The ‘reportlab‘ library can be used to convert text to PDF in Python.
If you haven’t already done so, install the reportlab library using this command:
pip install reportlab
Examples of Converting Text to PDF in Python
Example#1: Single SHORT Sentence to PDF
The following script can be used to convert a single short sentence to a PDF file:
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas # Example of a sentence input_text = "This is an example of a simple sentence." # Output PDF file file_name = "example.pdf" # Create a PDF document pdf_canvas = canvas.Canvas(file_name) # Set font and size pdf_canvas.setFont("Courier", 12) # Define the position of the text in the PDF pdf_canvas.drawString(100, 750, input_text) # Save the PDF pdf_canvas.save()
This above script creates a simple PDF with the specified text and saves it as “example.pdf“. You can customize the font, size, and position of the text based on your needs.
The result:
Example#2: Single LONG and Formatted Sentence to PDF
For a longer sentence that is greater than a single line, you may use the reportlab.lib.styles and reportlab.platypus modules in ReportLab to format the text using HTML-like tags:
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph # Example text using HTML-like tags input_text = """<b>Hello,</b> this is an <font color='red'>example text</font> that will be <i>converted to PDF.</i> This sentence is quite long, and we want it to wrap to the next line.""" # Output PDF file file_name = "example.pdf" # Create a PDF document pdf_document = SimpleDocTemplate(file_name) pdf_elements = [] # Create a stylesheet for styling styles = getSampleStyleSheet() # Parse the HTML-like text into a Paragraph paragraph = Paragraph(input_text, styles["Normal"]) # Add the Paragraph to the PDF elements pdf_elements.append(paragraph) # Build the PDF document pdf_document.build(pdf_elements)
In this example, the input text includes HTML-like tags such as “<b>“, “<i>“, and “<font>“. The Paragraph class interprets these tags and applies the corresponding styling to the text when rendered in the PDF.
Adjust the HTML-like tags and styles in the input text according to your needs.
The result:
Example#3: Multiple Paragraphs to PDF
Here is an example of a script to convert multiple paragraphs to a PDF file:
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer # Example text using HTML-like tags input_text = """ <b>Paragraph 1:</b> This is the first paragraph of text.<br/> <b>Paragraph 2:</b> Here is the second paragraph, and it continues on multiple lines as captured here. This part <i>is italicized.</i><br/> <b>Paragraph 3:</b> Finally, the third paragraph completes the example. """ # Output PDF file file_name = "example.pdf" # Create a PDF document pdf_document = SimpleDocTemplate(file_name) pdf_elements = [] # Create a stylesheet for styling styles = getSampleStyleSheet() # Parse the HTML-like text into Paragraphs paragraphs = [Paragraph(text, styles["Normal"]) for text in input_text.split("<br/>")] # Add Paragraphs and Spacer (for spacing) to the PDF elements for paragraph in paragraphs: pdf_elements.append(paragraph) pdf_elements.append( Spacer(1, 24) ) # Adjust the second parameter for the desired spacing # Build the PDF document pdf_document.build(pdf_elements)
This script creates a separate Paragraph instance for each paragraph of text separated by “<br/>“. The Spacer is used to add some space between paragraphs for better readability.
The result:
Paragraph 2: Here is the second paragraph, and it continues on multiple lines as captured here. This part is italicized.
Paragraph 3: Finally, the third paragraph completes the example.
Example#4: Add a Table
You can add a table to the PDF. Here’s an example:
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Table, TableStyle # Table data table_data = [ ["Header 1", "Header 2", "Header 3"], ["Row 1, Col 1", "Row 1, Col 2", "Row 1, Col 3"], ["Row 2, Col 1", "Row 2, Col 2", "Row 2, Col 3"], ["Row 3, Col 1", "Row 3, Col 2", "Row 3, Col 3"], ] # Output PDF file file_name = "example.pdf" # Create a PDF document pdf_document = SimpleDocTemplate(file_name) pdf_elements = [] # Create a stylesheet for styling styles = getSampleStyleSheet() # Add a table to the PDF elements table = Table(table_data) style = TableStyle([("BACKGROUND", (0, 0), (-1, 0), "#a7c7f2"), ("TEXTCOLOR", (0, 0), (-1, 0), (0, 0, 0)), ("ALIGN", (0, 0), (-1, -1), "CENTER"), ("BOTTOMPADDING", (0, 0), (-1, 0), 12), ("BACKGROUND", (0, 1), (-1, -1), "#d3e3f6"), ("GRID", (0, 0), (-1, -1), 1, "#000000")]) table.setStyle(style) pdf_elements.append(table) # Build the PDF document pdf_document.build(pdf_elements)
The resulted table:
| Header 1 | Header 2 | Header 3 |
| Row 1, Col 1 | Row 1, Col 2 | Row 1, Col 3 |
| Row 2, Col 1 | Row 2, Col 2 | Row 2, Col 3 |
| Row 3, Col 1 | Row 3, Col 2 | Row 3, Col 3 |
Example#5: Add a chart
This script creates a Matplotlib line chart with sample data, and saves it to a PDF file using the ReportLab library:
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from matplotlib.backends.backend_agg import FigureCanvasAgg as FigureCanvas from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Image from io import BytesIO # Line chart data categories = ["Category 1", "Category 2", "Category 3", "Category 4", "Category 5"] values = [0, 10, 5, 15, 8] # Output PDF file file_name = "example.pdf" # Create a PDF document pdf_document = SimpleDocTemplate(file_name) pdf_elements = [] # Create a Matplotlib figure for the line chart fig, ax = plt.subplots() ax.plot(categories, values, label="Line Chart") ax.set_xlabel("Categories") ax.set_ylabel("Values") ax.legend() # Save the Matplotlib figure to a buffer buffer = BytesIO() FigureCanvas(fig).print_png(buffer) plt.close() # Convert the buffer to a ReportLab Image and embed it into the PDF image = Image(buffer) pdf_elements.append(image) # Build the PDF document pdf_document.build(pdf_elements)