Get started with the Apryse Server SDK Python PDF library integration

In this guide, you'll begin by setting up your Python environment. Next, you'll explore sample PDFNet projects to understand the types of PDF outputs you can create with the Apryse Server SDK. You'll also create a simple Python application, add the Apryse Server SDK, and learn how to generate files programmatically.

Before you start:

• Install Visual Studio Code or another code editor to develop and debug code.
• Install Python 3 and pip. In this guide, we use Homebrew to manage the Python installation.
• Get your Apryse trial key.

Before getting started, ensure that Python and pip are installed. You’ll use pip to install the Apryse Server SDK.

1. Check whether Python and pip are installed:

1python3 --version
2python3 -m pip --version
3which python3

The python3 path should point to Homebrew (for example, /opt/homebrew/bin/python3 or /usr/local/bin/python3). If it points to /usr/bin/python3, you're using the system Python.

2. If Python and pip aren't installed, install them with Homebrew. This command installs the latest Python version with pip:

1brew install python

3. If Python and pip are installed with Homebrew, update Homebrew and Python. This also updates pip:

1brew update
2brew upgrade python

In this section, you’ll use the OfficeToPDFTest sample to convert a DOCX file to PDF using the Microsoft Office conversion API. You can use this sample to understand how document conversion works and as a reference for your own implementations.

1. Download the PDFNetPython3.zip file.
2. Double-click the downloaded PDFNetPython3.zip file to unzip it.
3. In your Documents folder, create a new ApryseSamples folder for the sample files. Use a different location if preferred.
4. Move the unzipped PDFNetPython3 folder to the new ApryseSamples folder.
5. Navigate to this location, right-click, and select New Terminal at Folder:

1~/Documents/ApryseSamples/PDFNetPython3/Samples/OfficeToPDFTest/PYTHON

6. In the terminal, install the Apryse SDK using pip to fetch the package from Apryse's package index:

1python3 -m pip install apryse-sdk --extra-index-url=https://pypi.apryse.com

The message Successfully installed apryse-sdk ... appears in the terminal.

7. To add your license key, open this file in Visual Studio Code:

1~/Documents/ApryseSamples/PDFNetPython3/Samples/LicenseKey/PYTHON/LicenseKey.py

8. Go to the LicenseKey = “YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY” line and replace the quoted text with your trial license key. Don't change any other information in this file. Save your changes.

1# Add your trial license key here
2LicenseKey = "YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY" 
3if LicenseKey == "YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY":
4    raise Exception("Please enter your license key by replacing \"YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY\" that is assigned to the LicenseKey variable in Samples/LicenseKey/PYTHON/LicenseKey.py. If you do not have a license key, please go to https://www.pdftron.com/pws/get-key to obtain a demo license or https://www.pdftron.com/form/contact-sales to obtain a production key.")
5

9. To run the sample, navigate to this folder, right-click, and select New Terminal at Folder:

1~/Documents/ApryseSamples/PDFNetPython3/Samples/OfficeToPDFTest/PYTHON

10. In the terminal, run this script:

1chmod +x RunTest.sh
2./RunTest.sh

When you run the RunTest.sh script, the sample code loads a Microsoft Office document, converts it to PDF, saves the PDF, and outputs the following status messages to the console. For more details, review the OfficeToPDF sample code and the Convert MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to PDF overview.

1PDFNet is running in demo mode.
2PackageV2: base
3PackageV2: office_conversion
4Saved Fishermen.pdf
5Saved the_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner.pdf
6Saved factsheet_Arabic.pdf
7Done.

11. Go to this directory to verify the output PDF files are present:

1~/Documents/ApryseSamples/PDFNetPython3/Samples/TestFiles/Output

The folder structure looks similar to:

1Samples/TestFiles/Output/
2├── factsheet_Arabic.pdf
3├── Fishermen.pdf
4├── the_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner.pdf

12. Open the PDF files to see the converted output. The original DOCX files are located in the PDFNetPython3/Samples/TestFiles folder.

Converted PDF file showing the output generated from a DOCX document

Create a simple Python application that uses the Apryse Server SDK and PDFNet library to generate a PDF programmatically. In this section, you’ll set up a minimal project, add the required code, and run a script that creates a blank PDF document. This example provides a practical foundation for building more advanced document‑generation workflows.

Set up your project by creating a folder and preparing your workspace for the application.

1. Go to your Documents folder and create a new NewApryseProject folder.
2. In Visual Studio Code or your preferred editor, go to File > Open Folder.
3. Find the NewApryseProject folder and click to Open in Visual Studio Code.
4. Create a HelloWorld.py file at the root of your project.

Next, integrate the Apryse Server SDK into your Python application and add the code needed to generate a PDF.

