A program (a set of python scripts) to turn cewe photobooks into pdf documents. The CEWE pdf export is achieved by interpreting the mcf xml-files and compiling a pdf document which looks like the cewe photo book.
There are many capabilities in the Cewe album editor which are not supported by cewe2pdf, so an exact conversion cannot be guaranteed. The script is mostly based on reverse-engineering and guessing. It is not meeting any official specifications. So don't be surprised if one or another feature doesn't work. However, improvements are always appreciated!
You will need Python 3.9 (or later, but be careful about going past 3.10.14, which is what the github checkin action on the base version uses)
You will need underlying Cairographics (https://www.cairographics.org/) support installed on your machine for the handling of clip art. How you get this will depend on your platform, but if you have the GTK+ toolkit installed (https://www.gtk.org/docs/installations/) that should do it.
tags: mcf2pdf, mcf_to_pdf, CEWE Fotobuch als pdf speichern, Fotobuch nach pdf exportieren, cewe Fotobuch pdf, mcf in pdf umwandeln, aus CEW-Fotobuch ein pdf machen, cewe Fotobuch pdf
Download or clone this cewe2pdf repository into a folder of your choice.
The easiest way to start this Python script, is to install the latest python version. Then from the start-menu open your python promt and install the dependencies
pip install packages lxml reportlab pillow pillow_heif cairosvg fonttools pyyaml
If you have installed the Anaconda Python distribution, there is one catch:
Currently, there is a problem with the pillow image library in Anaconda, that prevents it from loading .webp images on Windows.
This will give the error:
"image file could not be identified because WEBP support not installed".
To fix this, you can do the following steps.
Press Windows Start button and start the "Anaconda prompt"
Make sure you have all the dependencies installed by executing:
conda install lxml
conda uninstall reportlab pillow
pip install reportlab pillow fonttools pyyaml
For Windows you can avoid the need to build Cairo graphics yourself by using vcpkg (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/vcpkg/get_started/overview and https://vcpkg.io/en/). For users just seeking a 'cairo.dll' to add to %WINDIR%\System32, you could also take a look at this project for binary releases.
Download the repository into a folder of your choice.
Install the packages listed in requirements.txt into a Python environment.
Install cairo, for example using the brew package manager. If you dont have brewinstalled, please do so https://brew.sh/. Then run
brew install cairo
as shown here https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/cairo.
Follow the steps outlined for Linux on linking to the software (most likely it will be installed in /Applications) and creating the font file. The standard directory for fonts on MacOS is ~/Library/Fonts/.
Download the repository into a folder of your choice. Ensure the python dependencies are installed. On Fedora :
sudo dnf install python3-lxml python3-reportlab python-cairosvg fonttools python3-pyyaml
On Debian:
sudo apt install python3-cairosvg python3-fonttools python3-lxml python3-packaging python3-pillow python3-reportlab python3-yaml python3-opencv python3-fitz
Locate the directory where your CEWE album software is installed. You can recognize it by the many .so files and some subdirs like Resources).
Put this directory name into a configuration file cewe2pdf.ini (or, I guess, the now deprecated cewe_folder.txt)
If a cewe_folder.txt (see below) file is not found, then the program looks for files called cewe2pdf.ini, first in the current directory and then in the album directory, reading both if it finds both. Later entries override previous entries of the same name.
For normal use (i.e. actually creating a pdf album, rather than testing the code) the most reasonable strategy is to place a cewe2pdf.ini file with the album file, setting everything you need there, out of the way of future updates to the program repository.
