PDF Printing support from Python

[dcrespo]

Hi all... Is there a way to print a PDF file directly from Python
without having Acrobat installed? I know about ReportLab. It's a python
module that lets you create almost any PDF document, but I still don't
know if it supports printing, so I'm looking for a Python module that
could do it. I want to print a PDF file just like if I were doing it
from Acrobat.

Daniel.

[Grant Edwards]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

On 2005-04-22, dcrespo <dcrespo@gmail. com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hi all... Is there a way to print a PDF file directly from
> Python without having Acrobat installed?[/color]

Assuming your printing system was setup competently:

os.system("lpr %s" % filename)
[color=blue]
> I know about ReportLab. It's a python module that lets you
> create almost any PDF document, but I still don't know if it
> supports printing, so I'm looking for a Python module that
> could do it. I want to print a PDF file just like if I were
> doing it from Acrobat.[/color]

Not sure what you mean by "just like if I were doing it from
Acrobat".

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I have seen these
at EGG EXTENDERS in my
visi.com Supermarket... I have read
theINSTRUCTIONS ...

[dcrespo]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

Hi Grant Edwards...

Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat. Internally,
the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF Driver and then it is
sent to the printer. So you have to have Acrobat installed. Don't you?
I want to avoid it installing a module that could do it (maybe I'm
dreaming:( ). If there's no solution, then I will be very sad :-S

This is what exactly I need to do:
Generate an invoice of 216cm width and 93cm height (1/3 of the height
of a letter paper size), and print it respecting these dimensions. So,
when I print this page on a dot matrix printer, it stops at those 93cm
of height for continuous printing.

What I tried:
I created a pdf file manually with these dimensions, and right-click on
the pdf file, and selected "print". It just work under Windows XP with
Acrobat Reader 7.0, but I want to do it from a Win98 as well.
Unfortunately, there's no Acrobat version under Win98 (the maximun is
5.1) that supports this kind of printing (what I had seen until now).
It prints, but the all paper at letter size :(

Any help? Any other tools? Any one like Cristal Report but for Python?
I heard that wxPython supports some kind of reporting, but I don't know
it. Anyone knows?

Daniel

[Harry George]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

"dcrespo" <dcrespo@gmail. com> writes:
[color=blue]
> Hi Grant Edwards...
>
> Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat. Internally,
> the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF Driver and then it is
> sent to the printer. So you have to have Acrobat installed. Don't you?
> I want to avoid it installing a module that could do it (maybe I'm
> dreaming:( ). If there's no solution, then I will be very sad :-S
>
> This is what exactly I need to do:
> Generate an invoice of 216cm width and 93cm height (1/3 of the height
> of a letter paper size), and print it respecting these dimensions. So,
> when I print this page on a dot matrix printer, it stops at those 93cm
> of height for continuous printing.
>
> What I tried:
> I created a pdf file manually with these dimensions, and right-click on
> the pdf file, and selected "print". It just work under Windows XP with
> Acrobat Reader 7.0, but I want to do it from a Win98 as well.
> Unfortunately, there's no Acrobat version under Win98 (the maximun is
> 5.1) that supports this kind of printing (what I had seen until now).
> It prints, but the all paper at letter size :(
>
> Any help? Any other tools? Any one like Cristal Report but for Python?
> I heard that wxPython supports some kind of reporting, but I don't know
> it. Anyone knows?
>
> Daniel
>[/color]


When you say "OS", are you talking MS Windows by any chance? On *NIX
(e.g., CUPS+ghostview+ foomatic), PDF printing is not via Adobe code.

You could also consider pdf2ps, pdftops, and XPDF.


--
harry.g.george@ boeing.com
6-6M21 BCA CompArch Design Engineering
Phone: (425) 294-4718

[Grant Edwards]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

On 2005-04-22, dcrespo <dcrespo@gmail. com> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat.[/color]

Probably not. Most printing systems I'm familiar with use
ghostscript to render PDF into either postscript (the case on
my machines at home) or whatever raster format the printer
desires (the case at my office).
[color=blue]
> Internally, the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF
> Driver and then it is sent to the printer.[/color]

Nope. It's usnig the foomatic print filters which in turn use
ghostscript to render PDF.
[color=blue]
> So you have to have Acrobat installed. Don't you?[/color]

No you just need a good printing system. CUPS + foomatic works
great for me. It knows what to do with postcript, text, PDF,
dvi, and a whole boatload of other fileformats that I don't
ever use.
[color=blue]
> I want to avoid it installing a module that could do it (maybe
> I'm dreaming:( ). If there's no solution, then I will be very
> sad :-S
>
> This is what exactly I need to do: Generate an invoice of
> 216cm width and 93cm height (1/3 of the height of a letter
> paper size), and print it respecting these dimensions. So,
> when I print this page on a dot matrix printer, it stops at
> those 93cm of height for continuous printing.
>
> What I tried: I created a pdf file manually with these
> dimensions, and right-click on the pdf file, and selected
> "print". It just work under Windows XP with Acrobat Reader
> 7.0, but I want to do it from a Win98 as well.[/color]

