Multiple templates in one document

[slkoo-core]

From the documentation site:

Of course, you can just as well use a set of full-page templates, possibly differentiating between cover page, table of contents, normal content pages, and an index page, or something along those lines.

How would one do this with Template or FlexTemplate? I tried running the code as below but FlexTemplate doesn't appear after page 2, while Template could not work with external pdf.

from fpdf import FPDF
from fpdf import FlexTemplate


class PDF(FPDF):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.template_cover = None
        self.template_content = None


# Initialize PDF
pdf = PDF()
pdf.set_margins(10, 20)

# --- DEFINE COVER TEMPLATE ---
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_auto_page_break(False)

template_cover = FlexTemplate(pdf)
template_cover.load_elements(
    [
        {
            "name": "title",
            "type": "T",
            "x1": 10,
            "y1": 100,
            "x2": 190,
            "y2": 20,
            "size": 24,
            "font": "Arial",
            "align": "C",
            "bold": 1,
            "italic": 0,
            "underline": 1,
        }
    ]
)

# Apply cover template
template_cover["title"] = "My Custom Cover Page"

template_cover.render()

# --- DEFINE CONTENT PAGE TEMPLATE WITH HEADER & FOOTER ---
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_auto_page_break(True)

template_content = FlexTemplate(pdf)
template_content.load_elements(
    [
        {
            "name": "header",
            "type": "T",
            "x1": 10,
            "y1": 10,
            "x2": 190,
            "y2": 10,
            "size": 12,
            "font": "Arial",
            "align": "C",
        },
        {
            "name": "footer",
            "type": "T",
            "x1": 10,
            "y1": 280,
            "x2": 190,
            "y2": 280,
            "size": 10,
            "font": "Arial",
            "align": "C",
            "text": f"Page {pdf.page_no()}",
        },
    ]
)

template_content["header"] = "Header on Content Page"
template_content["footer"] = f"Page {pdf.page_no()}"

# Render content page with header and footer
template_content.render()

# reset cursor
pdf.set_xy(pdf.l_margin, pdf.t_margin)
pdf.set_font("Arial", size=12)
pdf.write(text="Content Page with Header and Footer"*1000)

# Output file
pdf.output("flex_template_with_cover.pdf")

[Lucas-C]

Hi @slkoo-core

I just added a new unit test demonstrating some capabilities of FlexTemplate using .parse_json() to load the template,
and rendering over several pages: https://github.com/py-pdf/fpdf2/blob/master/test/template/test_flextemplate.py#L128

Does that help you?

[Lucas-C]

As you wish 🙂

I'm just suggesting ideas.
I don't know your exact requirements, and anyway I won't provide the code that you exactly need, but hopefully code snippets like this can help you.

[slkoo-core]

Is there any way to use different template to achieve so? I don't think a single header/footer function would be maintainable, and there is no way to know when a section ends to reset the page counter.

[Lucas-C]

there is no way to know when a section ends to reset the page counter.

I'm really sorry, but I don't understand what you are trying to achieve exactly 😅
It's the second time that you mention "resetting the page counter when a section ends":

• could you please elaborate a bit about what your are trying to achieve?
• fpdf2 has a notion of sections being inserted by FPDF.start_section, but I guess that's not what you are refering to, as your code snippet does not use this?
• why/when do you want to reset the page number returned by FPDF.page_no?

[slkoo-core]

Sorry, I think the more common term is chapter. Essentially i want to do this:
Cover - no header/footer
TOC - no header, i/ii/iii page number footer
Section 1 start
Chapter 1 - header with chapter title, page number 1-1 to 1-x
Chapter 2 - header with chapter title, page number 1-x+1 to 1-y
Section 2 start
Chapter 3 - header with chapter title, page number 2-1 to 2-x
Chapter 4 - header with chapter title, page number 2-x+1 to 2-y
...
Appendix - header "Appendix", a/b/c page number footer
Glossary - header "Glossary", (continue a/b/c from above) page number footer.

[andersonhc]

I recommend you take a look on the page labels documentation - It's the best feature to achieve what you want.

You can take a look on the tests here and check the 3 reference files this test produce: file 1 - file 2 - file 3

I am not sure if labels will work with templates