rst2pdf
Convert reStructured Text to PDF via ReportLab.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. rst2pdf is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, installs with low friction, and solves a real problem—direct RST-to-PDF conversion without LaTeX. It's suitable for technical documentation, Sphinx integration, and automated PDF generation workflows. The MIT license is permissive. Install it if you work with reStructuredText and need PDF output.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or greater.
- Optional extras (aafiguresupport, mathsupport, plantumlsupport, rawhtmlsupport, sphinx, svgsupport) require additional dependencies.
- Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.
last release 2026-03-09 (158 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-14 · 592 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 209,371 downloads/mo, #9,515 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install rst2pdf
rst2pdf input.rst output.pdf- Whether Sphinx integration requires additional configuration beyond enabling the rst2pdf.pdfbuilder extension.
- Performance characteristics when processing large or complex reStructuredText documents.
- Completeness of reStructuredText feature support compared to LaTeX-based converters.
What it is and what it does
rst2pdf is a command-line tool and Python library that converts reStructuredText documents directly to PDF without requiring LaTeX. It uses ReportLab as its PDF generation backend, offering an alternative workflow for developers and technical writers who want to produce PDFs from plain-text markup.
The package supports a wide range of features including custom page layouts with multiple frames, cascading stylesheets, TTF and Type1 font embedding, syntax highlighting via Pygments, image embedding, and hyphenation. It integrates with Sphinx as an extension for building PDF documentation. Runtime dependencies include docutils (for RST parsing), Jinja2 (templating), Pygments (syntax highlighting), PyYAML (configuration), packaging (version handling), and ReportLab (PDF generation).
Use it for
- Generate PDF technical documentation directly from reStructuredText source without LaTeX toolchain.
- Build PDF output in Sphinx documentation projects via the rst2pdf.pdfbuilder extension.
- Convert standalone RST files to styled PDFs with custom fonts, page layouts, and syntax-highlighted code blocks.
- Automate PDF report generation from RST templates in CI/CD pipelines.
- Create branded PDF documents with cascading stylesheets and embedded images from RST markup.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
rst2pdf is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, installs with low friction, and solves a real problem—direct RST-to-PDF conversion without LaTeX. It's suitable for technical documentation, Sphinx integration, and automated PDF generation workflows. The MIT license is permissive. Install it if you work with reStructuredText and need PDF output.
Install
rst2pdf on PyPI
Before you install
Low friction install with a pure-Python wheel. Actively maintained with recent commits and no known vulnerabilities. Requires Python 3.10 or greater; version 0.105 is current as of March 2026.
Requires Python 3.10 or greater. Optional extras (aafiguresupport, mathsupport, plantumlsupport, rawhtmlsupport, sphinx, svgsupport) require additional dependencies.
License in practice
MIT license permits free use, modification, and distribution with minimal restrictions—suitable for both open-source and commercial projects.
Quickstart
pip install rst2pdf
rst2pdf input.rst output.pdfVerify before relying
- Whether Sphinx integration requires additional configuration beyond enabling the rst2pdf.pdfbuilder extension.
- Performance characteristics when processing large or complex reStructuredText documents.
- Completeness of reStructuredText feature support compared to LaTeX-based converters.
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | 6 packagesdocutilsjinja2packagingpygmentspyyamlreportlab |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 158 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 209,371 / month, #9,515 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 4 - BetaEnvironment :: ConsoleLicense :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseOperating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: DocumentationTopic :: Software Development :: Libraries :: Python ModulesTopic :: Text ProcessingTopic :: Utilities |
Evidence: rst2pdf-0.105-py3-none-any.whl
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See also rich-rst · Sphinx · sphinx-simplepdf · rlPyCairo · m2r2 · PyLaTeX · docutils · xhtml2pdf · rst2ansi · sphinx_mdinclude