1. Navigate to the ~/Documents/NewApryseProject directory in your terminal, then install the Apryse SDK using pip to fetch the package from Apryse's package index:

1python3 -m pip install apryse-sdk --extra-index-url=https://pypi.apryse.com

A successful output looks like:

1Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, <additional index>
2Collecting apryse-sdk
3  Downloading apryse_sdk-<version>.whl
4Installing collected packages: apryse-sdk
5Successfully installed apryse-sdk-<version>

2. Open the HelloWorld.py file in Visual Studio Code or your preferred code editor:

1~/Documents/NewApryseProject/HelloWorld.py

3. Add this code to the HelloWorld.py file, update your license key, and save your changes:

1# You can add the following line to integrate apryse-sdk
2# into your solution from anywhere on your system as long as
3# the library was installed successfully via pip
4
5from apryse_sdk import *
6
7def main():
8
9    # Initialize Apryse SDK
10    # Replace with your demo license key
11    PDFNet.Initialize("YOUR_LICENSE_KEY")
12
13    # This example creates a new document
14    # and a new page, then adds the page
15    # in the page sequence of the document
16    doc = PDFDoc()
17
18    page1 = doc.PageCreate()
19    doc.PagePushBack(page1)
20
21    # Save the document in a linearized
22    # format which is the most popular and
23    # effective way to speed up viewing PDFs
24    doc.Save(("output.pdf"), SDFDoc.e_linearized)
25
26    doc.Close()
27
28if __name__ == "__main__":
29    main()

With this code, you can:

• Import and initialize the Apryse Python SDK using your license key.
• Create a new PDF document and add a blank page.
• Save the document as a linearized PDF for optimized viewing.
• Perform document operations using the PDFNet API—in this case, creating and modifying a PDFDoc object.
• Close the document after saving.

Finally, build and run your application to confirm that the Apryse Server SDK is working correctly. After the application runs successfully, it will generate a blank PDF file locally.

1. Navigate to the Documents > NewApryseProject folder, and right-click to select New Terminal at Folder.
2. In the terminal, run the HelloWorld.py script:

1python3 -u HelloWorld.py 

A successful output looks similar to:

1PDFNet is running in demo mode.
2PackageV2: base

3. Navigate to the Documents > NewApryseProject folder.

4. Verify the blank output.pdf file was generated programmatically using the Apryse Server SDK. The folder structure looks similar to:

1NewApryseProject/
2├── HelloWorld.py
3└── output.pdf

Now that you've successfully run an OfficeToPDFTest sample (in section 2) and integrated the Apryse Server SDK Python PDF library into your application, you can try out 50+ samples depending on your needs.

You can try over fifty samples for the Apryse Server SDK.

To try additional samples, go to section 2. Convert DOCX to PDF, then choose a different sample to run.

In this guide, you'll begin by setting up your Python environment. Next, you'll explore sample PDFNet projects to understand the types of PDF outputs you can create with the Apryse Server SDK. You'll also create a simple Python application, add the Apryse Server SDK, and learn how to generate files programmatically.

Before you start:

• Install Visual Studio Code or another code editor to develop and debug code.
• Install Python 3 and pip.
• Get your Apryse trial key.

Before getting started, ensure that Python and pip are installed. You’ll use pip to install the Apryse Server SDK.

1. Check whether Python and pip are installed:

1python --version
2pip --version

2. If Python and pip aren't installed, download any supported Python 3 version and run the installer from your Downloads folder. During installation:

• Use admin privileges.
• Select Add Python to PATH.
• Enable pip and venv.

3. If Python and pip are installed, run the following command to update:

1python -m pip install --upgrade pip

In this section, you’ll use the OfficeToPDFTest sample to convert a DOCX file to PDF using the Microsoft Office conversion API. You can use this sample to understand how document conversion works and as a reference for your own implementations.

1. Download the PDFNetPython3.zip file.
2. In Documents, create a new ApryseSamples folder. Use a different location if preferred.
3. Go to Downloads, right-click the PDFNetPython3.zip file, and select Extract All.
4. Click Browse, find and select the ApryseSamples folder you created.
5. Click Extract to unzip the files to the new ApryseSamples folder.
6. Navigate to this location, right-click, and select Open in Terminal:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\Documents\ApryseSamples\Samples\OfficeToPDFTest\PYTHON

7. In the terminal, install the Apryse SDK using pip to fetch the package from Apryse's package index:

1pip install apryse-sdk --extra-index-url=https://pypi.apryse.com

The message Successfully installed apryse-sdk ... appears in the terminal.

8. To add your license key, open this file in Visual Studio Code:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\Documents\ApryseSamples\Samples\LicenseKey\PYTHON\LicenseKey.py
2

9. Go to the LicenseKey = “YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY” line and replace the quoted text with your trial license key. Don't change any other information in this file. Save your changes.

