PyLaTex

System configurations for this

• Windows 10 pro, 64- bit
• Python 2.7.14 :: Anaconda, Inc.

INTERNET Connectivity

While running some of these examples you may be asked for the installations. So make sure you have proper INTERNET connectivity.

You can see the Screenshots inside images folder, how it the code is asking for sty files, click here to go.

Download guide

You can click on this link to direct download the Python 2.7.14 :: Anaconda, Inc., do not forget to check while installation if it asks for updating/adding environment variable PATH.

See beautiful documentation at https://jeltef.github.io/PyLaTeX/latest/.

Let me start now

In Windows, I tried to run basic example given in the documentation. I got errors regarding file path.

The error was something like the below one.

D:\projects\Python\PyLaTex>python basic_example.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "basic_example.py", line 31, in <module>
    doc.generate_pdf(clean_tex=False)
  File "C:\AnacondaPython2.5.0.1\lib\site-packages\pylatex\document.py", line 310, in generate_pdf
    raise(os_error)
WindowsError: [Error 2] The system cannot find the file specified

I searched the solution and got it in stackoverflow at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/40039763/pylatex-error-when-generate-pdf-file-no-such-file-or-directory.

Based on the above link I found that I have to install latexmk to overcome the issue.

Then I searched latexmk on windows install python and clicked on 1st link http://mg.readthedocs.io/latexmk.html

In this documentation I saw that I will need to install 2 more things strawberry perl and miktex on windows.

I downloaded and installed basic-miktex-2.9.6615-x64.exe from http://strawberryperl.com/, this is direct download link.

Then I downloaded and installed the 2nd and final requirement from https://miktex.org/download, this is direct download link.

Now I fired the GIT BASH (you can use cmd) and ran basic_example.py.

basic_example.py

from pylatex import Document, Section, Subsection, Command
from pylatex.utils import italic, NoEscape


def fill_document(doc):
    """Add a section, a subsection and some text to the document.

    :param doc: the document
    :type doc: :class:`pylatex.document.Document` instance
    """
    with doc.create(Section('A section')):
        doc.append('Some regular text and some ')
        doc.append(italic('italic text. '))

        with doc.create(Subsection('A subsection')):
            doc.append('Also some crazy characters: $&#{}')


if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Basic document
    doc = Document('basic')
    fill_document(doc)

    doc.generate_pdf(clean_tex=False)
    doc.generate_tex()

    # Document with `\maketitle` command activated
    doc = Document()

    doc.preamble.append(Command('title', 'Awesome Title'))
    doc.preamble.append(Command('author', 'Anonymous author'))
    doc.preamble.append(Command('date', NoEscape(r'\today')))
    doc.append(NoEscape(r'\maketitle'))

    fill_document(doc)

    doc.generate_pdf('basic_maketitle', clean_tex=False)

    # Add stuff to the document
    with doc.create(Section('A second section')):
        doc.append('Some text.')

    doc.generate_pdf('basic_maketitle2', clean_tex=False)
    tex = doc.dumps()  # The document as string in LaTeX syntax

On Terminal

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/01_basic_example (master)
$ ls
basic_example.py

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/01_basic_example (master)
$ python basic_example.py

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/01_basic_example (master)
$ ls
basic.pdf  basic_example.py     basic_maketitle.tex   basic_maketitle2.tex
basic.tex  basic_maketitle.pdf  basic_maketitle2.pdf

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/01_basic_example (master)
$

I succeeded.

Great!!!

