PD Generator - University Project Poster Generator

A Windows-first CLI tool that automatically generates A1 posters (594×841 mm) for university projects from Excel data.

Features

• Batch PDF Generation: Generate print-ready A1 posters for multiple projects
• Cyrillic Support: Full support for Russian and other Cyrillic text
• Configurable Layout: YAML/JSON configuration for fonts, sizes, positioning
• Smart Text Handling: Auto-wrap with font scaling and graceful truncation
• Robust Error Handling: Per-project errors don't stop the whole batch
• Detailed Logging: Clear progress and error reporting with summary

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.8 or higher
• Windows (primary target), also works on Linux/macOS

Install Dependencies

# Clone or download the repository
cd PD_generator

# Install using pip (recommended)
pip install -e .

# Or install dependencies directly
pip install -r requirements.txt

Font Setup (for Cyrillic support)

The generator uses DejaVu fonts for Cyrillic text support. On Windows, these are usually pre-installed. If not:

1. Download DejaVu fonts from dejavu-fonts.github.io
2. Install the fonts by double-clicking the .ttf files

On Linux (Debian/Ubuntu):

sudo apt-get install fonts-dejavu

Quick Start

1. Prepare your Excel file with columns:

   • project_id - Unique identifier
   • project_name - Project title
   • problem - Problem description
   • solution - Solution description
   • product - Product description
   • team - Team members (can use newlines)
   • image_filename - (Optional) Image filename

2. Prepare project images in a folder, named by project_id (e.g., 101.jpg, 102.png)

3. Run the generator:

   # Using installed command
   pd-generator projects.xlsx images/ --output posters/
   
   # Or using Python directly
   python main.py projects.xlsx images/ --output posters/

Usage

Basic Usage

pd-generator <excel_file> <images_folder> [options]

Options

Option	Description
-o, --output <folder>	Output folder for PDFs (default: output)
-c, --config <file>	Configuration file (YAML/JSON)
--only <id1> <id2> ...	Generate only specific project IDs
-v, --verbose	Enable verbose logging
-q, --quiet	Suppress output except errors
--init-config	Print default configuration YAML
--version	Show version
--help	Show help message

Examples

# Generate all posters
pd-generator projects.xlsx images/

# Generate specific projects only
pd-generator projects.xlsx images/ --only 101 102 103

# Use custom configuration
pd-generator projects.xlsx images/ --config my_config.yaml

# Generate default config file
pd-generator --init-config > config.yaml

# Verbose output for debugging
pd-generator projects.xlsx images/ -v

Configuration

Create a config.yaml file (or use --init-config to generate one):

# Page dimensions (A1 portrait)
page:
  width_mm: 594
  height_mm: 841  # Use 840 if needed for your printer

# Layout configuration
layout:
  image_height_mm: 434           # Top image area height
  image_fit_mode: cover          # "cover" or "contain"
  content_padding_left_mm: 40
  content_padding_right_mm: 40
  content_padding_top_mm: 20
  content_padding_bottom_mm: 20
  text_column_width_mm: 225
  title_y_offset_mm: 50
  title_centered: true

# Font configuration
fonts:
  title_font: DejaVuSans-Bold
  title_size: 48
  heading_font: DejaVuSans-Bold
  heading_size: 24
  body_font: DejaVuSans
  body_size: 18
  min_font_size: 10              # Minimum before truncation
  line_spacing: 1.2

# Excel column mapping (customize if your columns have different names)
columns:
  project_id: project_id
  project_name: project_name
  problem: problem
  solution: solution
  product: product
  team: team
  image_filename: image_filename

# Output configuration
output:
  naming_pattern: "{project_id}_{project_name}"
  output_folder: output

# Logo configuration (optional)
logos:
  paths:
    - logos/university_logo.png
    - logos/faculty_logo.png
  height_mm: 40
  spacing_mm: 10
  position: bottom_left

Poster Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                                         │
│           TOP IMAGE AREA                │
│           (594 × 434 mm)                │
│                                         │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                         │
│         [PROJECT TITLE - centered]      │
│                                         │
│  ┌──────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐ │
│  │              │  │    PROBLEM       │ │
│  │    LOGOS     │  │    -----------   │ │
│  │   (optional) │  │    text...       │ │
│  │              │  │                  │ │
│  │              │  │    SOLUTION      │ │
│  │              │  │    -----------   │ │
│  │              │  │    text...       │ │
│  │              │  │                  │ │
│  │              │  │    PRODUCT       │ │
│  │              │  │    -----------   │ │
│  │              │  │    text...       │ │
│  │              │  │                  │ │
│  │              │  │    TEAM          │ │
│  │              │  │    -----------   │ │
│  └──────────────┘  └──────────────────┘ │
│     40mm padding      225mm text col    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────┘

Excel Template

See example_data/projects.xlsx for a complete example. Create it by running:

cd example_data
python create_example_excel.py

Required Columns

Column	Description
project_id	Unique identifier (used for image matching)
project_name	Project title displayed on poster
problem	Problem description text
solution	Solution description text
product	Product description text
team	Team members (use newlines for multiple)

Optional Columns

Column	Description
image_filename	Explicit image filename (if not using project_id naming)

Image Requirements

• Formats: JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF
• Naming: {project_id}.jpg or {project_id}.png (e.g., 101.jpg)
• Recommended size: At least 1800×1300 pixels for good print quality
• Aspect ratio: Will be scaled to fit (cropped if using "cover" mode)

Error Handling

The generator is designed to be robust:

• Missing images: Poster generated with placeholder
• Missing fields: Project skipped with error logged
• Text overflow: Font reduced, then truncated with "…" + warning
• Missing logos: Silently skipped
• Invalid rows: Skipped without stopping batch

Output

• PDFs are saved to the output folder
• Filename pattern: {project_id}_{project_name}.pdf
• Special characters are sanitized for Windows compatibility
• Summary report shows success/failure counts

Troubleshooting

Fonts not rendering correctly

Ensure DejaVu fonts are installed. The generator falls back to Helvetica if DejaVu is not found (which doesn't support Cyrillic).

Text appearing truncated

1. Check your text length
2. Increase text_column_width_mm in config
3. Reduce body_size or min_font_size

Images not found

• Ensure image files are named exactly as the project_id (e.g., 101.jpg)
• Or use the image_filename column in Excel
• Supported formats: .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .tiff

Project Structure

PD_generator/
├── src/
│   └── pd_generator/
│       ├── __init__.py      # Package initialization
│       ├── cli.py           # Command-line interface
│       ├── config.py        # Configuration handling
│       ├── excel_reader.py  # Excel file parsing
│       ├── poster.py        # PDF generation (ReportLab)
│       └── text_utils.py    # Text wrapping utilities
├── example_data/
│   └── create_example_excel.py
├── config.yaml              # Default configuration
├── main.py                  # Entry point
├── requirements.txt
├── setup.py
└── README.md

License

MIT License

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.