chromecodepdf

A Python script that converts code files into syntax-highlighted PDF documents using Chrome and Pygments.

Features

• Headless Chrome: Renders HTML to PDF, ensuring consistent appearance across platforms.
• Syntax Highlighting using Pygments for various programming languages.
• Multiple Columns: Use --columns to split the output into multiple columns.
• Customizable Styles: Specify a color style with --style (any supported Pygments style).
• Python 2 & 3 compatible
• Windows & POSIX support
• Unicode-safe, including non-ASCII paths

Requirements

• Chrome, Chromium, or Microsoft Edge
  • A headless Chrome executable must be installed and discoverable.
  • If Chrome is not auto-detected, provide its path with --chrome-path.

Usage

# Basic single-file conversion
python -m chromecodepdf file1.py

# Multiple files at once
python -m chromecodepdf script.sh code.c

# Specify columns
python -m chromecodepdf --columns=2 code.c

# Override default syntax style (e.g., 'friendly')
python -m chromecodepdf --style=friendly script.sh

# Specify a custom Chrome path (if auto-detection fails)
python -m chromecodepdf --chrome-path="/usr/bin/google-chrome" file1.py

Example: Running on Windows with Non-ASCII Paths

Example command:

C:\Users\jifengwu2k\packages\chromecodepdf>python -m chromecodepdf -c 2 "..\..\路径 有空格\名字 有空 格.py"

This example combines deep relative paths, Unicode, and spaces to demonstrate full Unicode and shell compatibility - a scenario where many tools break. ⚠️ Note: When used Windows, Unicode paths may appear garbled in the console (e.g., 璺緞...).
This happens because the browser may output text encoded in UTF-8, while the Windows console expects mbcs (legacy ANSI code page). Simulate via u'C:\\Users\\jifengwu\\路径 有空格\\名字 有空格.pdf'.encode('utf-8').decode('mbcs'). The file is still written correctly - this is a console display issue only.

Sample output:

INFO: Using Chrome executable C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\msedge.exe
76882 bytes written to file C:\Users\jifengwu\璺緞 鏈夌┖鏍糪鍚嶅瓧 鏈夌┖鏍?pdfINFO: Success: Created 'C:\Users\jifengwu\路径 有空格\名字 有空格.pdf'
INFO: Conversion complete: 1 succeeded, 0 failed

How It Works

1. Read the Source File: The script reads each file's content.
2. Apply Syntax Highlighting: Uses Pygments to convert code into HTML with inline styles.
3. Generate Temporary HTML: Wraps the highlighted code in an HTML template and saves it to a temporary HTML file.
4. Convert HTML to PDF: Launches headless Chrome (via the --headless flag) to produce a PDF, respecting multi-column CSS.
5. Cleanup: Deletes any temporary HTML files upon completion. Logs successes and failures.

License

This script is released under the MIT License.

Contributing

Pull requests are welcome. For major changes, please open an issue first to discuss what you'd like to change.