Docutils: Python Documentation Utilities

0.22.4 · active · verified Sat Mar 28

Docutils is a modular system for processing plaintext documentation into useful formats, such as HTML, LaTeX, and XML. The current version is 0.22.4, released on March 28, 2026. Docutils follows a regular release cadence, with major releases introducing new features and minor releases focusing on bug fixes and improvements.

Warnings

breaking Docutils 0.20 is the last version supporting Python 3.7 and 3.8.
Fix: Upgrade to Python 3.9 or later to continue receiving support.
deprecated The 'rst2html.py' script is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.
Fix: Use the 'docutils' command-line tool instead.
gotcha Ensure that the 'docutils' package is installed in your Python environment to avoid ImportError.
Fix: Install Docutils using 'pip install docutils'.

Install

pip install docutils Install Docutils

Imports

Publisher
```
from docutils.core import Publisher
```
Ensure correct import path to avoid ImportError.
Reader
```
from docutils.readers.standalone import Reader
```
Ensure correct import path to avoid ImportError.
Writer
```
from docutils.writers.html4css1 import Writer
```
Ensure correct import path to avoid ImportError.

Quickstart

This script demonstrates how to convert a reStructuredText document to HTML using Docutils. It imports the necessary modules, defines a sample reStructuredText input, and processes it to produce HTML output.

import os
from docutils.core import publish_string
from docutils.readers.standalone import Reader
from docutils.writers.html4css1 import Writer

# Sample reStructuredText input
rst_input = '''
Title
=====

This is a sample reStructuredText document.
'''

# Create Reader and Writer instances
reader = Reader()
writer = Writer()

# Process the input
output = publish_string(source=rst_input.encode('utf-8'), reader=reader, writer=writer)

# Print the HTML output
print(output.decode('utf-8'))

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