PyPDFtk

Warnings

• breaking The 'pdftk' binary is a mandatory external dependency and must be installed separately on your operating system. PyPDFtk is merely a Python wrapper and will not function without 'pdftk' being accessible in the system's PATH or explicitly configured via `PDFTK_PATH`.
  Fix: Install 'pdftk' (e.g., `sudo apt-get install pdftk` on Debian/Ubuntu, or download from pdflabs.com for other OSes). Ensure it's in your system's PATH, or set `os.environ['PDFTK_PATH'] = '/path/to/pdftk'` in your Python code.
• gotcha PyPDFtk might not automatically find the 'pdftk' executable on all systems, especially Windows or when 'pdftk' is installed in a non-standard location. This often leads to `FileNotFoundError` or `subprocess.CalledProcessError`.
  Fix: Explicitly set the `PDFTK_PATH` environment variable in your script or shell to point to the `pdftk` executable, e.g., `os.environ['PDFTK_PATH'] = '/usr/local/bin/pdftk'`.
• gotcha The `pypdftk.split()` function, if provided with an `out_dir` parameter, warns that it 'may destroy your files and return incorrect results' if the specified output directory is not empty.
  Fix: Always ensure the `out_dir` argument passed to `pypdftk.split()` is an empty directory or let the function use a temporary directory by omitting `out_dir`.
• gotcha PyPDFtk currently does not support handling or inserting image fields into PDF forms. Its form-filling capabilities are limited to text, checkboxes, and radio buttons.
  Fix: For operations involving image fields, consider alternative PDF manipulation libraries or tools that explicitly support image embedding, or pre-process PDFs with images before using PyPDFtk for form filling.

Install

• pip install pypdftk Install PyPDFtk

Imports

• pypdftk

  import pypdftk

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates basic operations like getting the number of pages and concatenating PDFs using `pypdftk`. It highlights the necessity of the `pdftk` binary and provides comments on how to set `PDFTK_PATH`. A form-filling example is commented out as it requires a specific fillable PDF and proper `pdftk` configuration.

import pypdftk
import os
import tempfile

# NOTE: You must have the 'pdftk' binary installed on your system.
# You may also need to set the PDFTK_PATH environment variable if pdftk is not in your system's PATH.
# For example: os.environ['PDFTK_PATH'] = '/usr/local/bin/pdftk' on macOS or '/usr/bin/pdftk' on Linux.
# For Windows, it might be 'C:/Program Files (x86)/PDFtk/bin/pdftk.exe'

# Create a dummy PDF file for demonstration (in a real scenario, this would be an existing PDF form)
# This example can't create a fillable PDF, so it will demonstrate other functions.
# We'll use get_num_pages and concat for a runnable example.

# Create a dummy PDF file (simplified for quickstart, typically this would be a pre-existing PDF)
# In a real scenario, you'd use an actual PDF path.
dummy_pdf_content = b'%PDF-1.4\n1 0 obj<</Type/Catalog/Pages 2 0 R>>endobj 2 0 obj<</Type/Pages/Count 1/Kids[3 0 R]>>endobj 3 0 obj<</Type/Page/Parent 2 0 R/MediaBox[0 0 612 792]/Contents 4 0 R>>endobj 4 0 obj<</Length 16>>stream\nBT /F1 12 Tf 100 700 Td (Hello PyPDFtk!) Tj ET\nendstream\nendobj\nxref\n0 5\n0000000000 65535 f\n0000000009 00000 n\n0000000055 00000 n\n0000000107 00000 n\n0000000194 00000 n\ntrailer<</Size 5/Root 1 0 R>>startxref\n240\n%%EOF'

with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".pdf", delete=False) as f1:
    f1.write(dummy_pdf_content)
    pdf_path1 = f1.name

with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile(suffix=".pdf", delete=False) as f2:
    f2.write(dummy_pdf_content)
    pdf_path2 = f2.name

try:
    # Get number of pages
    num_pages = pypdftk.get_num_pages(pdf_path1)
    print(f"Number of pages in {pdf_path1}: {num_pages}")

    # Concatenate two dummy PDFs
    output_concat_pdf = pypdftk.concat([pdf_path1, pdf_path2])
    print(f"Concatenated PDFs to: {output_concat_pdf}")

    # Example of filling a form (requires a real fillable PDF and pdftk to be correctly configured)
    # To run this, replace 'path/to/model.pdf' with a path to an actual fillable PDF
    # and ensure PDFTK_PATH is correctly set.
    # datas = {'firstname': 'John', 'lastname': 'Doe'}
    # try:
    #     filled_pdf = pypdftk.fill_form('path/to/model.pdf', datas)
    #     print(f"Filled form saved to: {filled_pdf}")
    # except Exception as e:
    #     print(f"Could not fill form (requires a real fillable PDF and pdftk setup): {e}")

finally:
    # Clean up temporary files
    os.remove(pdf_path1)
    os.remove(pdf_path2)
    if 'output_concat_pdf' in locals() and os.path.exists(output_concat_pdf):
        os.remove(output_concat_pdf)
    # if 'filled_pdf' in locals() and os.path.exists(filled_pdf):
    #     os.remove(filled_pdf)