Jinja-like for Pdf in Python

Question

I am looking for the best accurate tool for PDF in Python that works like Jinja does for HTML.

What are your suggestions?

Answer 1

As answered by jbochi, ReportLab is the foundation for almost all Python projects that generate PDF.

But for your needs you might want to check out Pisa / xhtml2pdf. You would generate your HTML with a Jinja template and then use Pisa to convert the HTML to PDF. Pisa is built on top of ReportLab.

Edit: another option I'd forgotten about is wkhtmltopdf

Answer 2

Have a look at ReportLab Toolkit.

You can use templates only with the commercial version, though.

Answer 3

There's now a new kid on the block called WeasyPrint.

Answer 4

I had exactly the same requirement as the OP. Unfortunately WeasyPrint wasn't a viable solution, because I needed very exact positioning and barcode support. After a few days of work I finished a reportlab XML wrapper with Jinja2 support.

The code can be found on GitHub including an example XML wich generates the following PDF.

Answer 5

What about python/jinja to rst/html and html/rst to pdf using either rst2pdf or pandoc.

Both of these have worked well for me but. like plaes, I may try Weasyprint in the future.

Answer 6

What more accurate tool for PDF in Python that works like Jinja than Jinja itself?

You just have to make sure that the Jinja block, variable, and comment identification strings do not conflict with the LaTeX commands. Once you change the Jinja environment to mimic the LaTeX environment you're ready to go!

Here's a snippet that works out of the box:

Python Source: ./create_pdf.py

import os, jinja2
from jinja2 import Template

latex_jinja_env = jinja2.Environment(
    block_start_string    = '\BLOCK{',
    block_end_string      = '}',
    variable_start_string = '\VAR{',
    variable_end_string   = '}',
    comment_start_string  = '\#{',
    comment_end_string    = '}',
    line_statement_prefix = '%%',
    line_comment_prefix   = '%#',
    trim_blocks           = True,
    autoescape            = False,
    loader                = jinja2.FileSystemLoader(os.path.abspath('./latex/'))
)
template = latex_jinja_env.get_template('latex_template.tex')

# populate a dictionary with the variables of interest
template_vars  = {}
template_vars['section_1'] = 'The Section 1 Title'
template_vars['section_2'] = 'The Section 2 Title'

# create a file and save the latex
output_file = open('./generated_latex.tex', 'w')
# pass the dictionary with variable names to the renderer
output_file.write( template.render( template_vars ) )
output_file.close()

Latex Template: ./latex/latex_template.tex

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\section{Example}
An example document using \LaTeX, Python, and Jinja.

% This is a regular LaTeX comment
\section{\VAR{section_1}}
\begin{itemize}
\BLOCK{ for x in range(0,3) }
  \item Counting: \VAR{x}
\BLOCK{ endfor }
\end{itemize}

\#{This is a long-form Jinja comment}
\BLOCK{ if subsection_1_1 }
\subsection{ The subsection }
This appears only if subsection_1_1 variable is passed to renderer.
\BLOCK{ endif }

%# This is a short-form Jinja comment
\section{\VAR{section_2}}
\begin{itemize}
%% for x in range(0,3)
  \item Counting: \VAR{x}
%% endfor
\end{itemize}

\end{document}

Now simply call: $> python ./create_pdf.py

Resulting Latex Source: ./generated_latex.tex

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\section{Example}
An example document using \LaTeX, Python, and Jinja.

% This is a regular LaTeX comment
\section{The Section 1 Title}
\begin{itemize}
  \item Counting: 0
  \item Counting: 1
  \item Counting: 2
\end{itemize}

\section{The Section 2 Title}
\begin{itemize}
  \item Counting: 0
  \item Counting: 1
  \item Counting: 2
\end{itemize}

\end{document}

Generated Pdf:

References:

• About Django's syntax conflict with LaTex
• About latex templates
• About passing a dict to render_template

Answer 7

If you want to use existing PDF as template, without altering original document, you can use Dhek template editor, which allows to define area (bounds, name, type) in a separate template file.

Template is saved in JSON format so that it can be parsed in Python, to fill areas over PDF and generate the final document (e.g. with values from Web form).

See documentation at https://github.com/applicius/dhek .