Question: how to resize pdfs that have been rotated?

[catherineweiss]

I have a multi-page pdf and the pages have different rotation values (180 and 270). I want to resize the pages, but the rotation is giving me difficulty.

1. I'm currently using PyPDF2's method, .getPage(n).get('/Rotate'). Is there a method in PyMuPDF that returns the correct rotation? page.rotation returns 0 degrees for all.

2. Do you know from prior experience how to resize the pdf page while dealing with rotation? I've been trying to create a new page using Document.newPage() with a newWidth and newHeight. And then I've been experimenting with Page.setMediaBox() and also just creating a Rect with coordinates before calling Page.showPDFpage(). All of the results crop the image before placing it on the page. (I'm trying to place the entire image on the new/smaller page.) Thanks for your help!

[JorjMcKie]

There exists the property Page.rotation which contains that value.
You can chage it to e.g. zero degrees simply by setting Page.setRotation(0).

[JorjMcKie]

If you are asking how to resize a page, then that can also be done in the full sense: You may know that there are several rectangle notions for a PDF page: MediaBox, CropBox and more.
The media box is the physical rectangle, which also contains all other notions. While both values can be set in PyMuPDF, you usually don't want to change the media box, because its appearance is calculated based on its dimensions. The page will probably look awkward after changes here.
But crop box changes are like downsizing the window to look at the contents - they will not be changed by this.
Methods Page.setMediaBox and Page.setCropBox do this Both must be given some rectangle as parameter.

[JorjMcKie]

BTW with respect to rotation:

• Page.rect contains the current page size, which reflects any rotation
• Page.CropBox = Page.rect if rotation is zero an the page has the crop box property at all. Otherwise, Pae.MediaBox = Page.rect.
• Both, media box and crop box are not changed by the rotation value.

[catherineweiss]

Thanks for your quick reply.

Regarding resizing the pages, can you please advise the best practice to follow if I want all content from the original page to appear on a reduced-size page? Are my only options setCropBox and setMediaBox? Based on my project requirements, I have calculated a newWidth and newHeight. I am confused how to use these values with the rotated coordinates to specify the transformation.

[JorjMcKie]

When you say "reduced size", do you mean things like: assuming a PDF with A4 pages (potenially rotated in some way), how can I make a A5 PDF from it, where each output page looks like the original, only smaller?

[catherineweiss]

Similar. I'm actually referring to working with architectural size drawings to start with (maybe 33" wide by 21" high) and reducing it so that the maximum dimension is 17".

[JorjMcKie]

Assuming your intention is like in my previous post:
It is probably the best to use method Page.showPDFpage for this:

import fitz
src = fitz.open("input.pdf")
outfile = fitz.open()#new empty PDF
for src_page in src:
    width, height = src_page.rect.width / 2, src_page.rect.height / 2
    page = outfile.newPage(width=width, height=height)
    page.showPDFpage(page.rect, src, src_page.number)

outfile.save(...)

As you see, the output page dimension can be arbitrarily set.

[JorjMcKie]

If you want the output page be an exact miniature of the input, and also reflect any rotation property of the input, follow this snippet:

oldrot = src_page.rotation  # save input rotation value
src_page.setRotation(0)  # undo input page rotation
page.showPDFpage(...)  # insert source page
page.setRotation(oldrot)  # set output page rotation

[catherineweiss]

Thank you! That did it. The source of my confusion was in trying to use the 'rotate' parameter in showPDFpage(). Thanks again for your help -- really appreciate it.

[JorjMcKie]

You are welcome.
Don't hesitate to come back with more questions.