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@kzim44
Created February 24, 2013 07:29
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Edit an existing PDF using Python
from pyPdf import PdfFileWriter, PdfFileReader
import StringIO
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas
from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter
packet = StringIO.StringIO()
# create a new PDF with Reportlab
can = canvas.Canvas(packet, pagesize=letter)
can.drawString(100,100, "Hello world")
can.save()
#move to the beginning of the StringIO buffer
packet.seek(0)
new_pdf = PdfFileReader(packet)
# read your existing PDF
existing_pdf = PdfFileReader(file("mypdf.pdf", "rb"))
output = PdfFileWriter()
# add the "watermark" (which is the new pdf) on the existing page
page = existing_pdf.getPage(0)
page.mergePage(new_pdf.getPage(0))
output.addPage(page)
# finally, write "output" to a real file
outputStream = file("/home/joe/newpdf.pdf", "wb")
output.write(outputStream)
outputStream.close()
@PPerz
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PPerz commented Feb 2, 2021

What if I want to add watermark or some barcode to specify page in pdf, and save it as a one pdf (with e.g. barcode on second page?). How to multiplay pages here?
Thanks

@RealA10N
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what if I want to replace some text in the pdf?

This is not possible with PDFs. See this answer from Stackoverflow.

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