Render text documents as HTML, PDF, and image files Leave feedback

GroupDocs.Viewer for Python allows you to convert text documents to HTML, PDF, PNG, and JPEG formats so you can view document content in a web browser, PDF or image viewer application.

To start with the GroupDocs.Viewer API, create a Viewer class instance. Pass a text document you want to view to the class constructor. You can load the document from a file or stream. Call one of the Viewer.view method overloads to convert the image to HTML, PDF, PNG, or JPEG format. These methods allow you to render the entire document or specific pages.

View text files online View demos and examples on GitHub

GroupDocs.Viewer supports the following text and programming file formats:

• .AS / .AS3 (ActionScript File)
• .ASM (Assembly Language Source Code File)
• .BAT (DOS Batch File)
• .C (C/C++ Source Code File)
• .CC (C++ Source Code File)
• .CMAKE (CMake File)
• .CPP (C++ Source Code File)
• .CS (C# Source Code File)
• .CSS (Cascading Style Sheet)
• .CXX (C++ Source Code File)
• .DIFF (Patch File)
• .ERB (Ruby ERB Script)
• .GROOVY (Groovy Source Code File)
• .H (C/C++/Objective-C Header File)
• .HAML (Haml Source Code File)
• .HH (C++ Header File)
• .JAVA (Java Source Code File)
• .JS (JavaScript File)
• .JSON (JavaScript Object Notation File)
• .LESS (LESS Style Sheet)
• .LOG (Log File)
• .M (Objective-C Implementation File)
• .MAKE (Xcode Makefile Script)
• .MD (Markdown Documentation File)
• .ML (ML Source Code File)
• .MM (Objective-C++ Source File)
• .PHP (PHP Source Code File)
• .PL (Perl Script)
• .PROPERTIES (Java Properties File)
• .PY (Python Script)
• .RB (Ruby Source Code)
• .RST (reStructuredText File)
• .SASS (Syntactically Awesome StyleSheets File)
• .SCALA (Scala Source Code File)
• .SCM (Scheme Source Code File)
• .SCRIPT (Generic Script File)
• .SH (Bash Shell Script)
• .SML (Standard ML Source Code File)
• .SQL (Structured Query Language Data File)
• .TXT (Plain Text File)
• .VB (Visual Basic Source Code File)
• .VIM (Vim Settings File)
• .XML (XML File)
• .YAML (YAML Document)

When you load a text document from a file, you should explicitly specify their format. To do this, create a LoadOptions class instance and use the FileType method. Then pass this instance to the Viewer class constructor.

# Specify the file encoding. 
load_options = gvo.LoadOptions(gv.FileType.MD)
# Convert the document to PDF.
with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt", load_options) as viewer:
    viewOptions = gvo.PdfViewOptions("output.pdf")
    viewer.view(viewOptions)

Create an HtmlViewOptions class instance and pass it to the Viewer.view method to convert a text file to HTML. The HtmlViewOptions class properties allow you to control the conversion process. For instance, you can embed all external resources in the generated HTML file, minify the output file, and optimize it for printing. Refer to the following documentation section for details: Rendering to HTML.

To save all elements of an HTML page (including text, graphics, and stylesheets) into a single file, call the HtmlViewOptions.forEmbeddedResources method and specify the output file name.

with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt") as viewer:
    # Convert the text file to HTML.
    # {0} is replaced with the current page number in the output file names.
    viewOptions = gvo.HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("page_{0}.html")
    viewer.view(viewOptions)

The following image demonstrates the result:

If you want to store output HTML files and additional resource files (such as fonts, images, and style sheets) separately, call the HtmlViewOptions.forExternalResources method and pass the following parameters:

• The output file path format
• The path format for the folder with external resources
• The resource URL format

with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt") as viewer:
    # Create an HTML file for each PDF page.
    # Specify the HTML file names and location of external resources.
    # {0} and {1} are replaced with the current page number and resource name, respectively.
    viewOptions = gvo.HtmlViewOptions.for_external_resources("page_{0}.html", "page_{0}/resource_{0}_{1}", "page_{0}/resource_{0}_{1}")
    viewer.view(viewOptions)

The image below demonstrates the result. External resources are placed in a separate folder.

If you need to display the entire document content on a single HTML page, use the HtmlViewOptions.setRenderToSinglePage method, as shown below:

with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt") as viewer:
    # Create an HTML file.
    viewOptions = gvo.HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("output.html")
    # Render the file to a single page. 
    viewOptions.render_to_single_page = True
    viewer.view(viewOptions)

Create a PdfViewOptions class instance and pass it to the Viewer.view method to convert a text file to PDF. The PdfViewOptions class properties allow you to control the conversion process. For instance, you can protect the output PDF file, reorder its pages, and specify the quality of document images. Refer to the following documentation section for details: Rendering to PDF.

with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt") as viewer:
    # Convert the text file to PDF.
    viewOptions = gvo.PdfViewOptions("output.pdf")
    viewer.view(viewOptions)

The following image demonstrates the result:

Create a PngViewOptions class instance and pass it to the Viewer.view method to convert a text file to PNG. Use the PngViewOptions.setHeight and PngViewOptions.setWidth methods to specify the output image size in pixels.

with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt") as viewer:
    # Convert the text file to PNG.
    # {0} is replaced with the current page number in the output image names.
    viewOptions = gvo.PngViewOptions("output_{0}.png")
    # Set width and height.
    viewOptions.width = 950
    viewOptions.height = 550
    viewer.view(viewOptions)

The following image demonstrates the result:

Create a JpgViewOptions class instance and pass it to the Viewer.view method to convert a text file to JPEG. Use the JpgViewOptions.setHeight and JpgViewOptions.setWidth methods to specify the output image size in pixels.

with gv.Viewer("TermsOfService.txt") as viewer:
    # Convert the text file to JPEG.
    # {0} is replaced with the current page number in the output image names.
    viewOptions = gvo.JpgViewOptions("output_{0}.jpg")
    # Set width and height.
    viewOptions.width = 950
    viewOptions.height = 550
    viewer.view(viewOptions)