Real Python Podcast Episode #84 Title Artwork

Episode 84: Creating and Manipulating PDFs in Python With borb

The Real Python Podcast

Oct 29, 2021 1h 1m

Have you wanted to generate PDFs from your Python project? Many of the current libraries require designing the document down at the pixel level. Would you be interested in a tool that lets you specify the page layout while it handles the specific details of laying out the text? This week on the show, we talk with Joris Schellekens about his library for creating and manipulating PDFs named borb.

Episode Sponsor:

borb is a pure Python library that can read, write and manipulate PDFs. You can use it to build fillable forms, invoices with attached data files, and multiple column document layouts. We discuss the extensive example repository Joris has created for the library.

Joris shares his background in working with PDFs. He talks about starting the project and the challenges he had to overcome. We also talk about licensing and maintaining an open-source library.

Course Spotlight: Writing Idiomatic Python

What are the programming idioms unique to Python? This course is a short overview for people coming from other languages and an introduction for beginners to the idiomatic practices within Python. You’ll cover truth values, looping, DRY principles, and the Zen of Python.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:01:58 – Articles about borb
00:03:25 – History of the project
00:07:26 – Background in PDFs and Postscript
00:09:18 – Signatures and other challenges of working in PDFs
00:11:33 – Reading from PDFs and standards of versions
00:14:54 – Features of the library and creating documents
00:18:25 – Creating layout features
00:20:42 – How are fonts handled in borb?
00:21:19 – Sponsor: Cloudsmith
00:22:04 – Why use JSON across the library?
00:22:55 – Embedding data and files within a PDF
00:25:12 – What features were crucial for you to include in borb?
00:28:48 – Why creating a separate examples repository?
00:31:04 – Article series about borb
00:32:25 – Writing a book about borb
00:33:44 – Python 3.10 and borb
00:34:19 – Video Course Spotlight
00:35:39 – Licensing borb and AGPL
00:45:14 – Other open-source projects and Stack Overflow answers
00:46:37 – Working with forms in borb
00:47:55 – Additional tools for working with PDFs
00:50:15 – Different users of the library
00:53:36 – Thoughts on the future of PDFs
00:58:10 – What are you excited about in the world of Python?
00:58:40 – What do you want to learn next?
01:00:25 – Social connection info
01:00:46 – Thanks and goodbye

Show Links:

Level Up Your Python Skills With These Courses:

Documenting Code in Python

How to Work With a PDF in Python

Writing Idiomatic Python

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