Ipe Python module

This is an extension module that will let you read and write Ipe documents from Python 3.

It makes the Ipe Lua-bindings available using a Python-Lua bridge based on code written by Gustavo Niemeyer.

Installation

You'll need to fill in the arguments to find the Lua and Ipe header files and library in setup.py. Then say

python3 setup.py build
python3 setup.py install --user

Documentation

After loading the module:

import ipe

you can use the functions documented in the Lua bindings. For instance, load an Ipe document by saying:

doc = ipe.Document("filename.pdf")

Have a look at test.py for an example.

Tables: Several methods in the module return Lua tables. These are similar to Python dictionaries, but are a distinct type.

For instance,

props = doc.properties()

will set props to be a table with keys such as author, title, created, etc.

You can access the elements of a table using either attribute syntax (props.title) or dictionary syntax (props['title']). You can also can iterate over the elements of a table in a for loop:

for k in props:
  print(k, props[k])

Sequences: A document is a sequence of pages, a page is a sequence of graphical objects. In Lua, indices start with one, not zero! You can use Python's len function to determine the length of a sequence. For instance, loop over the pages of a document like this:

for pageNo in range(1, len(doc) + 1):
  print("Page %d has %d objects" % (pageNo, len(doc[pageNo])))

Iterators: The Lua documentation shows loops using page:objects() and document:pages(). This does not work from Python. You should use a loop over the indices instead.