How to Add Text to Existing PDFs Using Python: Library Requirements and Code Implementation

Adding Text to Existing PDFs with Python

Question:

How can I incorporate additional text into an existing PDF file using Python? Which external libraries are necessary for this task?

Answer:

To achieve this, a combination of PyPDF2 and ReportLab libraries can be employed, allowing for both Windows and Linux compatibility. Here's how:

Python 2.7 Example:

<code class="python">from pyPdf import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader
import StringIO
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter

packet = StringIO.StringIO()
can = canvas.Canvas(packet, pagesize=letter)
can.drawString(10, 100, "Hello world")
can.save()

packet.seek(0)
new_pdf = PdfFileReader(packet)
existing_pdf = PdfFileReader(file("original.pdf", "rb"))
output = PdfFileWriter()

page = existing_pdf.getPage(0)
page.mergePage(new_pdf.getPage(0))
output.addPage(page)

outputStream = file("destination.pdf", "wb")
output.write(outputStream)
outputStream.close()</code>

Python 3.x Example:

<code class="python">from PyPDF2 import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader
import io
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter

packet = io.BytesIO()
can = canvas.Canvas(packet, pagesize=letter)
can.drawString(10, 100, "Hello world")
can.save()

packet.seek(0)
new_pdf = PdfFileReader(packet)
existing_pdf = PdfFileReader(open("original.pdf", "rb"))
output = PdfFileWriter()

page = existing_pdf.pages[0]
page.merge_page(new_pdf.pages[0])
output.add_page(page)

output_stream = open("destination.pdf", "wb")
output.write(output_stream)
output_stream.close()</code>

By utilizing these libraries, you can effortlessly add text to existing PDF documents in both Python 2.7 and Python 3.x environments on both Windows and Linux platforms.

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