvas(textobject._PDFColorSetter):
    from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
    c = canvas.Canvas("hello.pdf")
    from reportlab.lib.units import inch
    # move the origin up and to the left
    c.translate(inch,inch)
    # define a large font
    c.setFont("Helvetica", 80)
    # choose some colors
    c.setStrokeColorRGB(0.2,0.5,0.3)
    c.setFillColorRGB(1,0,1)
    # draw a rectangle
    c.rect(inch,inch,6*inch,9*inch, fill=1)
    # make text go straight up
    c.rotate(90)
    # change color
    c.setFillColorRGB(0,0,0.77)
    # say hello (note after rotate the y coord needs to be negative!)
    c.drawString(3*inch, -3*inch, "Hello World")
    c.showPage()
    c.save()
    """

    def __init__(self,filename,
                 pagesize='A3',
                 bottomup = 1,
                 pageCompression=None,
                 encoding = None,
                 invariant = None,
                 verbosity=0):
        """Create a canvas of a given size. etc.

        You may pass a file-like object to filename as an alternative to
        a string.

        Most of the attributes are private - we will use set/get methods
        as the preferred interface.  Default page size is A4."""
        if pagesize is None: pagesize = 'A3'
        if encoding is None: encoding = rl_config.defaultEncoding
        if invariant is None: invariant = rl_config.invariant
        self._filename = filename
        self._encodingName = encoding
        self._doc = pdfdoc.PDFDocument(encoding,
                                       compression=pageCompression,
                                       invariant=invariant, filename=filename)


        #this only controls whether it prints 'saved ...' - 0 disables
        self._verbosity = verbosity

        #this is called each time a page is output if non-null
        self._onPage = None

        self._pagesize = pagesize
        self._pageRotation = 0
        #self._currentPageHasImages = 0
        self._pageTransition = None
        self._pageDuration = None
        self._destinations = {} # dictionary of destinations for cross indexing.

        self.setPageCompression(pageCompression)
        self._pageNumber = 1   # keep a count
        #self3 = []    #where the current page's marking operators accumulate
        # when we create a form we need to save operations not in the form
        self._codeStack = []
        self._restartAccumulators()  # restart all accumulation state (generalized, arw)
        self._annotationCount = 0

        self._outlines = [] # list for a name tree
        self._psCommandsBeforePage = [] #for postscript tray/font commands
        self._psCommandsAfterPage = [] #for postscript tray/font commands

        #PostScript has the origin at bottom left. It is easy to achieve a top-
        #down coord system by translating to the top of the page and setting y
        #scale to -1, but then text is inverted.  So self.bottomup is used
        #to also set the text matrix accordingly.  You can now choose your
        #drawing coordinates.
        self.bottomup = bottomup
        self.imageCaching = rl_config.defaultImageCaching
        self._make_preamble()
        self.init_graphics_state()
        self.state_stack = []

edit: I think the changes in the reportlab module are not accepted by the system. Tried to remove the dictionary reportlab and tried to import it then in the commandline. Ironically it works ylthough python should not find that module anymore.

Answer 1

try this

from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.lib.units import mm
c = canvas.Canvas("hello.pdf", pagesize = (297 * mm, 420 * mm))  
# or (420 * mm, 297 * mm) if you want it in portrait format
# values for inch: 11.69 * inch , 16.53 * inch

#the following would create an empty page
c.showPage()
c.save()

Answer 2

Just forked a project named xtopdf at bitbucket and made the following change:

 ##------------------------ PDFWriter.__init__ ----------------------------

-   def __init__(self, pdf_fn):
+   def __init__(self, pdf_fn, pagesize='A4'):
    '''
    Constructor.
    "pdf_fn" arg is the name of the PDF file to be created.
    '''

        self.__pdf_fn = pdf_fn         # file name of PDF file
-       self.__canv = canvas.Canvas(pdf_fn)     # canvas to write on
+       self.__canv = canvas.Canvas(pdf_fn, pagesize)     # canvas to write on
        self.__font_name = None       # font name
        self.__font_size = None       # font size
        self.__header_str = None      # header string (partial)

Can you try it? use pw = PDFWriter('C:/Users/user1/Test.pdf', 'A3').