Re: convert pdf to png
Seeing these options, I think it is much better to serve the PDFs directly, it's very simple, and very efficient on the server. If you're afraid that not everyone have PDF readers, direct them to Adobe's site or serve the installation files on the server. The installation for the reader is a one-off download, so it should only choke the server for the first several weeks. AFAIK the OP wants to render previews for display on the site - certainly a nice feature. Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Diez B. Roggisch wrote: Seeing these options, I think it is much better to serve the PDFs directly, it's very simple, and very efficient on the server. If you're afraid that not everyone have PDF readers, direct them to Adobe's site or serve the installation files on the server. The installation for the reader is a one-off download, so it should only choke the server for the first several weeks. AFAIK the OP wants to render previews for display on the site - certainly a nice feature. Exactly. As far as pre-processing goes: the pdf is generated from data the user just entered into a web page. it may not even be saved to the DB yet. the new ImageMagick bindings should do what I need: http://www.procoders.net/?p=39 Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Good point. Not that I am willing to risk it (just using the pdf is not such a bad option) but I am wondering if it would make sense to create a ramdrive for something like this. if memory is needed, swap would happen, which should be better than creating files. You mean permanently deprivating your server of it's precious ram than only temporarily? And so far, swapping has always been the worst thing to happen for me - whereas mere disk-IO didn't slow _everything_ down. You should really check your premises on what is affecting performance, and what not. And get a faster server... Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
On Dec 27, 7:33 pm, Diez B. Roggisch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Good point. Not that I am willing to risk it (just using the pdf is not such a bad option) but I am wondering if it would make sense to create a ramdrive for something like this. if memory is needed, swap would happen, which should be better than creating files. You mean permanently deprivating your server of it's precious ram than only temporarily? And so far, swapping has always been the worst thing to happen for me - whereas mere disk-IO didn't slow _everything_ down. You should really check your premises on what is affecting performance, and what not. And get a faster server... Diez What resources this server is lacking currently? Harddisk space Harddisk bandwidth (the server just wouldn't stop reading/writing at peak times) RAM Network CPU In short, what resource is the most precious and what resources you still have spares? Possible option: * Serve the PDFs directly -- Harddisk space - low, as it's not converted -- Harddisk bandwidth - low, depends on how much its requested -- RAM - low, virtually no RAM usage -- Network - low, depends on how much its requested -- CPU - low, virtually no processing is done -- The simplest to implement, moderate difficulty for users that don't have PDF reader -- Users that don't have a PDF reader might experience difficulties, nowadays most people have Adobe Reader on their computer, and most people at least know about it. Many computers are also preinstalled with a pdf reader. * Preconvert to PNGs, the conversion is done at another computer to not restrain the server -- Harddisk space - High, as file is saved as image file -- Harddisk bandwidth - Moderate, as there are many files and overall are big -- RAM - low, virtually no RAM usage -- Network - Moderate, as the total file served is big -- CPU - Low, virtually no processing is done -- Simple * Serve a precompressed, preconverted PNGs -- Harddisk space - Moderate-high, should be smaller than just PNG -- Harddisk bandwidth - Moderate-High, as files can't be served in chunks -- RAM - Low, Virtually no RAM usage -- Network - High, as files can't be served in chunks -- CPU - Low, virtually no processing is done -- Moderately-Simple -- Might be problem if users don't have unzipper (XP, Vista, and most Linux provides unzipper on default installation, older OSes might not) -- Files can't be served in chunks, users have to download whole zip before opening any * Convert the PDFs to PNG on the fly: -- Harddisk space - Low, take as much as serving direct PDF -- Harddisk bandwidth - Moderate to Low, depending on implementation -- RAM - Moderate, as processing is done, RAM is clearly needed -- Network - Moderate, as the files served as PNG -- CPU - High, complex processing is done on the CPU before the file can be sent to the network -- Complex to implement Seeing these options, I think it is much better to serve the PDFs directly, it's very simple, and very efficient on the server. If you're afraid that not everyone have PDF readers, direct them to Adobe's site or serve the installation files on the server. The installation for the reader is a one-off download, so it should only choke the server for the first several weeks. