There is no solution in the library as far as I found, but I wrote this little workaround.
The input is slightly changed to a pandas DataFrame.
The solution estimates for each row how many lines it is going to need based on the maximum length of the strings in the row and a provided column width.
Unfortunately, letters don't have a fixed width. I estimate the width with font size * 0.6. You might want to play around with it based on what font you use.
from fpdf import FPDF
import pandas as pd
import math
class PDF(FPDF):
def estimate_lines_needed(self, iter, col_width: float) -> int:
"""_summary_
Args:
iter (iterable): a row in your table
col_width (float): cell width
Returns:
_type_: _description_
"""
font_width_in_mm = (
self.font_size_pt * 0.35 * 0.6
) # assumption: a letter is half his height in width, the 0.5 is the value you want to play with
max_cell_text_len_header = max([len(str(col)) for col in iter]) # how long is the longest string?
return math.ceil(max_cell_text_len_header * font_width_in_mm / col_width)
def table(self, table: pd.DataFrame):
"""Add table to pdf
Args:
table (pd.DataFrame): a table to be added to the document
"""
# one pt is ~0.35mm
# font size is in pt
index_width = 80
col_width = (self.epw - index_width) / (table.shape[1]) # distribute content evenly across pdf
lines_needed = self.estimate_lines_needed(table.columns, col_width)
# empty cell to start
self.multi_cell(
w=index_width,
h=self.font_size * lines_needed,
txt="",
border=0,
ln=3,
max_line_height=self.font_size,
)
# header
for col in table.columns:
self.multi_cell(
col_width,
self.font_size * lines_needed,
col,
border="BL",
ln=1
if col == table.columns[-1]
else 3, # if it is the last col, go to beginning of next line, otherwise continue
max_line_height=self.font_size,
)
# table
for index, row in table.iterrows():
lines_needed = self.estimate_lines_needed(iter=row.to_list(), col_width=col_width)
self.multi_cell(
index_width, self.font_size * lines_needed, str(index), border="TBR", ln=3, max_line_height=self.font_size
)
for col in table.columns:
self.multi_cell(
col_width,
self.font_size * lines_needed,
str(row[col]),
border="TBL",
ln=1 if col == table.columns[-1] else 3,
max_line_height=self.font_size,
)
self.ln(5) # add a small gap after the table
#test data
data = pd.DataFrame({
"First name": ["Jules", "Mary", "Carlson", "Lucas"],
"Last name":["Smith", "Ramos", "Banks", "Cimon"],
"Age (number of years that you lived)":[34, 45, 19, 31],
"Cities":["Warsaw, New York, Sydney, Berlin, Moscow, Washington, Hamburg, Monachium, Lipsk, Essen, Dresno, Bonn, Hannover, Stuttgart, Rome, San Diego, Los Angeles", "Los Angeles","Orlando", "Saint-Mahturin-sur-Loire"],
}
)
# generate pdf
pdf = PDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("Times", size=10)
pdf.table(data)
pdf.output('table_with_cells.pdf')
