What does line['dir'] identify / How to add tilted/rotated text on pdf page

[rafayaar]

Hi @JorjMcKie

Point 1

I am extracting a pdf where I have rotated text. I have extracted the text using get_text method. I assume line['dir'] that I am getting is telling about direction/rotation of text. Please confirm how to use it

Point 2

After extraction, I would want to add that text to some new pdf. And would want to add as according to original pdf. I think Matrix is to be used to implement this. Not sure!

Please help!

[JorjMcKie]

The line["dir"] is a tuple of floats with the meaning (cosine, sine) of the angle which the line has with the x-axis.

You can view it as representing the rotation of the respective text around the insertion point (span["origin"]) of the first span of the line.

There are functions available in pymupdf which allow recovering the Quad of the line. In get_text("dict"), only bboxes are returned: for non-horizontal text the bbox does not tightly wrap the line text. This is shown in this picture in the documentation.

If you want to insert some text with the same angle on some other page, the simplest way is to use page.insert_text(point, text, ..., morph=(point, matrix)). Here, point is the origin of the first span, text is the line text. Use the right (or desired) values for fontname, font size, color etc.

But most importantly define matrix = pymupdf.Matrix(cosine, -sine, sine, cosine, 0, 0) - using the line["dir"] values.

[rafayaar]

Thanks. It solved my problem

I think such examples should be in documentation. Thanks @JorjMcKie . This is the second problem you solved for me. Will be asking more if needed :)

[JorjMcKie]

You are welcome anytime 😎!