Python PDF Tools

Metadata

• Project Owner: @dark-teal-coder
• First Published Date: 2024-11-25

Project

• Title: Python PDF Tools
• Difficulty:
  • Beginner
  • Intermediate
  • Advanced
• Scale:
  • Small
  • Medium
  • Large

Repository Description

This project uses the Python library PyPDF2 to make PDF tools. When the main program is run, the user will be given the function menu with, currently, 3 options: 1.) merge PDF files, 2.) split a PDF file, and 3.) compress a PDF file. The user should put the input file(s) in the "input" folder and can obtain the output file(s) in the "output" folder.

Installation

Python Development Tools

• Python 3
  • Download and install Python 3 from python.org.
• Python Package Installer/Manager pip
  • If you installed Python from python.org, you should already have pip. If it is not installed, you can use the command py -m ensurepip --default-pip to bootstrap it from the standard library. If you are using Linux, you will have to install the package manager separately. You can find out more about the pip tool here.
• Text Editor and Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
  • Download and install the text editor Notepad++.
  • Download and install the IDE Visual Studio Code (VS Code).
  • Install the web-based app Jupyter Notebook with pip
  • Install the web-based IDE JupyterLab with pip
  • Install Anaconda to get Jupyter Notebook
• Command-line interface (CLI)
  • You can install the open-source PowerShell on Windows, Linux and macOS if you do not have or want to use a pre-installed CLI on your local machine.

Python Libraries

Check if you have Python installed using the command python --version, or simply, python version, in the CLI. Git-clone the project repository from Github to the local machine. Use the command py -m pip install package_name to install the necessary Python libraries. Check out pip documentation to learn more about pip install. Check the top part of the .py script file for the list of libraries required. For example, you may need requests and beautifulsoup4 libraries if you see the following lines in the top part of the script file:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup

If pip fails to locate the relevant packages, you may find it at Python Package Index (PyPI). Use python file_name.py to run the script in a CLI. Or, use an IDE, such as VS Code, to run the script. There will usually be a [Run] button in the top right corner of the opened script file.

Credits

Contributors

• @dark-teal-coder

References

• How to Set Up a Virtual Environment in Python – And Why It's Useful

 

1st Completion Date: Nov 26, 2024