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Building an online PDF editor from scratch
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Zbigniew Siciarz
January 21, 2013
Programming
3
990
Building an online PDF editor from scratch
My talk at PyWaw #20.
http://www.pywaw.org/21-01-2013
Zbigniew Siciarz
January 21, 2013
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Transcript
Building an online PDF editor from scratch PyWaw #20, 21.01.2013
Zbigniew Siciarz @zsiciarz http://siciarz.net
Why?
Disclaimer • still not a full-blown editor • proof of
concept • simple way to add rich media content to digital magazines
Current status
Links
Multimedia
Go to page
Everything is a link • website URLs (d’oh!) • multimedia
content (audio/video/galleries) • internal links („go to page”) • custom HTML5 widgets
Workflow 1. upload a PDF file 2. preprocessing on the
server 3. add widgets, links etc. in web editor 4. save and create package 5. publish to mobile devices 6. download package and display content Publisher
Preprocessing • run asynchronously as a queued task • extract
metadata from uploaded file • create page thumbnails (with ImageMagick) • find any existing links • mark as unpublished
Keep existing links! • extract links with PyPDF2 • store
in database as PdfLink objects • display in web editor
Dimensions and boxes • cartesian coordinate system • box is
a list of 4 floats: [x1, y1, x2, y2] • PDF units = 1/72”= pt x y (0, 0) (x1, y1) (x2, y2)
Dimensions and boxes • artBox
Dimensions and boxes • artBox • bleedBox
Dimensions and boxes • artBox • bleedBox • cropBox
Dimensions and boxes • artBox • bleedBox • cropBox •
mediaBox
Dimensions and boxes • artBox • bleedBox • cropBox •
mediaBox • trimBox
Dimensions and boxes • artBox • bleedBox • cropBox •
mediaBox • trimBox
PDF Encryption
Links • PDF annotations are messy • 4 (or more?)
different representations • indirect objects all the way down • reversed coordinates • peculiar edge cases still not covered
Watermarking • create blank PDF (watch out for page dimensions!)
• draw links with ReportLab • cross your fingers • merge with original file
Watermarking
Merging + =
Merging • PyPDF2 can’t properly merge PDFs with links :(
• ReportLab can’t extract links from PDFs* • several hours wasted on hacking PyPDF2 • pdftk…? • pdftk! *Open Source version
Merging • apply watermark page by page to original PDF
• does not work :( • works!
Final package • encrypted PDF + media assets • digitally
signed archive • publication = push notification to devices • mobile application downloads the package and displays content
Conclusion • sadly, 3 different toolkits are necessary to get
the job done PyPDF2 ReportLab pdftk Extract links Yes No* No Draw links No Yes No Merge and preserve links No No Yes *Open Source version
ReportLab PLUS? • „ Reuse your existing pdfs in new
and exciting ways” • might just work • pricey :(
Appendix
Appendix
Credits • Businessperson designed by Devochkina Oxana from The Noun
Project • Servers designed by Daniel Campos from The Noun Project • Maru - http://sisinmaru.blog17.fc2.com/
Questions?
Thank you!