In cewe2pdf.ini you must specify the location of the cewe folder. You can also
- provide a list of locations for additional background images, cliparts, passepartouts (frames)
- define how the additional fonts you have specified (see below) are organised into families so that bold and italic texts are shown correctly
- define non-standard line spacing (linescale) for any fonts that need it
- define output resolution for the pdf
- and more
The contents might, for example, look like this:
[DEFAULT]
cewe_folder = C:\Program Files\Elkjop fotoservice_6.3\elkjop fotoservice
# Define font families where the defaults don't work properly. Take a good look
# at the full font diagnostics if you suspect issues with the choice of fonts
fontFamilies =
FranklinGothic,FranklinGothic,FranklinGothic Medium,Franklin Gothic Book Italic,FranklinGothic Medium Italic
# Define the output resolutions, the default 300 is ok for printing, 150 for screen display only
pdfImageResolution = 150
pdfBackgroundResolution = 150
# specify default leading (1.1 = 10% of the font size as leading is standard in the code, where we leave
# it unaltered for backward compatibility, but 1.15 works best when line spacing is used, see issue 182)
defaultLineScale = 1.15
# Define line scale (line spacing, essentially) for fonts where the default 1.1 (110%) is not acceptable
fontLineScales =
Crafty Girls: 1.43
# For an album with outer edge page numbering, force the number to the right on all
# pages rather than keeping the original left on even, right on odd page placement
singlePageNumberPosition = right
# Define how the inside cover pages are processed in a keepDoublePages run
# Default False, if True then the inside cover pages on a keepDoublePages run will be white (as CEWE)
# rather than matching the background of the facing pages (i.e. the first and last usable pages)
# This has no effect on a single page width run, where the inside cover pages are simply omitted
insideCoverWhite = False
# Shadows were implemented in May 2025 (except blur) but can be turned off
# Default False, if True then no shadows are created on objects
noShadows = False
# These possibilities are seldom needed in the latest versions of the program
#extraBackgroundFolders =
# ${PROGRAMDATA}/hps/${KEYACCOUNT}/addons/447/backgrounds/v1/backgrounds
# tests/Resources/photofun/backgrounds
#extraClipArts =
# 63488, ${LOCALAPPDATA}/CEWE/hps/${KEYACCOUNT}/photofun/decorations/63488/rect_cream/rect_cream.clp
# 121285, ${LOCALAPPDATA}/CEWE/hps/${KEYACCOUNT}/photofun/decorations/121285/12089-clip-gold-gd/12089-clip-gold-gd.clp
#passepartoutFolders=${PROGRAMDATA}/hps
# Define the numbers of logging messages of various levels that are "usual" for your
# installation. This allows the program to tell you if there are differences in a run
# and therefore give you a hint that something needs your attention.
#expectedLoggingMessageCounts =
# cewe2pdf.config: WARNING[32], INFO[669]
# root: ERROR[2], WARNING[4], INFO[38]
It is possible to ask cewe2pdf to generate an index for the album, where index terms are selected using a combination of of font and font size used in a text area. The index is initially generated as a separate pdf file with black text on white background. The index pdf is used to create an index image file, a png in which the background is transparent. That png image is then merged into the album pdf, being placed on any page containing an index marker identifier.
This feature may be useful in, for example, an album which represents a day-by-day record of some period of time. The headings for each day in the album can be specified in a font/fontsize combination which is not used for any other purpose in the album, and the index will then present a short day-by-day summary with page number references.
It is normal to allow cewe2pdf to delete the index pdf but to retain the index png. That allows you to manually insert the index png onto the index page in the album editor, and thus have it as part of the album which is sent for quality printing (if you do that!). If you rerun the album pdf generation, creating a new index png to be merged into the album, the merge process will remove any old index png from the index page before adding the new one (based on best-effort recognition of the image in the pdf!)
The page on which the index is to be placed is recognised by the presence of a text on the page. The text is identified with a regular expression defined in the .ini file, and would often be a visible text such as "Contents". If you don't want a visible text, you can always set the colour of the text to "None". Other things on the index page (photos, clip-art, text, etc) are left undisturbed and should be visible since the background of the index image is transparent.
