groupdocs-viewer-net 26.9.0

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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, 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

Windows wheels run the Windows build of the engine; Linux and macOS wheels run its cross-platform build (GroupDocs.Viewer.Net60), which renders every format except Photoshop (PSD, PSB), Adobe Illustrator (AI) and OneNote — render those on Windows. Visio and, since 26.9, Microsoft Project (MPP, MPT, MPX) work on every platform.

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

System Requirements

• Python 3.5 - 3.14, pip 20.3 or newer
• Windows x64, Linux x64, macOS x64/ARM64 — 64-bit Python only; there is no 32-bit Windows wheel
• Linux: glibc 2.27 or newer (e.g. Ubuntu 18.04+, Debian 10+, RHEL 8+), plus fonts and ICU (apt-get install libicu-dev fontconfig ttf-mscorefonts-installer; on Debian enable contrib first). No libgdiplus.
• macOS 12 or newer, Intel or Apple Silicon.

More Resources

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

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

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