Michael Galvin wrote:
I am trying to use Python to send to the printer a calender filled
with a mix of text and simple graphics. I want to draw on the printed
page something like a table with 6 rows and 7 columns to represent a
calendar. I want to place text precisely within those boxes on the
printed page. I am using Python 2.4 on Windows XP
I was in the past able to do this within Visual Basic using its
printer object. Visual Basic's printer object uses a coordinate
system to allow you to draw lines and to place text on the printed
page precisely. I have attached a file "jan06call.jpg" to this message
to illustrate what I am trying to do.
Does Python have a module which would help me do this?
To put it another way, can Python control the placement of text and
graphics precisely on the printed page?
I have scoured my Python programming texts, python.org, and this
usenet group without success. Mark Lutz's wonderful book "Programming
Python" has not one reference to the word "printer" in its index.
Surely, I must be overlooking something or thinking about this wrong.
Michael Galvin
Muskegon, MI
This does something like you want using piddle. It is designed to make
a pdf of a calendar on a sheet of paper that has times blocked out (the
add_data and print_action methods).
import sys, os, string, re, calendar, time, datetime, copy
from optparse import OptionParser
from piddlePDF import *
class output_pdf:
setup = { #constants to use for spacing
"upperleftx": 0.75*72,
"upperlefty": 1*72,
"rowoffset": 2.0 * 72,
"coloffset": 1.0 * 72,
"vert_margin": 25,
"horz_margin": 25,
}
canvas = PDFCanvas() # backend you want to test
def __init__(self, year, month, title ):
### global canvas
self.printcal( year, month, title)
def printcal(self, year, month, label):
""" prints the days, and times and outside boxes for each day.
sets up a dictionary with the x and y offset for each day.
"""
global calpos
calpos = {}
wkdaytxt = ['Sun', 'Mon', 'Tues', 'Wed', 'Thurs', 'Fri', 'Sat']
calendar.setfirstweekday(calendar.SUNDAY)
# use calendar to figure out days for dates (a list of lists)
month_cal= calendar.monthcalendar( year, month)
#figure out how many weeks and days
daywk1st, days= calendar.monthrange( year, month)
if len(month_cal) == 6: self.setup["rowoffset"] = 1.8*72
self.canvas.drawString(label,
10,
self.setup["upperlefty"]- 40,
Font(face="sansserif",size=16,bold=1),
color=green)
for row, wk in enumerate(month_cal):
topy = self.setup["upperlefty"]+ row*self.setup["rowoffset"]
self.canvas.drawString('00:00', 10, topy+4,
Font(face="sansserif",size=8,bold=1),
color=darkorange)
self.canvas.drawString('12:00', 10,
topy+4+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*.5 ,
Font(face="sansserif",size=8,bold=1),
color=darkorange)
self.canvas.drawLine( self.setup["upperleftx"]-10,
topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*.5,
self.setup["upperleftx"]+
7*self.setup["coloffset"],
topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*.5,
color=darkorange, width=1 )
self.canvas.drawString('08:00', 10,
topy+4+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*(8/24.0) ,
Font(face="sansserif",size=6,bold=1),
color=darkorange)
self.canvas.drawLine( self.setup["upperleftx"]-10,
topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*(8/24.0),
self.setup["upperleftx"]+
7*self.setup["coloffset"],
topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*(8/24.0),
color=darkorange, width=1 )
self.canvas.drawString('17:00', 10,
topy+4+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*(17/24.0) ,
Font(face="sansserif",size=6,bold=1),
color=darkorange)
self.canvas.drawLine( self.setup["upperleftx"]-10,
topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*(17/24.0),
self.setup["upperleftx"]+
7*self.setup["coloffset"],
topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])*(17/24.0),
color=darkorange, width=1 )
self.canvas.drawString('24:00', 10,
topy+4+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"]) ,
Font(face="sansserif",size=8,bold=1),
color=darkorange)
for col, date in enumerate(wk):
topx = self.setup["upperleftx"]+
col*self.setup["coloffset"]
self.canvas.drawString(wkdaytxt[col],
topx,
self.setup["upperlefty"]*.7,
Font(face="sansserif",size=16,bold=1),
color=green)
topx = self.setup["upperleftx"]+
col*self.setup["coloffset"]
topy = self.setup["upperlefty"]+
row*self.setup["rowoffset"]
calpos[date] = (topx, topy)
for i in range(days):
topx, topy = calpos[i+1]
self.canvas.drawRect( topx, topy,
(topx+(self.setup["coloffset"]-self.setup["horz_margin"])),
(topy+(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"])),
edgeColor=black, edgeWidth=2,
fillColor=transparent)
self.canvas.drawString('%d'%(i+1), topx, topy-2 ,
Font(face="sansserif",size=12,bold=1),
color=red)
def date_str2value(self,intime):
tuple_names = ["tm_year", "tm_mon", "tm_mday", "tm_hour",
"tm_min", "tm_sec", "tm_wday", "tm_yday", "tm_isdst"]
t_tuple = time.localtime(intime)
t_dict = {}
for i, name in enumerate(tuple_names):
t_dict[name] = t_tuple[i]
floattime = (float(t_dict['tm_hour'])*60 +
float(t_dict['tm_min']))/float(24*60)
return t_dict, floattime
def print_action(self,year,month, action):
##action_list = re.split(r'\t', action)
##starttime = action_list[1]
##endtime = action_list[2]
client = action['destination']
s_dict, s_time = self.date_str2value(action['start_sec'])
e_dict, e_time = self.date_str2value(action['stop_sec'])
##print s_dict, s_time, ":-:", e_dict, e_time
if (s_dict['tm_mday'] == e_dict['tm_mday'] and
s_dict['tm_mon'] == int(month) and
s_dict['tm_year'] == int(year)):
topx, topy = calpos[s_dict['tm_mday']]
ypos_start = topy + (s_time *
(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"]))
ypos_end = topy + (e_time *
(self.setup["rowoffset"]-self.setup["vert_margin"]))
right_side = topx +
(self.setup["coloffset"]-self.setup["horz_margin"])
self.canvas.drawRect( topx, ypos_start,
right_side, ypos_end,
edgeColor=black, edgeWidth=1,
fillColor=skyblue)
self.canvas.drawString(client, topx+2, ypos_start+5,
Font(face="sansserif",size=5,bold=0),
color=darkorchid)
def add_data(self, year, month, data):
for action in data:
#print "adding data", action
self.print_action(year, month, action)
def save(self, filename):
self.canvas.flush()
self.canvas.save(filename)
