Latest recipes by Jorj X. McKie

How to create a simple PDF Pie Chart using fitz / PyMuPDF (Python)

2017-07-10T16:07:51-07:00

Python recipe 580810 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, pdf_generation).

PyMuPDF now supports drawing pie charts on a PDF page.

Important parameters for the function are center of the circle, one of the two arc's end points and the angle of the circular sector. The function will draw the pie piece (in a variety of options) and return the arc's calculated other end point for any subsequent processing.

This example creates a chart of the parliament seat distribution for political parties in the current German Bundestag.

Insert a Text Box in a PDF page (fitz / PyMuPDF) (Python)

2017-06-29T22:54:25-07:00

Python recipe 580809 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, mupdf, pdf, textbox).

This method inserts text into a predefined rectangular area of a (new or existing) PDF page. Words are distributed across the available space, put on new lines when required etc. Line breaks and tab characters are respected / resolved. Text can be aligned in the box (left, center, right) and fonts can be freely chosen. The method returns a float indicating how vertical space is left over after filling the area.

How to Create a PDF with a Caustic Drawing (Python)

2017-06-18T17:43:47-07:00

Python recipe 580806 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, mupdf, pdf, pymupdf).

Just a little demo on how to create simple drawings with PyMuPDF.

This script simulates what you see looking into your coffee mug, early in the morning after a long night of programming ...

Create Calendars on PDF with a few lines (Python)

2017-06-13T10:57:34-07:00

Python recipe 580805 by Jorj X. McKie (calendar, fitz, mupdf, pdf, pymupdf). Revision 2.

PyMuPDF (fitz) provides easy to use ways to create PDF documents out of simple texts.

An example is the text output of Python's calendar module. Here we take a starting year as script parameter and output a 3-page (A4 landscape) document with calendars for this and the following two years - in less than 20 lines of code.

Inserting Images on PDF Pages (Python)

2017-05-17T21:10:26-07:00

Python recipe 580803 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, mupdf, pdf, pymupdf).

Version 1.11.0 of PyMuPDF allows putting an image on an existing PDF page. The following example puts the same image on every page of a given PDF - like a thumbnail.

Inserting pages into a PDF with PyMuPDF (Python)

2017-05-17T21:15:26-07:00

Python recipe 580802 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, mupdf, pdf, text_conversion). Revision 2.

Version 1.11.0 of PyMuPDF allows creating new PDF pages, as well as inserting images into existing pages.

Here is a script that converts any textfile into a PDF.

Python-C-Interface: Check whether a given dictionary contains only valid keys (C)

2017-05-06T20:53:54-07:00

C recipe 580799 by Jorj X. McKie (c_interface, python).

This function is given a Python dictioanry and a list of string / unicode values. It will check whether all dictionary keys occur in this list and will return 1 (true) or 0 (false).

How to handle PDF embedded files with PyMuPDF (Python)

2017-07-11T18:57:54-07:00

Python recipe 580796 by Jorj X. McKie (embedded_files, fitz, mupdf, pdf, pymupdf). Revision 3.

Version 1.11.0 (based on MuPDF v1.11) allows exporting, importing and interrogating files embedded in a PDF.

PDF "/EmbeddedFiles" are similar to ZIP archives (or the Microsoft OLE technique), allowing arbitrary data to be incorporated in a PDF and benefit from its unique features.

How to Maintain PDF Links with fitz / PyMuPDF (Python)

2017-03-22T13:12:25-07:00

Python recipe 580765 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, link, mupdf, pdf).

This REPL script example displays, updates, inserts and deletes links on a PDF page.

CSV export / import of PDF bookmarks (table of contents) (Python)

2017-01-07T12:21:39-08:00

Python recipe 580743 by Jorj X. McKie (bookmarks, csv, fitz, mupdf, pdf).

Two little utilities to export or import a PDF's table of contents from / to a standard CSV file. Typical usecase would be:

export TOC to CSV file
edit CSV file
import TOC from CSV file

Reverse the sequence of annotations on a PDF page (Python)

2017-01-22T14:02:16-08:00

Python recipe 580733 by Jorj X. McKie (annotation, fitz, mupdf, pdf). Revision 2.