There are a host of index configuration options which can be specified in a separate section of the .ini file. No indexing will take place unless there is an INDEX section and the indexing value is True
[INDEX]
indexing = False
indexEntryFonts =
Arial Rounded MT Bold, 15
indexFont = Helvetica
indexFontSize = 12
lineSpacing = 1.1
pageWidth = 210
pageHeight = 291 # A4 is 297. 291 is the size of the paper in a 30x30 album
indexMarkerRegex = ^Contents$
topMargin = 5
bottomMargin = 0
leftMargin = 7
rightMargin = 7
deleteIndexPdf = True
deleteIndexPng = False
indexEntryFonts specifies one or more font / font sizw combinations which will be used to recognise index terms in the album
indexFont, indexFontSize, lineSpacing, pageWidth, pageHeight determine how the index entries are formatted on the index pdf page
indexMarkerRegex specifies the regular expression against which all text items in the album are tested. Any page with a matching text will be used for insertion of the index png
topMargin etc determine the placement of the index png on the index page. The image is scaled appropriately to fit.
deleteIndexPdf etc determine whether or not the generated files are deleted after the album pdf has been updated.
There are also margin settings for the creation of the index pdf, pdfTopMargin etc. These may be useful if you intend to keep and use the generated index pdf, but default to 1 so that the pdf page is filled and the image margins are the most important.
The current code only handles a single index page. If there are more index terms than fit on a single page, the index pdf will be correct, but the index image will only take the first page.
The code knows where to find the fonts delivered with the Cewe software, but if you use non-Cewe fonts then you must specify the location of those fonts. For historical reasons configuration of fonts is done with a separate (optional) configuration file, additional_fonts.txt. The file should contain one line per font file or font directory to be added. Both .ttf or .otf files are read.
To find a potential additional_fonts.txt the code searches, in order, the album directory, the current directory and the location of the program itself; it uses only the first such file found.
For normal use (i.e. actually creating a pdf album, rather than testing the code) the most reasonable strategy is to place an additional_fonts.txt file with the album file, out of the way of future updates to the program repository. You can prevent the program from using fonts defined in the code repository versions of the file by providing an empty additional_fonts.txt next to your album file.
Example for Windows font file and directory paths:
C:\Windows\Fonts\BOD_R.TTF
C:\Windows\Fonts\
Example for linux font file and directory paths:
/usr/share/fonts/truetype/lato/Lato-Heavy.ttf
/home/myusername/.local/share/fonts/
Go to the directory where cewe2pdf is installed and create a text file there with filename cewe_folder.txt
and use a text editor to write the installation directory of the CEWE software into the text file.
For example, if you have the software branded for the company DM, called "dm-Fotowelt", then the file cewe_folder.txt might contain:
C:\Program Files\dm\dm-Fotowelt\dm-Fotowelt.exe
Save the file and close it. Alternatively - indeed, preferably, if you want full functionality! - use more extensive configuration by using cewe2pdf.ini instead of cewe_folder.txt, as described below
.mcf is the format that Cewe has used for many years for albums, until the introduction of the newer .mcfx format around 2023. This is the format around which cewe2pdf has been developed; the file content is XML. There is always a folder <album>_mcf-Dateien associated with a .mcf file, containing the images used in the album.
If your CEWE software uses .mcfx files for your projects, you can specify the file name directly on the command line. The .mcfx file format is actually an sql database containing a single .mcf file and the related image files. cewe2pdf will create a temporary directory, unpack the the .mcfx there, process the result, and then delete the temporary directory again
If your CEWE software uses .xmcf files for your projects, you can simply still use this. The .xmcf file format is just an archive of the *.mcf file, the <album>_mcf-Dateien folder and a few other files. Right click the .xmcf file and your os should give you an open to open the archive. Copy the relevant files out of it, and you should be all set for the next steps.
The program was developed to handle CEWE photo books - photograph albums - and is absolutely not guaranteed to handle other products from the same editor such as calendars, cards, invitations, etc. Feeding cewe2pdf with one of these is at best unlikely to create the right result, and indeed is more likely to cause it to crash unpredictably.
Despite the above warning, changes in Nov 2024 should allow mcf files for the Photo Pairs game to be handled correctly. The resulting 6x6cm pages can be printed using Acrobat, using multiple sheets to a page with, for example, 4 across and 6 down on an A4 sheet. Print two copies, glue them to carton, cut them out and you have your memory game.