Ah. You're using Windows. I didn't know that. I've no clue
what to do under Windows.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! .. someone in DAYTON,
at Ohio is selling USED
visi.com CARPETS to a SERBO-CROATIAN

[Peter Herndon]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

Grant's example is not for Windows, Daniel, but it does illustrate a
certain principle: if you have a printer driver that understands PDF,
or some other external software such as Acrobat Reader that understands
PDF, then printing the PDF is as simple as telling the OS to just print
the file.

If you are looking for some software that acts as a PDF-understanding
interpreter, that must run under Windows 98, I don't know of any
written in Python. However, you might want to research some of the
available non-Python utilities. Ghostscript, for example, is available
at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ and has a version for Win32. You
could easily use Python to drive GhostScript.

Does that fit your needs?

---Peter

[John J. Lee]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

"dcrespo" <dcrespo@gmail. com> writes:
[color=blue]
> Hi Grant Edwards...
>
> Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat. Internally,
> the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF Driver and then it is
> sent to the printer. So you have to have Acrobat installed. Don't you?
> I want to avoid it installing a module that could do it (maybe I'm
> dreaming:( ). If there's no solution, then I will be very sad :-S[/color]
[...][color=blue]
> Acrobat Reader 7.0, but I want to do it from a Win98 as well.
> Unfortunately, there's no Acrobat version under Win98 (the maximun is
> 5.1) that supports this kind of printing (what I had seen until now).
> It prints, but the all paper at letter size :([/color]

That doesn't sound like a fundamental problem with AR 5.1 to me --
sounds like you just need to ask it more nicely ;-)

Have you tried the latest version of APFL ghostscript, though (8.51)?

[color=blue]
> Any help? Any other tools? Any one like Cristal Report but for Python?
> I heard that wxPython supports some kind of reporting, but I don't know
> it. Anyone knows?[/color]

First, decide what qualities you need from your output format, then
decide which format you want, and how to generate and print it. Is it
important that you have one, other, or both of bitmap or vector
output, for example?


John

[dcrespo]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

Thanks a lot... I'm attemping to give it a try :)

[dcrespo]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

> That doesn't sound like a fundamental problem with AR 5.1 to me --
sounds like you just need to ask it more nicely ;-)

AR 7.0 has the function to print exactly the page size you set. AR 5.1
doesn't. Instead, it print it on an existing page size like letter, but
without changing the relative layout of the each line of text respect
each other.

Daniel

[dcrespo]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

>> Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat.
[color=blue]
> Probably not. Most printing systems I'm familiar with use
> ghostscript to render PDF into either postscript (the case on
> my machines at home) or whatever raster format the printer
> desires (the case at my office).[/color]

Acrobat (windows) and Ghostscript are PDF drivers.
[color=blue][color=green]
>> Internally, the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF
>> Driver and then it is sent to the printer.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> Nope. It's usnig the foomatic print filters which in turn use
> ghostscript to render PDF.[/color]

What I mean is that the pdf file is sent to a pdf driver (some program
to interpret it)... In your case is ghostscript, and in my case is
Acrobat.
[color=blue]
> No you just need a good printing system. CUPS + foomatic works
> great for me. It knows what to do with postcript, text, PDF,
> dvi, and a whole boatload of other fileformats that I don't
> ever use.[/color]

CUPS + foomatic are the whole megadriver... So it's just a manner of
saying PDF Driver for my study case.

Really thanks for all the information :) I didn't know about
Ghostscript.

Daniel

[Grant Edwards]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

On 2005-04-22, dcrespo <dcrespo@gmail. com> wrote:[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat.[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
>> Probably not. Most printing systems I'm familiar with use
>> ghostscript to render PDF into either postscript (the case on
>> my machines at home) or whatever raster format the printer
>> desires (the case at my office).[/color]
>
> Acrobat (windows) and Ghostscript are PDF drivers.[/color]

No, ghostscript isn't a "driver". it's a normal user-space
application, but I'm not sure what you're point is. My
statement that printing PDF doesn't depend on Acrobat is true
regardless of whether ghostscript is a driver or application.
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> Internally, the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF
>>> Driver and then it is sent to the printer.[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
>> Nope. It's usnig the foomatic print filters which in turn use
>> ghostscript to render PDF.[/color]
>
> What I mean is that the pdf file is sent to a pdf driver (some
> program to interpret it)... In your case is ghostscript, and
> in my case is Acrobat.[/color]

