AutoBaseDoc - Professional PDF Automation

Automated creation of professional PDF documents with advanced layout features using ReportLab and Matplotlib integration.

AutoBaseDoc is a Python library that extends ReportLab's capabilities to provide automated PDF document generation with sophisticated layout management, matplotlib integration, and professional styling. It's designed for creating reports, documentation, and complex multi-page documents with minimal code.

✨ Key Features

🎨 Flexible Layout System

Portrait and Landscape: Seamless switching between orientations
Multi-column Layouts: Configurable column structures with automatic flow
Frame Management: Advanced frame handling with automatic sizing
Mixed Formats: Combine different layouts within a single document

📊 Matplotlib Integration

Direct Plot Embedding: Convert matplotlib figures to PDF flowables
Automatic Scaling: Intelligent image resizing to fit frames
Vector Graphics: Preserve plot quality with PDF vector support
Consistent Styling: Unified font and color management

📑 Automatic Navigation

Table of Contents: Auto-generated with clickable links
PDF Bookmarks: Hierarchical navigation structure
Cross-references: Internal document linking
Page Numbering: Flexible header/footer management

✨ Professional Styling

Predefined Styles: Ready-to-use paragraph and heading styles
Custom Fonts: TTF font support with automatic registration
Color Management: Consistent color schemes
Template System: Reusable document templates

🚀 Installation

Standard Installation

pip install autobasedoc

Development Installation

git clone https://github.com/NuCOS/autobasedoc.git
cd autobasedoc
pip install -e .

Environment Setup Script

If you want to create a local virtual environment with all dependencies, you can run the helper script:

./setup_env.sh

Requirements

Python 3.6+
ReportLab 3.5+
Matplotlib 3.0+
Additional dependencies: svglib, pdfrw

📖 Quick Start

Basic Document Creation

import autobasedoc.autorpt as ar

# Create document with predefined templates
doc = ar.AutoDocTemplate(
    "my_report.pdf",
    onFirstPage=(ar.drawFirstPortrait, 0),
    onLaterPages=(ar.drawLaterPortrait, 0),
    title="My Professional Report"
)

# Initialize styles
styles = ar.Styles()

# Build content
content = []
content.append(ar.Paragraph("Executive Summary", styles.title))
content.append(ar.doTableOfContents())  # Auto-generated TOC
content.append(ar.Paragraph("Introduction", styles.h1))
content.append(ar.Paragraph("This is the content...", styles.normal))

# Generate PDF
doc.multiBuild(content)

Multi-column Layout

# Two-column landscape document
doc = ar.AutoDocTemplate(
    "newsletter.pdf",
    onFirstPage=(ar.drawFirstLandscape, 1),
    onLaterPages=(ar.drawLaterLandscape, 2),  # 2 columns
    pagesize=ar.landscape(ar.A4)
)

Headers and Footers

# Add professional headers and footers
doc.addPageInfo(typ="header", pos="l", text="Company Name")
doc.addPageInfo(typ="header", pos="r", text="Report Title")
doc.addPageInfo(typ="footer", pos="c", text="Page ", addPageNumber=True)
doc.addPageInfo(typ="footer", pos="r", text="Confidential")

Matplotlib Integration

import autobasedoc.autoplot as ap
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# Create a matplotlib figure
@ap.pdfplot()  # Decorator converts to PDF flowable
def create_chart():
    plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6))
    plt.plot([1, 2, 3, 4], [1, 4, 2, 3])
    plt.title("Sample Chart")
    plt.xlabel("X Axis")
    plt.ylabel("Y Axis")
    return plt.gcf()

# Add to document
chart = create_chart()
content.append(chart)

📁 Project Structure

autobasedoc/
├── autobasedoc/
│   ├── __init__.py          # Package initialization
│   ├── autorpt.py           # Core document templates
│   ├── autoplot.py          # Matplotlib integration
│   ├── styles.py            # Styling system
│   ├── pageinfo.py          # Header/footer management
│   ├── fonts.py             # Font management
│   ├── styledtable.py       # Advanced table layouts
│   ├── tableofcontents.py   # TOC generation
│   └── fonts/               # Bundled fonts
├── tests/                   # Test suite and examples
├── sphinx_doc/                    # Documentation source

