How to debug - no insert_text found in new pdf

PyMuPDF
1

Hi, my goal is to write text to a pdf. When I open the pdf I only see a white page.
I think I have an error in my setup and not in my code. Below a minimal working example.

Q: How can I debug this, to find out what is going on?

Thanks, regards Edzo

  • Linux fedora 6.17.7-300.fc43.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sun Nov 2 15:30:09 UTC 2025 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  • Python 3.14.0
  • pymupdf 1.26.6

MWE


import pymupdf
from   pymupdf.utils import getColor

# set defaults
file_name       = “PyMuPDF_test.pdf”
text_color      = getColor(“black”)
font_size       = 32.0
font_name       = “spacemo”
p               = pymupdf.Point(10, 10)
# debug reasons
text            = “Some text.”

# create pdf
newDocument = pymupdf.open()
fmt         = pymupdf.paper_rect(“a4”)
newPage     = newDocument.new_page(
                width  = fmt.width, height = fmt.height)
# write to new page
newPage.clean_contents()
newPage.insert_text = ( p,
                        text,
                        fontsize     := font_size,
                        fontname     := font_name,
                        color        := text_color,
                        border_width := 1,
                        overlay      := True
                      )
# write to disk
newDocument.save(file_name,
                 garbage = 3,
                 deflate = True,)
newDocument.close()
2

Hi @edzob Welcome to the forum!

looking at your code doesn’t newPage.insert_text = ( ... redefine the function?

If I do:



newPage.insert_text( p,
text,
fontsize = font_size,
color = text_color,
border_width = 1,
overlay = True )

Then it works okay.

3

Additional comments:
Please do not use page.clean_contents() here. This is no longer necessary since a many versions.

4

Dear @Jamie_Lemon . TY for your advice.

I thought at the start also this was the issue, but with this code I recieve a strange error. I thought I sort of had a new version of test_insert that needed a different syntax. Apparantly that is not the issue.

I also tried to remove all the spaces and pot it on 1 line, same error.

So I am a bit stuck

@HaraldLieder : Thanks. I removed the line in the code below.

Error

$ python3 write_pdf.py 
  File "******/write_pdf.py", line 20
    fontsize     = font_size,
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax. Maybe you meant '==' or ':=' instead of '='?
$

With code

import pymupdf
from   pymupdf.utils import getColor

    # set defaults
file_name       = "PyMuPDF_test.pdf"
text_color      = getColor("black")
font_size       = 32.0
font_name       = "spacemo"
p               = pymupdf.Point(10, 10)
    # debug reasons
text        = "Some text."
    # create pdf
newDocument = pymupdf.open()
fmt         = pymupdf.paper_rect("a4")
newPage     = newDocument.new_page(width  = fmt.width,
                                   height = fmt.height)
    # write to new page
newPage.insert_text = ( p,
                        text,
                        fontsize     = font_size,
                        fontname     = font_name,
                        color        = text_color,
                        border_width = 1,
                        overlay      = True
                      )
    # write to disk
newDocument.save(file_name,
                 garbage = 3,
                 deflate = True,)
newDocument.close()
5

I think this should be:
newPage.insert_text( ...

1 Like
6

@edzob Please also confirm your version of PyMuPDF that you are using!

7

haha .. the = should be the thing. I will test..
my dyslexia hits hard in this one

1 Like
8

@Jamie_Lemon the wrong calling of the function was the error. TY so much.
I had no clue where to find the error and now I know a little bit more.

The version of pymupdf is 1.26.6

the code now is..

import pymupdf
from   pymupdf.utils import getColor

   # set defaults
file_name       = “PyMuPDF_test.pdf”
text_color      = getColor(“black”)
font_size       = 32.0
font_name       = “spacemo”
p               = pymupdf.Point(10, 10)
   # debug reasons
text            = “Some text.”
   # create pdf
newDocument     = pymupdf.open()
fmt             = pymupdf.paper_rect(“a4”)
newPage         = newDocument.new_page(
                    width  = fmt.width,
                    height = fmt.height
                   )
   # write to new page
newPage.insert_text( p,
                     text,
                     fontsize     = font_size,
                     fontname     = font_name,
                     color        = text_color,
                     border_width = 1,
                     overlay      = True
                   )
   # write to disk
newDocument.save(file_name,
                 garbage = 3,
                 deflate = True,)
newDocument.close()
9

@edzob No worries! Glad you got it working okay.