That's not a driver. At least not in my world. Drivers live
in kernel space. Acrobat and ghostscript are just applications
that run in user-space.
[color=blue][color=green]
>> No you just need a good printing system. CUPS + foomatic works
>> great for me. It knows what to do with postcript, text, PDF,
>> dvi, and a whole boatload of other fileformats that I don't
>> ever use.[/color]
>
> CUPS + foomatic are the whole megadriver... So it's just a
> manner of saying PDF Driver for my study case.[/color]

You're use of the word "driver" is one with which I'm not
familiar. But I don't really "do windows" so it's probably a
Widnowism.
[color=blue]
> Really thanks for all the information :) I didn't know about
> Ghostscript.[/color]

I'm sure you can use ghostscript to do the same thing under
Windows (render PDF into the raster format preferred by your
printer), but I've no idea how one would go about it.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! Hmmm... a CRIPPLED
at ACCOUNTANT with a FALAFEL
visi.com sandwich is HIT by a
TROLLEY-CAR...

[Mike Meyer]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

"dcrespo" <dcrespo@gmail. com> writes:
[color=blue]
> Hi Grant Edwards...
>
> Your solution requires a previous installation of Acrobat. Internally,
> the OS is sending the pdf file to the Acrobat PDF Driver and then it is
> sent to the printer. So you have to have Acrobat installed. Don't you?[/color]

No, you don't. My print system does that, and I don't have acrobat
installed. I have ghostscript installed, which includes pdf2ps - which
handles this particular translation.
[color=blue]
> This is what exactly I need to do:
> Generate an invoice of 216cm width and 93cm height (1/3 of the height
> of a letter paper size), and print it respecting these dimensions. So,
> when I print this page on a dot matrix printer, it stops at those 93cm
> of height for continuous printing.[/color]

Ok, I'm a masochist. When I have problems like this (i.e. - printing
CD labels, addressing envelopes, etc) I just have the python generate
raw postscript. That gives you more than enough control over the
output to solve the problem. Integrating it with a GUI is another
matter, though.

<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.or g> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

> You're use of the word "driver" is one with which I'm not[color=blue]
> familiar. But I don't really "do windows" so it's probably a
> Widnowism.[/color]

It could be that he means that creating PDFs on windows is done using a fake
printer that will produce the pdf when being printed to - and that fake
printer is implemented as a driver.

And traditionally in printing one often speaks of printer drivers - even if
they are mere filters that can't be considered drivers in the kernel driver
way.
--
Regards,

Diez B. Roggisch

[Grant Edwards]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

On 2005-04-23, Diez B. Roggisch <deetsNOSPAM@we b.de> wrote:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> You're use of the word "driver" is one with which I'm not
>> familiar. But I don't really "do windows" so it's probably a
>> Widnowism.[/color]
>
> It could be that he means that creating PDFs on windows is
> done using a fake printer that will produce the pdf when being
> printed to - and that fake printer is implemented as a driver.
>
> And traditionally in printing one often speaks of printer
> drivers - even if they are mere filters that can't be
> considered drivers in the kernel driver way.[/color]

I think it's the latter. I believe he wants to know how to
print a PDF file without using any external programs (or
"drivers") like Acrobat Reader or ghostscript that understand
PDF. AFAIK, the only way to do what he wants would be for him
to write a PDF engine in Python that renders PDF into whatever
raw format is understood by his printer.

--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I'LL get it!! It's
at probably a FEW of my
visi.com ITALIAN GIRL-FRIENDS!!

[Dennis Lee Bieber]

Re: PDF Printing support from Python

On Fri, 22 Apr 2005 17:41:22 -0500, Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.or g> declaimed
the following in comp.lang.pytho n:
[color=blue]
> No, you don't. My print system does that, and I don't have acrobat
> installed. I have ghostscript installed, which includes pdf2ps - which
> handles this particular translation.
>[/color]
Okay, so you've converted one page layout language (PDF) to
another (PS)... To actually print it you still need a RIP. A PostScript
laser printer has the RIP built-in, but consumer level Windows printers
do not have a PostScript RIP -- and some printers don't even have their
own specific RIP built-in ("winprinter s" put the RIP into the software
driver that runs on the Windows machine, rather than sending drawing
commands to the printer for rendering).

--[color=blue]
> =============== =============== =============== =============== == <
> wlfraed@ix.netc om.com | Wulfraed Dennis Lee Bieber KD6MOG <
> wulfraed@dm.net | Bestiaria Support Staff <
> =============== =============== =============== =============== == <
> Home Page: <http://www.dm.net/~wulfraed/> <
> Overflow Page: <http://wlfraed.home.ne tcom.com/> <[/color]