🎯 Use Cases

Business Reports

Financial statements with charts and tables
Executive dashboards
Performance reports with automated data visualization

Technical Documentation

API documentation with code examples
Research papers with matplotlib plots
User manuals with mixed layouts

Academic Publications

Thesis documents with automatic formatting
Conference papers with figure management
Lab reports with data visualization

🔧 Advanced Features

Custom Page Templates

def custom_page_template(canv, doc):
    """Custom page template with company branding"""
    # Add logo, watermarks, custom headers
    canv.drawImage("logo.png", 50, 750, width=100, height=50)
    # Custom frame configuration
    ar.addPlugin(canv, doc, frame="Custom")

doc = ar.AutoDocTemplate(
    "branded_report.pdf",
    onFirstPage=(custom_page_template, 0)
)

Dynamic Content

# Conditional page breaks
content.append(ar.PageBreak())

# Automatic figure numbering
content.append(ar.doImage(chart, doc, "Sales Chart", styles))

# Keep elements together
content.append(ar.KeepTogether([heading, table]))

Table Styling

from autobasedoc.styledtable import StyledTable

# Create styled table with automatic formatting
table = StyledTable([
    ["Product", "Q1", "Q2", "Q3", "Q4"],
    ["Widget A", "100", "120", "110", "130"],
    ["Widget B", "80", "90", "95", "105"]
])
table.setTableStyle("grid")  # Predefined styles
content.append(table)

Splitting Large Tables

# Automatically break a long table into manageable pieces
first, second = table.split_table_iterative(frameInfo, available_height)
story.extend([first.as_flowable, PageBreak(), second.as_flowable])

📚 Documentation

Full Documentation: http://autobasedoc.readthedocs.io/
API Reference: Comprehensive function and class documentation
Examples Gallery: Visual examples of different layouts
Tutorials: Step-by-step guides for common tasks

🧪 Testing

Run Test Suite

# Using pytest
pytest tests/

# Using nose2
nose2

# Run specific test file
python tests/test_autoreport.py

Test Coverage

# Generate coverage report
pytest --cov=autobasedoc tests/

Example Scripts

# Run basic example
python tests/example.py

# Run advanced document example
python tests/example_document.py

🤝 Contributing

We welcome contributions! Please see our contributing guidelines:

Development Setup

git clone https://github.com/NuCOS/autobasedoc.git
cd autobasedoc
pip install -e ".[dev]"  # Install with development dependencies

Code Standards

Follow PEP 8 style guidelines
Add type hints for new functions
Include docstrings in NumPy format
Write tests for new features

Contribution Process

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

📋 Changelog

Version 1.1.10 (Current)

Enhanced matplotlib integration
Improved table styling
Bug fixes in frame management

Version 1.1.x

Multi-column layout support
Advanced header/footer system
Custom font management

See CHANGELOG.md for complete version history.

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Third-party Licenses

ReportLab: BSD License
Matplotlib: PSF License
See individual package documentation for complete license information

🆘 Support

Getting Help

Documentation: http://autobasedoc.readthedocs.io/
GitHub Issues: Report bugs and request features
Stack Overflow: Tag questions with autobasedoc

Commercial Support

For commercial support and custom development, contact: [email protected]

👥 Authors and Acknowledgments

Johannes Eckstein - @eckjoh2 - Lead Developer
Oliver Braun - Core Contributor

Special Thanks

ReportLab team for the excellent PDF library
Matplotlib community for visualization tools
Contributors and users providing feedback and improvements

🔗 Links

Homepage: https://github.com/NuCOS/autobasedoc
PyPI Package: https://pypi.org/project/autobasedoc/
Documentation: http://autobasedoc.readthedocs.io/
Issue Tracker: https://github.com/NuCOS/autobasedoc/issues

AutoBaseDoc - Making professional PDF generation simple and powerful.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 149 Commits
autobasedoc		autobasedoc
sphinx_doc		sphinx_doc
tests		tests
.gitignore		.gitignore
AGENTS.md		AGENTS.md
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
MANIFEST.in		MANIFEST.in
README.md		README.md
aftermath.py		aftermath.py
genie.sh		genie.sh
info.py		info.py
requirements.txt		requirements.txt
setup.cfg		setup.cfg
setup.py		setup.py
setup_env.sh		setup_env.sh

License

skidzo/autobasedoc

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