Let us look at the below example copied from https://jeltef.github.io/PyLaTeX/latest/examples/complex_report.html

I have downloaded programmer.jpg and sample-logo.jpg and placed in the same folder where the python code is.

import os

from pylatex import Document, PageStyle, Head, Foot, MiniPage, \
    StandAloneGraphic, MultiColumn, Tabu, LongTabu, LargeText, MediumText, \
    LineBreak, NewPage, Tabularx, TextColor, simple_page_number
from pylatex.utils import bold, NoEscape


def generate_unique():
    geometry_options = {
        "head": "40pt",
        "margin": "0.5in",
        "bottom": "0.6in",
        "includeheadfoot": True
    }
    doc = Document(geometry_options=geometry_options)

    # Generating first page style
    first_page = PageStyle("firstpage")

    # Header image
    with first_page.create(Head("L")) as header_left:
        with header_left.create(MiniPage(width=NoEscape(r"0.49\textwidth"),
                                         pos='c')) as logo_wrapper:
            logo_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
                                     'sample-logo.jpg')
            logo_wrapper.append(StandAloneGraphic(image_options="width=120px",
                                filename=logo_file))

    # Add document title
    with first_page.create(Head("R")) as right_header:
        with right_header.create(MiniPage(width=NoEscape(r"0.49\textwidth"),
                                 pos='c', align='r')) as title_wrapper:
            title_wrapper.append(LargeText(bold("Bank Account Statement")))
            title_wrapper.append(LineBreak())
            title_wrapper.append(MediumText(bold("Date")))

    # Add footer
    with first_page.create(Foot("C")) as footer:
        message = "Important message please read"
        with footer.create(Tabularx(
                "X X X X",
                width_argument=NoEscape(r"\textwidth"))) as footer_table:

            footer_table.add_row(
                [MultiColumn(4, align='l', data=TextColor("blue", message))])
            footer_table.add_hline(color="blue")
            footer_table.add_empty_row()

            branch_address = MiniPage(
                width=NoEscape(r"0.25\textwidth"),
                pos='t')
            branch_address.append("960 - 22nd street east")
            branch_address.append("\n")
            branch_address.append("Saskatoon, SK")

            document_details = MiniPage(width=NoEscape(r"0.25\textwidth"),
                                        pos='t', align='r')
            document_details.append("1000")
            document_details.append(LineBreak())
            document_details.append(simple_page_number())

            footer_table.add_row([branch_address, branch_address,
                                  branch_address, document_details])

    doc.preamble.append(first_page)
    # End first page style

    # Add customer information
    with doc.create(Tabu("X[l] X[r]")) as first_page_table:
        customer = MiniPage(width=NoEscape(r"0.49\textwidth"), pos='h')
        customer.append("Verna Volcano")
        customer.append("\n")
        customer.append("For some Person")
        customer.append("\n")
        customer.append("Address1")
        customer.append("\n")
        customer.append("Address2")
        customer.append("\n")
        customer.append("Address3")

        # Add branch information
        branch = MiniPage(width=NoEscape(r"0.49\textwidth"), pos='t!',
                          align='r')
        branch.append("Branch no.")
        branch.append(LineBreak())
        branch.append(bold("1181..."))
        branch.append(LineBreak())
        branch.append(bold("TIB Cheque"))

        first_page_table.add_row([customer, branch])
        first_page_table.add_empty_row()

    doc.change_document_style("firstpage")
    doc.add_color(name="lightgray", model="gray", description="0.80")

    # Add statement table
    with doc.create(LongTabu("X[l] X[2l] X[r] X[r] X[r]",
                             row_height=1.5)) as data_table:
        data_table.add_row(["date",
                            "description",
                            "debits($)",
                            "credits($)",
                            "balance($)"],
                           mapper=bold,
                           color="lightgray")
        data_table.add_empty_row()
        data_table.add_hline()
        row = ["2016-JUN-01", "Test", "$100", "$1000", "-$900"]
        for i in range(30):
            if (i % 2) == 0:
                data_table.add_row(row, color="lightgray")
            else:
                data_table.add_row(row)

    doc.append(NewPage())

    # Add cheque images
    with doc.create(LongTabu("X[c] X[c]")) as cheque_table:
        cheque_file = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),
                                   'programmer.jpg')
        cheque = StandAloneGraphic(cheque_file, image_options="width=200px")
        for i in range(0, 20):
            cheque_table.add_row([cheque, cheque])

    doc.generate_pdf("complex_report", clean_tex=False)

generate_unique()

I have given my own image file names in the copied code(You only need to change in 2 places), I got this by just at the error logs.