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K schrieb: Diez B. Roggisch wrote: Carl K schrieb: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. So what? I'm not sure about current HD speeds, but a couple of years ago these were about 30MByte/s - and should be faster today. Which equals 240MBit/s, much more than your user's internet connection. and this is raw IO speed, not counting disk caches. server is doing a ton of SQL queries (yes, moving to a 2nd box would be nice. might happen mid 2008) so adding HD is an issue. not sure how much, but enough to try to avoid it. Keeping stuff in memory provoking paging isn't? In other words: given the overall latency of a network connection, your file operations shouldn't shave off more than a split-second. those split seconds can add up. The server is aleady overloaded, so adding more is a big no no. So if you _can_ go the subprocess-road, do it. It's the easiest way. And withou further knowledge of the GS-library (that you lack, as do I) - how do you know that it works in memory, and doesn't actually expect a file-name or pointer? I am willing to take that chance. much better than the 6 hits I know would happen using I have a feeling if I have to create a file, we will go with plan B: send the client a pdf and let the user deal with it. Not as nice and slick, but won't bog the server. I have the feeling you just go by your feelings. Which is always a bad idea regarding performance bottlenecks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimization_(computer_science) So instead of jumping through hoops getting something done the hard way without knowing how the easy solution affects performance, implement the feature the easiest way. And SEE if it causes trouble. Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K wrote: Rob Wolfe wrote: Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I need to take the take the pdf output from reportlab and create a preview image for a web page. so png or something. I am sure ghostscript will be involved. I am guessing PIL or ImageMagic ? all sugestions welcome. Did you try to use `reportPM` from rl_addons [1]_? This is an extension of the reportlab package. There is also PIL needed and on my linux box I needed some additional fonts [2]_. And then I could create PNG directly from reportlab, e.g: code from reportlab.graphics.shapes import Drawing, String from reportlab.graphics import renderPM d = Drawing(400, 200) d.add(String(150, 100, 'Hello World', fontSize=18)) renderPM.drawToFile(d, 'test.png', 'PNG') /code .. [1] http://www.reportlab.co.uk/svn/public/reportlab/trunk/rl_addons/ .. [2] http://www.reportlab.com/ftp/fonts/pfbfer.zip This sounds like what I was looking for. some how this got missed when I poked around reportlab land. Thanks much. Carl K Beware... AFAIK this is only a backend for reportlab graphics drawings, IOW it will render drawings and charts from the reportlab.graphics package but will not render reportlab pdf canvas. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-25, Diez B. Roggisch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Carl K schrieb: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. So what? I'm not sure about current HD speeds, but a couple of years ago these were about 30MByte/s - and should be faster today. Which equals 240MBit/s, much more than your user's internet connection. and this is raw IO speed, not counting disk caches. Unless the file is really huge (or the server is overloaded), The server is already overloaded, the bytes will probably never even hit a platter. If you're using any even remotely modern OS, short-lived tempfiles used as you desdcribe are basically just memory-buffers with a filesystem API. Good point. Not that I am willing to risk it (just using the pdf is not such a bad option) but I am wondering if it would make sense to create a ramdrive for something like this. if memory is needed, swap would happen, which should be better than creating files. Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] (CK) wrote: CK Here is what the code looks like that generates the pdf: CK buffer = StringIO() CK rw = dReportWriter(OutputFile=buffer, ReportFormFile=xmlfile, Cursor=ds) CK rw.write() CK pdf = buffer.getvalue() CK return pdf You can pipe the pdf through ghostscript and read the png back from ghostscript's stdout. Like: gs -q -sDEVICE=png16m -sOutputFile=- - Use that command in subprocess with the stdin/stdout as pipes, send your PDF data to the process and read the PNG output back. However you must be aware that this can deadlock if the output is large enough. So putting the input or the output in a real file is probably safer anyway. -- Piet van Oostrum [EMAIL PROTECTED] URL: http://www.cs.uu.nl/~piet [PGP 8DAE142BE17999C4] Private email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K schrieb: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. So what? I'm not sure about current HD speeds, but a couple of years ago these were about 30MByte/s - and should be faster today. Which equals 240MBit/s, much