How to convert any Document Format into PDF in Python

Let’s say we have a large number of incoming documents and images, with no way to properly provide compatibility, printability, etc. That could pose quite a problem if you don’t have a system in place to handle it, which is where today’s post comes in. We will be using Python to set up autodetect for a variety of file formats, and then convert all of those files into convenient PDFs.

To save a large amount of time, we will be using an API that is already custom-fit for this task. Toward that end, we must install its client with this command for pip install:

pip install cloudmersive-convert-api-client

And here is how to call the API function that we will need:

from __future__ import print_function
import time
import cloudmersive_convert_api_client
from cloudmersive_convert_api_client.rest import ApiException
from pprint import pprint
# Configure API key authorization: Apikey
configuration = cloudmersive_convert_api_client.Configuration()
configuration.api_key['Apikey'] = 'YOUR_API_KEY'
# Uncomment below to setup prefix (e.g. Bearer) for API key, if needed
# configuration.api_key_prefix['Apikey'] = 'Bearer'
# create an instance of the API class
api_instance = cloudmersive_convert_api_client.ConvertDocumentApi(cloudmersive_convert_api_client.ApiClient(configuration))
input_file = '/path/to/file' # file | Input file to perform the operation on.
try:
# Convert Document to PDF
api_response = api_instance.convert_document_autodetect_to_pdf(input_file)
pprint(api_response)
except ApiException as e:
print("Exception when calling ConvertDocumentApi->convert_document_autodetect_to_pdf: %s\n" % e)

Now just use input_file to feed document and image files into convert_document_autodetect_to_pdf, which will then return your PDFs. It’s really just that easy. This function supports 100+ image formats and most Office formats.