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Generate a PDF in Django

Last Updated : 23 Jul, 2025

We will build a Django app that lets users enter book details and download them as a formatted PDF. We’ll use Django for the form and data handling and ReportLab to generate the PDF file. Step-by-step, we will learn how to set up the project, create models and views and output a downloadable PDF catalog.

Prerequisites:

• Django Introduction and Installation
• Creating a Project

Run the Following Command:

django-admin startproject test_project
cd test_project
python manage.py startapp testapp

In test_project/settings.py, add your app to INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
...
'testapp',
]

testapp/models.py:

This code represents a simple Django model for storing information about books, including their title, author and publication year.

from django.db import models

class Book(models.Model):
    title = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    author = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    publication_year = models.PositiveIntegerField()

    def __str__(self):
        return self.title

testapp/forms.py:

This code sets up a Django form, BookForm, that is connected to the Book model and includes specific fields for creating or editing book instances with title, author and publication year attributes.

from django import forms
from .models import Book

class BookForm(forms.ModelForm):
    class Meta:
        model = Book
        fields = ['title', 'author', 'publication_year']

testapp/views.py: Here is the code explanation of the views:

• Import necessary modules.
• home function: It is a simple input form which take Title, Author and, Publish Year as an Input, that is saved in the database.
• generate_pdf function: This view function is called when a user requests a PDF. It uses generate_pdf_file to create a PDF and returns it as a downloadable attachment with the filename "book_catalog.pdf."
• generate_pdf_file function: Imports BytesIO from io to create an in-memory buffer for the PDF. Initializes a PDF canvas (p) on the buffer. Retrieves all books from the Book model. Adds "Book Catalog" as the PDF title at coordinates (100, 750). Iterates through the books: Adds book details (title, author, year) to the PDF at decreasing Y-coordinates. Each book's details are printed with a vertical offset of -20 units. Calls showPage() to end the current page and save() to finish creating the PDF. The buffer is reset and returned. It now contains the PDF content.

from django.http import FileResponse
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from .models import Book
from django.shortcuts import redirect, render
from .forms import BookForm

def home(request):
    if request.method == 'POST':
        form = BookForm(request.POST)
        if form.is_valid():
            form.save()
    # Redirect to PDF generation after adding a book
            return redirect('home')  
    else:
        form = BookForm()
    return render(request, 'myapp/create_user_profile.html', 
                  {'form': form})

def generate_pdf(request):
    response = FileResponse(generate_pdf_file(), 
                            as_attachment=True, 
                            filename='book_catalog.pdf')
    return response


def generate_pdf_file():
    from io import BytesIO

    buffer = BytesIO()
    p = canvas.Canvas(buffer)

    # Create a PDF document
    books = Book.objects.all()
    p.drawString(100, 750, "Book Catalog")

    y = 700
    for book in books:
        p.drawString(100, y, f"Title: {book.title}")
        p.drawString(100, y - 20, f"Author: {book.author}")
        p.drawString(100, y - 40, f"Year: {book.publication_year}")
        y -= 60

    p.showPage()
    p.save()

    buffer.seek(0)
    return buffer

testapp/urls.p: This is to set in the URLs of the app.

# test/urls.py
from django.urls import path
from . import views

urlpatterns = [
    path('', views.home, name='home'),
    path('generate-pdf/', views.generate_pdf, name='generate_pdf'),
]

test_project/urls.py: This is to set in the Urls of the project folder.

from django.contrib import admin
from django.urls import path, include

urlpatterns = [
    path('admin/', admin.site.urls),
    path('', include('test.urls')),
]

Directory structure:

testapp/
└── templates/
└── testapp/
└── create_user_profile.html

Create the template:

testapp/templates/testapp/create_user_profile.html

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>Generate PDF</title>
</head>
<body>
    <h1>Generate and Download PDF</h1>
    <h2>Add a New Book</h2>
    <form method="post">
        {% csrf_token %}
        {{ form.as_p }}
        <button type="submit">Add Book</button>
    </form>
    <p><a href="{% url 'generate_pdf' %}" download>Download Book Catalog (PDF)</a></p>
<br>
    <!-- <p><a href="{% url 'generate_pdf' %}" download>Download Book Catalog (CSV)</a></p> -->

</body>
</html>

By the following commands you can migrate the data into the database.

python manage.py makemigrations
python manage.py migrate

python manage.py runserver

Output:

The downloaded PDF:

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