Make library card catalogue PDFs with Python scripts

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This recipe depends on the installation of

  • a python virtual environment
  • a cloned git repository
  • calibrestekje, a python-bindings library
  • a metadata.db file as produced by an installation of Calibre

Getting started

First, clone the git and change to the new bootleg/ directory: 

git clone https://git.xpub.nl/simoon/bootleg.git
cd bootleg/

In the bootleg/ directory, create and activate a python virtual environment. Once activated, you'll notice the prompt in the terminal has changed to be prefaced by (venv), which indicates that the virtual environment is active. 

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

Then, install dependencies in the python environment. 

pip install reportlab 
pip install calibrestekje
pip install pillow

Make sure you have a valid metadata.db file in the same bootleg/ directory. One which is usually produced the first time you run Calibre in a path similar to /home/myusername/calibre/metadata.db on Debian and Unix-like systems. This file is usually kept with the contents of the Calibre book collection.

Next, run this command: 

python3 reportlab_image_poster.py

This will produce a PDF, and also a list of the contents. In my case, it produced a 1048 page PDF in seconds, with the title and author of each book on separate pages of a card catalogue.

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