Working on some of my personal projects (specifically KRsN and Notty), I have needed to make QTextBrowser act a little more like a mensch in a few ways:

Since it understands a lot of HTML, why not make it open images referenced in the text, and follow links?
Since it can show what is pretty much a web page, why not make it use HTTP and whatever as needed?
Make it print. The helpviewer example has all the needed code. So, I stole it.

To achieve these goals, I had to dig into QMimeSourceFactory and QDragObject, and it ain't all that pretty :-)

Click here for the python file (it's in the public domain, do as you wish with it).

Current problems:

Slow
Very slow
Doesn't give close to enough feedback
Should have a cache (it's trivial)

If anyone who has better python kungfu can help me, I'm a happy guy.

The result, in 143 lines of python, counting blanks and little demo proggie is this:

Source code for pybrowser.py

from qt import *
    import urlparse
    import traceback
    from urllib import urlopen
    import time
    
    
    class MimeFactory(QMimeSourceFactory):
    
            current=None
    
            def __init__(self,browser):
                    QMimeSourceFactory.__init__(self)
                    self.browser=browser
    
            def data(self,name,context=None):
                    if context:
                            return self.data(self.makeAbsolute(name,context))
                    res=None
                    (local,type,subtype)=self.fetchURL(str(name))
                    if type=="image":
                            i=QImage()
                            #If image loading fails, return empty image
                            if not i.loadFromData(local,None):
                                    i.create(10,10,8)
                            res=QImageDrag(i)
                    else: #Assume it's text
                            res=QTextDrag(local)
                            if subtype=="html":
                                    res.setSubtype("html")
                            else:
                                    res.setSubtype("plain")
                    self.current=res
                    return self.current
    
            def makeAbsolute(self,name,context):
                    return urlparse.urljoin(str(context),str(name))
    
            def fetchURL(self,url):
                    local=""
                    type="text"
                    subtype="plain"
                    try:
                            remote=urlopen(url)
                            info=remote.info()
                            (type,subtype)=info.gettype().split("/")
                            local=remote.read()
                            l=info.getheader('content-length')
                            if not l:
                                    l=0
                            else:
                                    l=int(l)
                            print 'size',l
    
                            p=0
                            c=0
                            bsize=1024
                            while True:
                                    self.browser.emit(PYSIGNAL('status'),("Downloading: "\
+url+"(%sKB)"%str(p/1024),))
                                    self.browser.emit(PYSIGNAL('size'),(p,))
                                    if l:
                                            self.browser.emit(PYSIGNAL('percent'),((p*100)/l,))
                                    qApp.processEvents()
                                    #Lame attempt at making this report about once a second
                                    stamp=time.time()
                                    c=c+1
                                    buf=remote.read(int(bsize))
                                    delta=time.time()-stamp
                                    if delta <.5: #Data coming quickly, get more on each loop
                                            bsize=min(bsize*1.25,10000)
                                    elif delta >.75: #Data coming slowly, get less on each loop
                                            bsize=max(bsize*.75,100)
    
                                    #End of file
                                    if buf=='':
                                            self.browser.emit(PYSIGNAL('percent'),(100,))
                                            break
    
                                    p=p+len(buf)
                                    local=local+buf
    
                    except:
                            traceback.print_exc()
                    return (local,type,subtype)
    
            def printPage(self):
                    printer=QPrinter(QPrinter.HighResolution)
                    printer.setFullPage(True)
                    if printer.setup(self):
                            p=QPainter(printer)
                            if not p.isActive(): # starting printing failed
                                    return;
                            metrics=QPaintDeviceMetrics(p.device())
                            dpiy = metrics.logicalDpiY()
                            margin = int(((2/2.54)*dpiy)) # 2 cm margins
                            body=QRect(margin, margin, metrics.width() - 2*margin,
                                            metrics.height()-2*margin)
                            richText=QSimpleRichText( self.viewer.text(),
                                                            QFont(),
                                                            self.viewer.context(),
                                                            self.viewer.styleSheet(),
                                                            self.viewer.mimeSourceFactory(),
                                                            body.height() )
                            richText.setWidth( p, body.width() )
                            view=QRect(body)
                            page = 1
                            while True:
                                    richText.draw(p,body.left(),body.top(),view,self.colorGroup())
                                    view.moveBy(0,body.height())
                                    p.translate(0,-body.height())
                                    p.drawText(view.right()-p.fontMetrics().width(str(page)),
                                                    view.bottom()+p.fontMetrics().ascent()+5,
                                                    str(page));
                                    if view.top()  >= richText.height():
                                            break
                                    printer.newPage()
                                    page+=1
                            p.end()
    
    
    class QBrowser(QTextBrowser):
            def __init__(self,parent=None):
                    QTextBrowser.__init__(self,parent)
                    self.mf=MimeFactory(self)
                    self.setMimeSourceFactory(self.mf)
    
    def printit(arg):
            print str(arg)
    
    if __name__=="__main__":
            from sys import argv
            app=QApplication(argv)
            w=QBrowser()
    
            w.connect(w,PYSIGNAL('percent'),printit)
            w.connect(w,PYSIGNAL('size'),printit)
            w.connect(w,PYSIGNAL('status'),printit)
    
            w.show()
            w.setSource(argv[1])
            app.connect(app, SIGNAL("lastWindowClosed()")
                                    , app, SLOT("quit()"))
            app.exec_loop()