You should now have
- a program directory containing all the python code needed, the most important being
cewe2pdf.py. - one or more album directories each containing
- one or more
*.mcfor.mcfxalbum files- a directory named
<album>_mcf-Dateinfor each album, if you are using*.mcf
- a directory named
- a
cewe2pdf.iniconfiguration file (or maybe the now deprecatedcewe_folder.txt) - an
additional_fonts.txtconfiguration file
- one or more
It is not really a good idea to place your album files in the same directory as the program. Keep them separate so there is no confusion in keeping your version of the program up to date with your Github repository version.
Run cewe2pdf.py with the name of your album file and an equivalent pdf file will be created beside the album file.
Example:
python cewe2pdf.py c:\path\to\my\files\my_nice_fotobook.mcf
cewe2pdf supports the following options, shown if you run python cewe2pdf.py --help
usage: cewe2pdf.py [-h] [--keepDoublePages] [--pages PAGES] [--tmp-dir MCFXTMPDIR] [--appdata-dir APPDATADIR]
[inputFile]
Convert a photo-book from .mcf/.mcfx file format to .pdf
positional arguments:
inputFile Just one mcf(x) input file must be specified (default: None)
options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--keepDoublePages Each page in the .pdf will be a double-sided page, instead of a normal single page. (default: False)
--pages PAGES Page numbers to render, e.g. 1,2,4-9 (default: None, which of course processes all the pages). These refer to the inside page numbers as you see them in the album editor - the first user editable inside page is number 1. If you want the front cover, then ask for page 0. Asking for the back cover explicitly will not work!
--outFile OUTFILE The name for the output file (rather than the name of the input file with the suffix .pdf added)
--tmp-dir MCFXTMPDIR Directory for .mcfx file extraction (default: None)
--appdata-dir APPDATADIR
Directory for persistent app data, eg ttf fonts converted from otf fonts (default: None)
Example:
python cewe2pdf.py c:\path\to\my\files\my_nice_fotobook.mcf
To create a stand-alone compiled package, you can use
pip install pyinstaller
pyinstaller cewe2pdf.py --onefile
To run the unit-test you also need to install
pip install pytest pikepdf
You can then call pytest from the working directory or use the runAllTests.py file, or you can run the individual test files.
We have a local copy of the compare-pdf code from https://github.com/Formartha/compare-pdf. This code can be used from our automated unit test code to do pixel-by-pixel comparison of the pdf pages that have been generated with a previous (approved) version. This strategy has been implemented for several of the tests, and it is therefore important that each test has an "approved" result pdf with which any new version is compared (see below)
In addition compare_pdf can be used from the command line to see details of the differences. Just change to our tests/compare-pdf directory and run the command
pip install .
Then you can call compare_pdf from the command line to show the two pdfs side by side, or as a diff image.
compare_pdf --pdf <path_to_pdf1> --pdf <path_to_pdf2> ... [--showdiffs={sidebyside|diffimage}]
--showdiffs=sidebyside lets you do a visual comparison, but often the differences are subtle and difficult to see (a different font for text is a typical subtle difference!). In that case diffimage will show you where the pixels differ and often give you a good enough hint to understand what has changed.
In each test directory where pixel comparison forms part of the test, it is necessary to keep an approved version (maybe several) to compare against. These are kept in a folder conventionally named previous_result_pdfs, and are conventionally named as the original mcf name with a suffix containing the date (yyyymmdd) and a style letter ("S" for single side pdfs, "D" for double side pdfs). The test programs create output files using this naming convention in their own directory. If a new version is different from the latest version in previous_result_pdfs AND is deemed to be correct by the developer, then the new test output(s) can be moved to previous_result_pdfs and checked in there, thus becoming the basis against which future test results will be compared.
The testPageNumbers tests show how you can use python in your test code to modify the xml of the .mcf file. This allows you to make variations of your test without having specifically designed album files. When combined with pixel by pixel comparison this allows quite extensive regression tests to be created.
Tests using compare-pdf originally used the modification time to sort result pdfs and choose the latest approved version. This doesn't work on github, and we now use the file naming convention to sort the files. For interest, however, there is no touch(1) command on Windows, and powershell must be used to change the timestamp for a file, like this:
(Get-ChildItem .\testalbum.mcf.20250326.pdf).LastWriteTime = New-object DateTime 2025,03,26,19,00,00