[ale] building pdf from python with reportlab

[jkinney]

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I'm trying to generate a 1-page pdf that has some text and a single
image (a qrcode) and I'm hitting issues. The docs for reportlab are a
better than many but still missing key details. The following will
generate the page, the text starts at the correct location, BUT the
text runs vertical down the page. I have found nothing that indicates
how to do that or fix it. By vertical down the page I mean:
l
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grr! That _really_ messes up ascii art!

# generate the pdf file from the template, ascii art and the qrcode.png
files
# requires python-reportlab
def gen_pdf(text, asciiblock):

        from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
        from reportlab.lib.units import inch
        def makeqrpage(canvas):

                textobject = canvas.beginText()
                textobject.setTextOrigin(inch, 9.5*inch)
                textobject.setFont("Helvetica-Bold", 14)
                for line in text:
                        textobject.textLine(line)
                canvas.drawText(textobject)
                textobject.setTextOrigin(1.5*inch, 6.5*inch)
                textobject.setFillGray(0.4)
                for line in asciiblock:
                        textobject.textLine(line)
                canvas.drawText(textobject)
                canvas.drawImage('qrcode.png', 2.5*inch, 1.5*inch,
4.5*inch, 3.5*inch)
        canvas = canvas.Canvas('qrcode.pdf')
        makeqrpage(canvas)
        canvas.showPage()
        canvas.save()

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