How to physically print python code in color from IDLE?

python python-2.7 printing syntax-highlighting python-idle
user1063287 picture user1063287 · May 30, 2013 · Viewed 20.2k times · Source

I have searched for an answer to this but the related solutions seem to concern 'print'ing in the interpreter.

I am wondering if it is possible to print (physically on paper) python code in color from IDLE?

I have gone to: File > Print Window in IDLE and it seems to just print out a black and white version without prompting whether to print in color etc.

Edit:

It seems like this might not be available so the option is to copy code to a text editor like SciTE and print from there - quite like the default IDLE syntax highlighting though.

Answer

alexis picture alexis · Nov 28, 2013

IDLE can't do it, but you can do it in an indirect way: Use LaTeX to format your script with the IDLE colors.

The listings package supports IDLE-like colorizing for python, but it's pretty well hidden: You must know to include a "preference file" that is mentioned in the listings manual, but without a description of its features. The following almost-minimal example will turn your script myscript.py into color PDF in the IDLE colors.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{listings}
\input{listings-python.prf}  % defines the python-idle-code style
\usepackage{textcomp} % Needed for straight quotes                               

\lstset{
 basicstyle=\normalsize\ttfamily, % size of the fonts for the code               
 language={Python},style={python-idle-code},
 showstringspaces=false,
 tabsize=4,
 upquote=true,   % Requires textcomp                                             
}

\oddsidemargin=-0.5cm
\textwidth=7in  % This just fits 80 characters at 10pt                           

\begin{document}
\lstinputlisting{myscript.py}
\end{document}

You could also include code snippets in a real LaTeX document.

Availability: You'll need at least listings version 1.5b (2013/08/26). Users of Texlive 2013 must download it from CTAN (e.g. with the command line texlive manager, tlmgr). It is part of TexLive 2016.

Unfortunately there still seems to be a problem with the CTAN version: The preferences file listings-python.prf is in the documentation folder for the package, not in tex/latex/listings where TeX can find it. You'll need to move it manually for the inclusion to work.

Related questions

Why is parenthesis in print voluntary in Python 2.7?

In Python 2.7 both the following will do the same print("Hello, World!") # Prints "Hello, World!" print "Hello, World!" # Prints "Hello, World!" However the following will not print("Hello,", "World!") # Prints the tuple: ("Hello,", "World!") print "Hello,", "World!" # Prints the words "…

Read More
python overwrite previous line

how do you overwrite the previous print in python 2.7? I am making a simple program to calculate pi. here is the code: o = 0 hpi = 1.0 i = 1 print "pi calculator" acc= int(raw_input("enter accuracy:")) if(acc>999999): print "WARNING: this …

Read More
Iterating over dictionaries using 'for' loops

I am a bit puzzled by the following code: d = {'x': 1, 'y': 2, 'z': 3} for key in d: print key, 'corresponds to', d[key] What I don't understand is the key portion. How does Python recognize that it needs only to …

Read More