Finally I succeeded as the following shows.

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/02_complex_example (master)
$ python complex_report.py

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/02_complex_example (master)
$ ls
complex_report.pdf  complex_report.py  complex_report.tex  programmer.jpg  sample-logo.jpg

Example1 - generating PDF report containing all users present in DB table

You can check my Python MySQL database connectivity repository at https://github.com/hygull/python-mysql.

As I have configured my MySQL database according to that for this project.

config.py

HOST = "127.0.0.1"

PORT = "3306"

USER = "rishikesh"

PASSWORD = "rishikesh@321"

DATABASE = "nodejs"

00_users_fullnames_emails.py

"""
    {
        "createdOn": "19 Feb 2018",
        "aim": "To generate PDF having list of fullnames of all users of DB table",
        "createdBy": "Rishikesh Agrawani"
    }
"""
from pylatex import Document, Section, Subsection

import MySQLdb
import config

def create_pdf_document(fullnames, emails):
    doc = Document("users-details")

    with doc.create(Section("Users")):
        for subsection_title, data_list in zip(["Full names", "Emails"], [fullnames, emails]):
            with doc.create(Subsection(subsection_title)):
                for data in data_list:
                    doc.append(data + "\n")

    doc.generate_pdf(clean_tex=False)

try:
    connection_config = [config.HOST, config.USER, config.PASSWORD, config.DATABASE]

    db = MySQLdb.connect(*connection_config)
    cursor = db.cursor()

    query = "SELECT * FROM `users`";

    cursor.execute(query)
    rows = cursor.fetchall()

    row1 = None
    shore = "+-" + "-"*30 + "-+"
    fullnames = []
    emails = list()
    for row in rows:
        if not row1:
            row1 = row
        print shore
        print "| %-30s |" % row[2]
        fullnames.append(row[1])
        emails.append(row[2])
    print shore

    print str(len(row1)) + " columns"
except Exception as err:
    print "Error:- ", err
else:
    print "Successfully fetched users from MySQL DATABASE"
    print "Creating PDF"
    create_pdf_document(fullnames, emails)
    print "Pdf creation done"
finally:
    db.close()

Output on GIT bash

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/00_my_examples/00_users_fullnames_emails (master)
$ python users_fullnames_emails.py
+--------------------------------+
| rob.pike@gmail.com             |
+--------------------------------+
| robert.griesemer@gmail.com     |
+--------------------------------+
| ken.thompson@gmail.com         |
+--------------------------------+
| tkinter.tk@gmail.com           |
+--------------------------------+
| mysql.db@gmail.com             |
+--------------------------------+
| hemkesh.agrawani@gmail.com     |
+--------------------------------+
8 columns
Successfully fetched users from MySQL DATABASE
Creating PDF
Pdf creation done

rishikesh agrawani@DESKTOP-8AATOO4 MINGW64 /d/projects/Python/PyLaTex/00_my_examples/00_users_fullnames_emails (master)
$

You can check this generated PDF by clicking here.

More

You can check the PDFs in this repo by clicking on this.

Enjoy more examples by visiting on this link.

References

Matplotlib, figure, dpi(dot per inch) keyword argument

Matplotlib tight_layout()'s usage best documentation

pdflatex command - pdflatex MYPAPER.tex && bibtex MYPAPER.aux && pdflatex MYPAPER.tex && pdflatex MYPAPER.tex

latexmk command - latexmk -pdf

GhostScript - Ghostscript is an interpreter for the PostScript page description language used by laser printers

GSView - GSview is a graphical interface for Ghostscript under MS-Windows. I compiled my latex files without the installation of these two things. I need to check it as here the GSView is for manipulating PDF documents.