groupdocs-viewer-net 26.5.0

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GroupDocs.Viewer for Python via .NET is a document rendering API that displays 190+ file formats — DOCX, PDF, XLSX, PPTX, CAD drawings, email messages, archives, and more — as HTML, PNG, JPG, or PDF. It preserves layout and formatting while offering per-format rendering options.

Get Started

pip install groupdocs-viewer-net

from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import HtmlViewOptions

with Viewer("document.docx") as viewer:
    options = HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("page_{0}.html")
    viewer.view(options)

How It Works

The package is a self-contained Python wheel (~160 MB) that includes everything needed to render documents. No external software installation is required — just pip install and start viewing. The wheel works across Python 3.5 – 3.14 on Windows, Linux, and macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon).

Features

• Wide Format Support: 190+ file formats across Microsoft Office, PDF, images, CAD, email, and archives.
• Flexible Output: Render to HTML (embedded or external resources), PNG, JPG, or PDF.
• Page Control: Render whole documents, selected pages, page ranges, or reordered pages.
• Custom Streams: Route each page or resource to a Python-provided stream factory — no disk writes required.
• Cross-Platform: Windows x64/x86, Linux x64, macOS x64/ARM64.

Common Tasks

• Render DOCX, PDF, XLSX, or PPTX to HTML for an in-browser document viewer
• Generate per-page PNG or JPG thumbnails and previews
• Produce a print-ready PDF from any supported format
• View CAD drawings (DWG, DXF) without AutoCAD
• Display email messages (MSG, EML) together with their attachments
• Render specific pages, page ranges, or reordered pages
• Feed rendered HTML or page images into an AI / RAG document-preview pipeline

Supported File Formats

For a complete list, see supported formats.

• Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Project, Outlook)
• PDF (Standard PDFs, PDF/A)
• OpenDocument (ODT, ODS, ODP)
• Images (JPEG, PNG, TIFF, BMP, SVG, WebP, DICOM)
• Email (EML, MSG, PST, OST)
• eBook (EPUB, MOBI, AZW3)
• Archives (ZIP, TAR, RAR, 7Z)
• AutoCAD (DWG, DXF, DGN, IFC)
• Web (HTML, MHTML, CHM, XML)

Platform & Format Support

Format family	Windows	Linux / macOS
Project Management (MPP, MPT, MPX)	Yes	No
All other formats (Office, PDF, Visio, CAD, images, email, archives, eBooks, web, …)	Yes	Yes

The Linux/macOS build uses GroupDocs.Viewer.CrossPlatform, which renders every format except the Project Management family (MPP, MPT, MPX) — render those on Windows. Everything else, including Visio, works on all platforms.

Examples

Render DOCX to HTML (embedded resources)

from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import HtmlViewOptions

with Viewer("./document.docx") as viewer:
    viewer.view(HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("./out/page_{0}.html"))

Render selected pages to PNG

from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import PngViewOptions

with Viewer("./document.pdf") as viewer:
    viewer.view(PngViewOptions("./out/page_{0}.png"), page_numbers=[1, 3, 5])

Render with Advanced Options

from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import HtmlViewOptions, LoadOptions, Watermark

load_options = LoadOptions()
load_options.password = "12345"

with Viewer("./protected.docx", load_options) as viewer:
    options = HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("./out/page_{0}.html")
    options.watermark = Watermark("CONFIDENTIAL")
    options.render_responsive = True
    viewer.view(options)

Get View Info

from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import ViewInfoOptions

with Viewer("./document.pdf") as viewer:
    info = viewer.get_view_info(ViewInfoOptions.for_html_view())
    print(f"Pages: {len(info.pages)}")

Render from Stream / BytesIO

import io
from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import HtmlViewOptions

with open("document.docx", "rb") as stream:
    with Viewer(stream) as viewer:
        viewer.view(HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("./out/page_{0}.html"))

buf = io.BytesIO(downloaded_bytes)
with Viewer(buf) as viewer:
    viewer.view(HtmlViewOptions.for_embedded_resources("./out/page_{0}.html"))

Render to Custom Streams (no disk writes)

import io
from groupdocs.viewer import Viewer
from groupdocs.viewer.options import PngViewOptions

pages: dict[int, io.BytesIO] = {}
def create_page(page_number):
    pages[page_number] = io.BytesIO()
    return pages[page_number]

with Viewer("./document.docx") as viewer:
    viewer.view(PngViewOptions(create_page))
# pages now holds {1: <BytesIO>, 2: <BytesIO>, ...}

AI Agent & LLM Friendly

This package is designed for seamless integration with AI agents, LLMs, and automated code generation tools.

• AGENTS.md in the package — AI coding assistants (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) auto-discover the API surface, usage patterns, and troubleshooting tips from the installed package
• MCP server — connect your AI tool to GroupDocs documentation for on-demand API lookups:

  { "mcpServers": { "groupdocs-docs": { "url": "https://docs.groupdocs.com/mcp" } } }
  

• Machine-readable docs — full documentation available as plain text for RAG and LLM context:
  • Single file: https://docs.groupdocs.com/viewer/python-net/llms-full.txt
  • Per page: append .md to any docs URL

Evaluation Mode

The API works without a license in evaluation mode with the following limitations:

• A watermark is added to rendered output.
• Only the first few pages are rendered.

To remove these limitations, apply a license or request a temporary license:

from groupdocs.viewer import License
License().set_license("path/to/license.lic")

Or set the environment variable (auto-applied at import):

export GROUPDOCS_LIC_PATH="path/to/license.lic"

Troubleshooting

Issue	Platform	Fix
System.Drawing.Common is not supported	Linux/macOS	apt-get install libgdiplus (Linux) or brew install mono-libgdiplus (macOS)
Garbled text or missing fonts in rendered HTML/PDF	Linux	apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer fontconfig && fc-cache -f
The type initializer for 'Gdip' threw an exception	macOS	brew install mono-libgdiplus
DOTNET_SYSTEM_GLOBALIZATION_INVARIANT errors	Linux	Do NOT set this variable. ICU must be available.

System Requirements

• Python 3.5 - 3.14
• Windows x64/x86, Linux x64, macOS x64/ARM64

More Resources

• Documentation
• Code Examples
• Free Support Forum
• Temporary License

Also available for other platforms: .NET | Java | Node.js

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Product Page | Docs | Demos | API Reference | Blog | Free Support | Temporary License