more than your user's internet connection. and this is raw IO speed, not counting disk caches. In other words: given the overall latency of a network connection, your file operations shouldn't shave off more than a split-second. So if you _can_ go the subprocess-road, do it. It's the easiest way. And withou further knowledge of the GS-library (that you lack, as do I) - how do you know that it works in memory, and doesn't actually expect a file-name or pointer? Diez -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I need to take the take the pdf output from reportlab and create a preview image for a web page. so png or something. I am sure ghostscript will be involved. I am guessing PIL or ImageMagic ? all sugestions welcome. Did you try to use `reportPM` from rl_addons [1]_? This is an extension of the reportlab package. There is also PIL needed and on my linux box I needed some additional fonts [2]_. And then I could create PNG directly from reportlab, e.g: code from reportlab.graphics.shapes import Drawing, String from reportlab.graphics import renderPM d = Drawing(400, 200) d.add(String(150, 100, 'Hello World', fontSize=18)) renderPM.drawToFile(d, 'test.png', 'PNG') /code .. [1] http://www.reportlab.co.uk/svn/public/reportlab/trunk/rl_addons/ .. [2] http://www.reportlab.com/ftp/fonts/pfbfer.zip HTH, Rob -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Diez B. Roggisch wrote: Carl K schrieb: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. So what? I'm not sure about current HD speeds, but a couple of years ago these were about 30MByte/s - and should be faster today. Which equals 240MBit/s, much more than your user's internet connection. and this is raw IO speed, not counting disk caches. server is doing a ton of SQL queries (yes, moving to a 2nd box would be nice. might happen mid 2008) so adding HD is an issue. not sure how much, but enough to try to avoid it. In other words: given the overall latency of a network connection, your file operations shouldn't shave off more than a split-second. those split seconds can add up. The server is aleady overloaded, so adding more is a big no no. So if you _can_ go the subprocess-road, do it. It's the easiest way. And withou further knowledge of the GS-library (that you lack, as do I) - how do you know that it works in memory, and doesn't actually expect a file-name or pointer? I am willing to take that chance. much better than the 6 hits I know would happen using I have a feeling if I have to create a file, we will go with plan B: send the client a pdf and let the user deal with it. Not as nice and slick, but won't bog the server. Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Rob Wolfe wrote: Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I need to take the take the pdf output from reportlab and create a preview image for a web page. so png or something. I am sure ghostscript will be involved. I am guessing PIL or ImageMagic ? all sugestions welcome. Did you try to use `reportPM` from rl_addons [1]_? This is an extension of the reportlab package. There is also PIL needed and on my linux box I needed some additional fonts [2]_. And then I could create PNG directly from reportlab, e.g: code from reportlab.graphics.shapes import Drawing, String from reportlab.graphics import renderPM d = Drawing(400, 200) d.add(String(150, 100, 'Hello World', fontSize=18)) renderPM.drawToFile(d, 'test.png', 'PNG') /code .. [1] http://www.reportlab.co.uk/svn/public/reportlab/trunk/rl_addons/ .. [2] http://www.reportlab.com/ftp/fonts/pfbfer.zip This sounds like what I was looking for. some how this got missed when I poked around reportlab land. Thanks much. Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
On 2007-12-25, Diez B. Roggisch [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Carl K schrieb: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. So what? I'm not sure about current HD speeds, but a couple of years ago these were about 30MByte/s - and should be faster today. Which equals 240MBit/s, much more than your user's internet connection. and this is raw IO speed, not counting disk caches. Unless the file is really huge (or the server is overloaded), the bytes will probably never even hit a platter. If you're using any even remotely modern OS, short-lived tempfiles used as you desdcribe are basically just memory-buffers with a filesystem API. -- Grant -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K wrote: Andrew MacIntyre wrote: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. Using ctypes to call Ghostscript's API also works well. I've only done this on Windows, but it should also work on other systems with ctypes support. sounds good, but I have 0.0 clue what that actually means. Can you give me what you did with windows in hopes that I can figure out how to do it in Linux? I am guessing it shouldn't be to different. (well, hoping...) ctypes is a foreign function interface (FFI) extension that became part of the standard library with Python 2.5 ( is available for 2.3 2.4). It is supported on Linux, *BSD Solaris (I think) in addition to Windows. Ghostscript