How to use Cyrillic fonts in ReportLab PDF library (Python recipe) by Yuriy Tkachenko

ActiveState Code (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/438817/)

# ReportLab PDF library must be already installed
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.pdfbase import pdfmetrics

# Create a new canvas for cyrillic.pdf file
c = canvas.Canvas('cyrillic.pdf')

# fname - the font file name without extension
fname = 'a010013l'

# faceName - view a010013l.AFM file as a plain text and look at
# row beginning with 'FontName' word (it's usually the fourth row).
# The word after 'FontName' is the faceName ('URWGothicL-Book' in this case).
faceName = 'URWGothicL-Book'

# Define new Type 1 font
cyrFace = pdfmetrics.EmbeddedType1Face(fname+'.afm', fname+'.pfb')

# Create a new encoding called 'CP1251'
cyrenc = pdfmetrics.Encoding('CP1251')

# Fill in the tuple with Unicode glyphs in accordance with cp1251 (win1251)
# encoding
cp1251=(
 'afii10051', 'afii10052', 'quotesinglbase', 'afii10100', 'quotedblbase',
 'ellipsis', 'dagger', 'daggerdbl', 'Euro', 'perthousand', 'afii10058',
 'guilsinglleft', 'afii10059', 'afii10061', 'afii10060', 'afii10145',
 'afii10099', 'quoteleft', 'quoteright', 'quotedblleft', 'quotedblright',
 'bullet', 'endash', 'emdash', 'tilde', 'trademark', 'afii10106',
 'guilsinglright', 'afii10107', 'afii10109', 'afii10108', 'afii10193',
 'space', 'afii10062', 'afii10110', 'afii10057', 'currency', 'afii10050',
 'brokenbar', 'section', 'afii10023', 'copyright', 'afii10053',
 'guillemotleft', 'logicalnot', 'hyphen', 'registered', 'afii10056',
 'degree', 'plusminus', 'afii10055', 'afii10103', 'afii10098', 'mu1',
 'paragraph', 'periodcentered', 'afii10071', 'afii61352', 'afii10101',
 'guillemotright', 'afii10105', 'afii10054', 'afii10102', 'afii10104',
 'afii10017', 'afii10018', 'afii10019', 'afii10020', 'afii10021',
 'afii10022', 'afii10024', 'afii10025', 'afii10026', 'afii10027',
 'afii10028', 'afii10029', 'afii10030', 'afii10031', 'afii10032',
 'afii10033', 'afii10034', 'afii10035', 'afii10036', 'afii10037',
 'afii10038', 'afii10039', 'afii10040', 'afii10041', 'afii10042',
 'afii10043', 'afii10044', 'afii10045', 'afii10046', 'afii10047',
 'afii10048', 'afii10049', 'afii10065', 'afii10066', 'afii10067',
 'afii10068', 'afii10069', 'afii10070', 'afii10072', 'afii10073',
 'afii10074', 'afii10075', 'afii10076', 'afii10077', 'afii10078',
 'afii10079', 'afii10080', 'afii10081', 'afii10082', 'afii10083',
 'afii10084', 'afii10085', 'afii10086', 'afii10087', 'afii10088',
 'afii10089', 'afii10090', 'afii10091', 'afii10092', 'afii10093',
 'afii10094', 'afii10095', 'afii10096', 'afii10097'
)

# Replace glyphs from code 128 to code 256 with cp1251 values
for i in range(128,256):
    cyrenc[i] = cp1251[i-128]

# Register newly created encoding
pdfmetrics.registerEncoding(cyrenc)

# Register type face
pdfmetrics.registerTypeFace(cyrFace)

# Register the font with adding '1251' to its name
pdfmetrics.registerFont(pdfmetrics.Font(faceName+'1251', faceName, 'CP1251'))

# Use this font and set font size
c.setFont(faceName+'1251', 90)

# hello - 'Hello!' in Ukrainian. If you have Cyrillic keyboard layout and
# cp1251 system encoding just type Cyrillic text instead of its hexadecimal
# equivalent
hello = '\xcf\xf0\xe8\xe2\xb3\xf2!' 

# Draw this text at last
c.drawString(125, 700, hello)

# Stop drawing on the current page
c.showPage()

# Save pdf file
c.save()

# And now open cyrillic.pdf and look at greeting :)