---
author: ''
category: ''
date: 2010/07/16 19:58
description: ''
link: ''
priority: ''
slug: BB901
tags: kde, programming, python, qt
title: Capturing a webpage as an image using Pyhon and Qt
type: text
updated: 2010/07/16 19:58
url_type: ''
---
For a small project I am doing I wanted the capability to see web pages offline. So, I started thinking of a way to do that, and all solutions were annoying or impractical.

So, I googled and found `CutyCapt <http://cutycapt.sourceforge.net/>`_ which uses Qt and WebKit to turn web pages into images. Good enough for me!

Since I wanted to use this from a PyQt app, it makes sense to do the same thing CutyCapt does, but as a python module/script, so here's a quick implementation that works for me, even if it lacks a bunch of CutyCapt's features. 

With a little extra effort, it can even save as PDF or SVG, which would let you use it *almost* like a real web page.

You just use it like this::

    python  capty.py http://www.kde.org kde.png

And here's the code [`download capty.py <//ralsina.me/static/capty.py>`_]

.. code-block:: python

    # -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

    """This tries to do more or less the same thing as CutyCapt, but as a
    python module.

    This is a derived work from CutyCapt: http://cutycapt.sourceforge.net/

    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    //
    // CutyCapt - A Qt WebKit Web Page Rendering Capture Utility
    //
    // Copyright (C) 2003-2010 Bjoern Hoehrmann <bjoern@hoehrmann.de>
    //
    // This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
    // modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
    // as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
    // of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
    //
    // This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    // but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    // MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    // GNU General Public License for more details.
    //
    // $Id$
    //
    ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

    """

    import sys
    from PyQt4 import QtCore, QtGui, QtWebKit


    class Capturer(object):
        """A class to capture webpages as images"""

        def __init__(self, url, filename):
            self.url = url
            self.filename = filename
            self.saw_initial_layout = False
            self.saw_document_complete = False

        def loadFinishedSlot(self):
            self.saw_document_complete = True
            if self.saw_initial_layout and self.saw_document_complete:
                self.doCapture()

        def initialLayoutSlot(self):
            self.saw_initial_layout = True
            if self.saw_initial_layout and self.saw_document_complete:
                self.doCapture()

        def capture(self):
            """Captures url as an image to the file specified"""
            self.wb = QtWebKit.QWebPage()
            self.wb.mainFrame().setScrollBarPolicy(
                QtCore.Qt.Horizontal, QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)
            self.wb.mainFrame().setScrollBarPolicy(
                QtCore.Qt.Vertical, QtCore.Qt.ScrollBarAlwaysOff)

            self.wb.loadFinished.connect(self.loadFinishedSlot)
            self.wb.mainFrame().initialLayoutCompleted.connect(
                self.initialLayoutSlot)

            self.wb.mainFrame().load(QtCore.QUrl(self.url))

        def doCapture(self):
            self.wb.setViewportSize(self.wb.mainFrame().contentsSize())
            img = QtGui.QImage(self.wb.viewportSize(), QtGui.QImage.Format_ARGB32)
            painter = QtGui.QPainter(img)
            self.wb.mainFrame().render(painter)
            painter.end()
            img.save(self.filename)
            QtCore.QCoreApplication.instance().quit()

    if __name__ == "__main__":
        """Run a simple capture"""
        app = QtGui.QApplication(sys.argv)
        c = Capturer(sys.argv[1], sys.argv[2])
        c.capture()
        app.exec_()