Convert PDF page to image with pyPDF2 and BytesIO

python pdf pypdf2 bytesio
PrimuS picture PrimuS · Mar 11, 2017 · Viewed 12.9k times · Source

I have a function that gets a page from a PDF file via pyPdf2 and should convert the first page to a png (or jpg) with Pillow (PIL Fork)

from PyPDF2 import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader
import os
from PIL import Image
import io

# Open PDF Source #
app_path = os.path.dirname(__file__)
src_pdf= PdfFileReader(open(os.path.join(app_path, "../../../uploads/%s" % filename), "rb"))

# Get the first page of the PDF #
dst_pdf = PdfFileWriter()
dst_pdf.addPage(src_pdf.getPage(0))

# Create BytesIO #
pdf_bytes = io.BytesIO()
dst_pdf.write(pdf_bytes)
pdf_bytes.seek(0)

file_name = "../../../uploads/%s_p%s.png" % (name, pagenum)
img = Image.open(pdf_bytes)
img.save(file_name, 'PNG')
pdf_bytes.flush()

That results in an error:

OSError: cannot identify image file <_io.BytesIO object at 0x0000023440F3A8E0>

I found some threads with a similar issue, (PIL open() method not working with BytesIO) but I cannot see where I am wrong here, as I have pdf_bytes.seek(0) already added.

Any hints appreciated

Answer

Shuo picture Shuo · Mar 11, 2017

Per document:

write(stream) Writes the collection of pages added to this object out as a PDF file.

Parameters: stream – An object to write the file to. The object must support the write method and the tell method, similar to a file object.

So the object pdf_bytes contains a PDF file, not an image file.

The reason why there are codes like above work is: sometimes, the pdf file just contains a jpeg file as its content. If your pdf is just a normal pdf file, you can't just read the bytes and parse it as an image.

And refer to as a more robust implementation: https://stackoverflow.com/a/34116472/334999

Related questions

How to extract text from pdf in Python 3.7

I am trying to extract text from a PDF file using Python. My main goal is I am trying to create a program that reads a bank statement and extracts its text to update an excel file to easily record …

Read More
EOF marker not found while use PyPDF2 merge pdf file in python

When I use the following code from PyPDF2 import PdfFileMerger merge = PdfFileMerger() for newFile in nlst: merge.append(newFile) merge.write('newFile.pdf') Something happened as following: raise utils.PdfReadError("EOF marker not found") PyPDF2.utils.PdfReadError: EOF marker not …

Read More
PyPDF2 write doesn't work on some PDF files (Python 3.5.1)

First of all I am using Python 3.5.1 (32 bit version) I wrote the following program to add a pagenumber on all pages of my pdf files using PyPDF2 and reportlab: #import modules from os import listdir from PyPDF2 import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader …

Read More