Just another demonstration of PyMuPDF's features to deal with annotations:

Take a page with several annotations and let them change places in reverse order: first and last annot exchange their rectangles, second and second to last, etc.

The annotation images are enlarged or compressed as required to fit into their new areas.

Access PDF annotations (Python)

2016-12-13T11:06:14-08:00

Python recipe 580732 by Jorj X. McKie (annotation, fitz, mupdf, pdf).

Version 1.10.0 of PyMuPDF supports PDF annotations. Among other things they can be extracted as images and also updated to some extent.

Rotate a PDF page in 3 lines (Python)

2016-11-06T11:33:59-08:00

Python recipe 580713 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, mupdf, pdf, pymupdf). Revision 2.

PyMuPDF v1.9.3 now supports several new features for manipulating PDFs.

Here is an example to rotate a page with just a few lines of Python code.

Extract images of a PDF - optionally by page using PyMuPDF / fitz (Python)

2016-09-28T12:03:59-07:00

Python recipe 580703 by Jorj X. McKie (fitz, pdf, png).

Two small scripts to extract images contained in a PDF document as PNG files. (1) Script 1 extracts all images (2) Script 2 extracts only images that are referenced by a page

Simple PDF Bookmark / Table of Contents Maintenance (Python)

2016-06-20T18:14:38-07:00

Python recipe 580684 by Jorj X. McKie (bookmarks, fitz, incremental, metadata, pdf, pymupdf).

PyMuPDF now supports a simple interface for maintaining table of contents / bookmarks and metadata for PDF documents. By manipulating ordinary, elementary lists and dictionaries you can add, delete, modify a PDF's metadata and table of contents.

How to delete pages in a PDF using fitz / MuPDF / PyMuPDF (Python)

2016-05-01T09:26:44-07:00

Python recipe 580657 by Jorj X. McKie (mupdf, pdf, pdf_generation).

A new method select() in PyMuPDF 1.9.0 allows selecting pages of a PDF document to create a new one. Any Python list of integers (0 <= n < page count) can be taken.

The resulting PDF contains all links, annotations and bookmarks (provided they still point to valid targets).

Find all fonts used in a PDF document by page (Python)

2016-08-26T00:02:48-07:00

Python recipe 580651 by Jorj X. McKie (pdf). Revision 3.

Finds all fonts used in a PDF document by page. This new script is based on PyMuDF v1.9.2 and works for PDF files only. However, it is a lot simpler, speed has drastically improved and there is no dependency on other packages any more.

How to parse a table in a PDF document (Python)

2016-04-10T22:43:57-07:00

Python recipe 580635 by Jorj X. McKie (cbz, epub, fitz, mupdf, openxps, parsing, pdf, pymupdf, table, xps). Revision 4.

A Python function that converts a table contained in a page of a PDF (or OpenXPS, EPUB, CBZ, XPS) document to a matrix-like Python object (list of lists of strings).

Create Tiles of Images with fitz / MuPDF (PyMuPDF) (Python)

2016-04-26T19:54:31-07:00

Python recipe 580629 by Jorj X. McKie (mupdf, png, pymupdf, tiles). Revision 4.

Take an image file (like PNG) and create a new one consisting of arbitrary tiles of the original (or overlay an existing image with selective tiles of another).

PDF Text Extraction using fitz / MuPDF (PyMuPDF) (Python)

2016-03-17T12:00:06-07:00

Python recipe 580626 by Jorj X. McKie (cbz, epub, mupdf, openxps, pdf, pymupdf, text_extraction, xps).

Extract all the text of a PDF (or other supported container types) at very high speed. In general, text pieces of a PDF page are not arranged in natural reading order, but in the order they were entered during PDF creation. This script re-arranges text blocks according to their pixel coordinates to achieve a more readable output, i.e. top-down, left-right.