Converting docx to pdf with pure python (on linux, without libreoffice)

Question

I'm dealing with a problem trying to develop a web-app, part of which converts uploaded docx files to pdf files (after some processing). With python-docx and other methods, I do not require a windows machine with word installed, or even libreoffice on linux, for most of the processing (my web server is pythonanywhere - linux but without libreoffice and without sudo or apt install permissions). But converting to pdf seems to require one of those. From exploring questions here and elsewhere, this is what I have so far:

import subprocess

try:
    from comtypes import client
except ImportError:
    client = None

def doc2pdf(doc):
    """
    convert a doc/docx document to pdf format
    :param doc: path to document
    """
    doc = os.path.abspath(doc) # bugfix - searching files in windows/system32
    if client is None:
        return doc2pdf_linux(doc)
    name, ext = os.path.splitext(doc)
    try:
        word = client.CreateObject('Word.Application')
        worddoc = word.Documents.Open(doc)
        worddoc.SaveAs(name + '.pdf', FileFormat=17)
    except Exception:
        raise
    finally:
        worddoc.Close()
        word.Quit()


def doc2pdf_linux(doc):
    """
    convert a doc/docx document to pdf format (linux only, requires libreoffice)
    :param doc: path to document
    """
    cmd = 'libreoffice --convert-to pdf'.split() + [doc]
    p = subprocess.Popen(cmd, stderr=subprocess.PIPE, stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
    p.wait(timeout=10)
    stdout, stderr = p.communicate()
    if stderr:
        raise subprocess.SubprocessError(stderr)

As you can see, one method requires comtypes, another requires libreoffice as a subprocess. Other than switching to a more sophisticated hosting server, is there any solution?

Answer 1

The PythonAnywhere help pages offer information on working with PDF files here: https://help.pythonanywhere.com/pages/PDF

Summary: PythonAnywhere has a number of Python packages for PDF manipulation installed, and one of them may do what you want. However, shelling out to abiword seems easiest to me. The shell command abiword --to=pdf filetoconvert.docx will convert the docx file to a PDF and produce a file named filetoconvert.pdf in the same directory as the docx. Note that this command will output an error message to the standard error stream complaining about XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (or at least it did for me), but it still works, and the error message can be ignored.

Answer 2

Another one you could use is libreoffice, however as the first responder said the quality will never be as good as using the actual comtypes.

anyways, after you have installed libreoffice, here is the code to do it.

from subprocess import  Popen
LIBRE_OFFICE = r"C:\Program Files\LibreOffice\program\soffice.exe"

def convert_to_pdf(input_docx, out_folder):
    p = Popen([LIBRE_OFFICE, '--headless', '--convert-to', 'pdf', '--outdir',
               out_folder, input_docx])
    print([LIBRE_OFFICE, '--convert-to', 'pdf', input_docx])
    p.communicate()


sample_doc = 'file.docx'
out_folder = 'some_folder'
convert_to_pdf(sample_doc, out_folder)

Answer 3

Here is docx to pdf code for linux (for windows just download libreoffice and put soffice path instead of soffice)

import subprocess

def generate_pdf(doc_path, path):

    subprocess.call(['soffice',
                 # '--headless',
                 '--convert-to',
                 'pdf',
                 '--outdir',
                 path,
                 doc_path])
    return doc_path
generate_pdf("docx_path.docx", "output_path")

Answer 4

You can use Aspose.Words for Python to convert DOCX and other document formats to PDF. Code is simple - load a document and save it as PDF:

import aspose.words as aw

doc = aw.Document("in.docx")
doc.save("out.pdf")

Additional conversions options can be specified using PdfSaveOptions, for example PDF compliance: https://docs.aspose.com/words/python-net/convert-a-document-to-pdf/ Though there are additional requirements for Aspose.Words for Python under Linux: https://docs.aspose.com/words/python-net/system-requirements/#system-requirements-for-target-linux-platform

Note: Aspose.Words is a commercial product and has two main limitations in evaluation mode:

• It adds an evaluation watermark into the document
• It limits the maximum size of the document to several hundreds of paragraphs.

If you would like to test Aspose.Words without evaluation version limitations, you can request a free 30-days temporary license

The license should be applied through the code:

lic = aw.License()
lic.set_license("C:\\Temp\\Aspose.Word.Python.NET.lic")

Moe information here: https://docs.aspose.com/words/python-net/licensing/

Answer 5

I have tried Alexey answer: the tool aspose.words is perfect for conversion but the generated pdf file have watermark, also it contains statements in red ( for evaluation purposes)

def download_approval(request, project_id):
    project = get_object_or_404(Project, pk=project_id)
    doc = DocxTemplate('letter.docx')
    context = {
        'ref_num': project.ref_num,
        'author_name': project.author.get_full_name,
        'approval_date': project.approved_date.date(),
        'project_title': project.title_en
    }
    doc.render(context)
    file_path = project.ref_num + '_' + 'approval_letter.docx'
    full_path = os.path.join(MEDIA_URL, 'approval/') + file_path
    doc.save(full_path)
    doc_final = aw.Document(full_path)
    response = HttpResponse(doc_final.save('research_permission_request.pdf'), content_type='application/pdf')
    response['Content-Disposition'] = 'inline; filename=' + os.path.basename(full_path)
    return response

Answer 6

I found a simpliest way to do that in Linux Env...

import os

os.system("lowriter --convert-to pdf" +str(" ") + str(file_path))