1# Add your trial license key here
2LicenseKey = "YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY" 
3if LicenseKey == "YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY":
4    raise Exception("Please enter your license key by replacing \"YOUR_PDFTRON_LICENSE_KEY\" that is assigned to the LicenseKey variable in Samples/LicenseKey/PYTHON/LicenseKey.py. If you do not have a license key, please go to https://www.pdftron.com/pws/get-key to obtain a demo license or https://www.pdftron.com/form/contact-sales to obtain a production key.")
5

10. To run the sample, navigate to this folder, right-click, and select Open in Terminal:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\Documents\ApryseSamples\Samples\OfficeToPDFTest\PYTHON

11. In the terminal, add this command to run the sample:

1python -u .\OfficeToPDFTest.py

When you run the command, the sample code loads a Microsoft Office document, converts it to PDF, saves the PDF, and outputs the following status messages to the console. For more details, review the OfficeToPDF sample code and the Convert MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to PDF overview.

1PDFNet is running in demo mode.
2PackageV2: base
3PackageV2: office_conversion
4Saved Fishermen.pdf
5Saved the_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner.pdf
6Saved factsheet_Arabic.pdf
7Done.

12. Go to this directory to verify the output PDF files are present:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\Documents\ApryseSamples\Samples\TestFiles\Output

The folder structure looks similar to:

1Samples/TestFiles/Output/
2├── factsheet_Arabic.pdf
3├── Fishermen.pdf
4├── the_rime_of_the_ancient_mariner.pdf

13. Open the PDF files to see the converted output. The original DOCX files are located in the PDFNetC64\Samples\TestFiles folder.

Converted PDF file showing the output generated from a DOCX document

Create a simple Python application that uses the Apryse Server SDK and PDFNet library to generate a PDF programmatically. In this section, you’ll set up a minimal project, add the required code, and run a script that creates a blank PDF document. This example provides a practical foundation for building more advanced document‑generation workflows.

Set up your project by creating a folder and preparing your workspace for the application.

1. Go to your Documents folder and create a new NewApryseProject folder.
2. In Visual Studio Code or your preferred editor, go to File > Open Folder.
3. Find the NewApryseProject folder and click to Open in Visual Studio Code.
4. Create a HelloWorld.py file at the root of your project.

Next, integrate the Apryse Server SDK into your Python application and add the code needed to generate a PDF.

1. Navigate to the \Documents\NewApryseProject directory in your terminal, then install the Apryse SDK using pip to fetch the package from Apryse's package index:

1python -m pip install apryse-sdk --extra-index-url=https://pypi.apryse.com

A successful output looks like:

1Looking in indexes: https://pypi.org/simple, <additional index>
2Collecting apryse-sdk
3  Downloading apryse_sdk-<version>.whl
4Installing collected packages: apryse-sdk
5Successfully installed apryse-sdk-<version>

2. Open the HelloWorld.py file in Visual Studio Code or your preferred code editor:

1C:\Users\<your_name>\Documents\NewApryseProject\HelloWorld.py

3. Add this code to the HelloWorld.py file, update your license key, and save your changes:

1# You can add the following line to integrate apryse-sdk
2# into your solution from anywhere on your system so long as
3# the library was installed successfully via pip
4
5from apryse_sdk import *
6
7def main():
8
9    # Initialize Apyrse SDK
10    # Replace with you demo license key
11    PDFNet.Initialize("YOUR_LICENSE_KEY")
12    
13    try:
14      # This example creates a new document
15      # and a new page, then adds the page
16      # in the page sequence of the document
17      doc = PDFDoc()
18
19      page1 = doc.PageCreate()
20      doc.PagePushBack(page1)
21
22      # Save the document in a linearized
23      # format which is the most popular and
24      # effective way to speed up viewing PDFs
25      doc.Save(("output.pdf"), SDFDoc.e_linearized)
26
27      doc.Close()
28    except Exception as e:
29        print("Unable to create PDF document, error: " + str(e))
30
31    PDFNet.Terminate()
32
33if __name__ == "__main__":
34    main()

With this code, you can:

• Import and initialize the Apryse Python SDK using your license key.
• Create a new PDF document and add a blank page.
• Save the document as a linearized PDF for optimized viewing.
• Perform document operations using the PDFNet API—in this case, creating and modifying a PDFDoc object.
• Close the document after saving.

Finally, build and run your application to confirm that the Apryse Server SDK is working correctly. After the application runs successfully, it will generate a blank PDF file locally.

1. Navigate to the Documents > NewApryseProject folder, and right-click to select Open in Terminal.
2. In the terminal, run the HelloWorld.py script:

1python.exe -u HelloWorld.py 

A successful output looks similar to:

1PDFNet is running in demo mode.
2PackageV2: base

3. Navigate to the Documents > NewApryseProject folder.

4. Verify the blank output.pdf file was generated programmatically using the Apryse Server SDK. The folder structure looks similar to:

1NewApryseProject/
2├── HelloWorld.py
3└── output.pdf

Now that you've successfully run an OfficeToPDFTest sample (in section 2) and integrated the Apryse Server SDK Python PDF library into your application, you can try out 50+ samples depending on your needs.

You can try over fifty samples for the Apryse Server SDK.

To try additional samples, go to section 2. Convert DOCX to PDF, then choose a different sample to run.