Links¶

fpdf2 can generate both internal links (to other pages in the document) & hyperlinks (links to external URLs that will be opened in a browser).

Hyperlink with FPDF.cell¶

This method makes the whole cell clickable (not only the text):

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("helvetica", size=24)
pdf.cell(text="Cell link", border=1, center=True,
         link="https://github.com/py-pdf/fpdf2")
pdf.output("hyperlink.pdf")

Hyperlink with FPDF.multi_cell¶

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.set_font("helvetica", size=24)
pdf.add_page()
pdf.multi_cell(
    pdf.epw,
    text="**Website:** [fpdf2](https://py-pdf.github.io/fpdf2/) __Go visit it!__",
    markdown=True,
)
pdf.output("hyperlink.pdf")

Links defined this way in Markdown can be styled by setting FPDF class attributes MARKDOWN_LINK_COLOR (default: None) & MARKDOWN_LINK_UNDERLINE (default: True).

link="https://...your-url" can also be used to make the whole cell clickable.

Hyperlink with FPDF.link¶

The FPDF.link is a low-level method that defines a rectangular clickable area.

There is an example showing how to place such rectangular link over some text:

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.add_page()
pdf.set_font("helvetica", size=36)
line_height = 10
text = "Text link"
pdf.text(x=0, y=line_height, text=text)
width = pdf.get_string_width(text)
pdf.link(x=0, y=0, w=width, h=line_height, link="https://github.com/py-pdf/fpdf2")
pdf.output("hyperlink.pdf")

Hyperlink with write_html¶

An alternative method using FPDF.write_html:

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.set_font_size(16)
pdf.add_page()
pdf.write_html('<a href="https://github.com/py-pdf/fpdf2">Link defined as HTML</a>')
pdf.output("hyperlink.pdf")

The hyperlinks defined this way will be rendered in blue with underline.

Internal links¶

Internal links are links redirecting to other pages in the document.

Using FPDF.cell:

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.set_font("helvetica", size=24)
pdf.add_page()
pdf.cell(text="Welcome on first page!", align="C", center=True)
pdf.add_page()
link = pdf.add_link(page=1)
pdf.cell(text="Internal link to first page", border=1, link=link)
pdf.output("internal_link.pdf")

Other methods can also insert internal links:

FPDF.multi_cell using link= or markdown=True and this syntax: [link text](page number)
FPDF.link
FPDF.write_html using anchor tags: <a href="page number">link text</a>

The unit tests test_internal_links() in test_links.py provides examples for all of those methods.

Links to other documents on the filesystem¶

Using FPDF.cell:

from fpdf import FPDF

pdf = FPDF()
pdf.set_font("helvetica", size=24)
pdf.add_page()
pdf.cell(text="Link to other_doc.pdf", border=1, link="other_doc.pdf")
pdf.output("link_to_other_doc.pdf")

Other methods can also insert internal links:

FPDF.multi_cell using link= or markdown=True and this syntax: [link text](other_doc.pdf)
FPDF.link
FPDF.write_html using anchor tags: <a href="other_doc.pdf">link text</a>

The unit test test_link_to_other_document() in test_links.py provides examples for all of those methods.

Alternative description¶

An optional textual description of the link can be provided, for accessibility purposes:

pdf.link(x=0, y=0, w=width, h=line_height, link="https://github.com/py-pdf/fpdf2",
         alt_text="GitHub page for fpdf2")