for quite some time has had support for being used as a library (DLL on Windows). There are only a small number of API functions exported, and there is information about the net for calling these API functions from Visual Basic. I wrote a wrapper module using ctypes for the API based on the C header and the VB information. To get the best rendering, some understanding of Ghostscript options is required particularly for image format outputs (eg for anti-aliasing text). -- - Andrew I MacIntyre These thoughts are mine alone... E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (pref) | Snail: PO Box 370 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (alt) |Belconnen ACT 2616 Web:http://www.andymac.org/ |Australia -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
On Dec 24, 2007 7:53 AM, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I need to take the take the pdf output from reportlab and create a preview image for a web page. so png or something. I am sure ghostscript will be involved. I am guessing PIL or ImageMagic ? all sugestions welcome. Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list PIL's support for pdf files is write only, so thats out of the question. I just tried ImageMagik from the console and it converted a pdf into png in a snap, so that seems to be your best bet. -- nasser -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K wrote: I need to take the take the pdf output from reportlab and create a preview image for a web page. so png or something. I am sure ghostscript will be involved. I am guessing PIL or ImageMagic ? all sugestions welcome. If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png Jaap -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Jaap Spies wrote: Carl K wrote: I need to take the take the pdf output from reportlab and create a preview image for a web page. so png or something. I am sure ghostscript will be involved. I am guessing PIL or ImageMagic ? all sugestions welcome. If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. I also need something that is easy to install. (either easy_install or a distro package) I just looked at what it takes to install PythonMagick: Requists for installation is: boost boost-python python 2.5 Magick++ (= 6.2) and for building: pkg-config libtool make That is looking like maybe not easy to install so I need to make an easy_install-able .tgz or some other way of making the image. Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. I also need something that is easy to install. (either easy_install or a distro package) That's a problem. -- Grant -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Carl K wrote: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. Carl K Are you clever and am I stupid? I did not read this in your original post! Jaap -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. Using ctypes to call Ghostscript's API also works well. I've only done this on Windows, but it should also work on other systems with ctypes support. -- - Andrew I MacIntyre These thoughts are mine alone... E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (pref) | Snail: PO Box 370 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (alt) |Belconnen ACT 2616 Web:http://www.andymac.org/ |Australia -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Andrew MacIntyre wrote: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. Using ctypes to call Ghostscript's API also works well. I've only done this on Windows, but it should also work on other systems with ctypes support. sounds good, but I have 0.0 clue what that actually means. Can you give me what you did with windows in hopes that I can figure out how to do it in Linux? I am guessing it shouldn't be to different. (well, hoping...) Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
Re: convert pdf to png
Jaap Spies wrote: Carl K wrote: Grant Edwards wrote: On 2007-12-24, Carl K [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: If it is a multi page pdf Imagemagick will do: convert file.pdf page-%03d.png I need python code to do this. It is going to be run on a someone else's shared host web server, security and performance is an issue. So I would rather not run stuff via popen. Use subprocess. Trying to eliminate popen because of the overhead when running ghostscript to render PDF (I assume convert uses gs?) is about like trimming an elephants toenails to save weight. maybe, but I wouldn't be so sure. currently the pdf is created in a python StringIO buffer and returned to the browser; so it never becomes a file. using convert means I have to first save it as a file, convert from file to file, read the file, delete the 2 files. so 6 file operations where before there were none. That may be more of a load than the ghostscript part. Carl K Are you clever and am I stupid? I did not read this in your original post! Here is what the code looks like that generates the pdf: buffer = StringIO() rw = dReportWriter(OutputFile=buffer, ReportFormFile=xmlfile, Cursor=ds) rw.write() pdf = buffer.getvalue() return pdf Carl K -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
