Rather than sending your map or layout view to a printer, you may want to simply create PDF files that can be shared. ArcPy mapping provides an ExportToPDF() function, which you can use to do this.
PDF is a very popular interchange format designed to be viewable and printable from many different platforms. The ArcPy mapping ExportToPDF() function can be used to export data frames or the page layout to a PDF format. By default, the ExportToPDF() function exports the page layout, but you can pass an optional parameter that references a particular data frame, which can be printed instead of the page layout. In this recipe, you will learn how to export the page layout as well as a specific data frame to a PDF file.
Follow these steps to learn how to export a map to a PDF file:
- Open
C:ArcpyBookCh4Crime_Ch4.mxdin ArcMap. - Open the Python window.
- Import the
arcpy.mappingmodule:import arcpy.mapping as mapping
- Reference the currently active document (
Crime_Ch4.mxd), and assign this reference to a variable:mxd = mapping.MapDocument('CURRENT') - Export the page layout with the
ExportToPDF()function:mapping.ExportToPDF(mxd,r"c:ArcpyBookCh4Map_PageLayout.pdf")
- You can check your work by examining the
c:ArcpyBookcodeCh4ExportToPDF_Step1.pysolution file. - Run the script.
- Open the
Map_PageLayout.pdffile that was created, and you should see something similar to the following screenshot:
- Now, we'll print a specific data frame from our map document file. Alter your script, so that it appears as follows. You can check your work by examining the
c:ArcpyBookcodeCh4ExportToPDF_Step2.pysolution file.
- Run the script and examine the output of the PDF file.
The ExportToPDF() function requires two parameters, including a reference to the map document and the file that serves as the output PDF file. The first script that we developed was passed in a reference to the map document along with an output PDF file. Since we didn't pass in an optional parameter specifying the data frame, the ExportToPDF() function will export the page layout. There are also many optional parameters that can be passed into this method, including a specific data frame and a number of parameters mostly related to the quality of the output content and file. Our second script is passed in a specific data frame that should be exported. You can refer to the ArcGIS help pages for more information about each of the optional parameters.