Working with rich text (RTF) documents often requires converting them into easily viewable formats such as images, especially when sharing content across different platforms or embedding it in web applications. In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to render RTF as PNG using Python. This conversion method is perfect for scenarios where RTF files need to be displayed online, previewed in custom dashboards, or stored as lightweight image files. Developers and IT professionals can benefit from this technique when creating document management systems, file previewers, or archiving tools that require image-based document rendering. By following this simple, step-by-step approach, you can create PNG images from RTF in Python without depending on any external tools or complex configurations.

Steps to Render RTF as PNG using Python

1. Use the pip command to install GroupDocs.Viewer for Python via .NET, which provides all the required tools for RTF-to-image conversion
2. Import the groupdocs.viewer and groupdocs.viewer.options modules to utilize the functionality needed for image rendering
3. Open the RTF document with the Viewer class inside a with statement to ensure proper handling and automatic cleanup of resources
4. Define the output file naming pattern by setting up PngViewOptions
5. Execute the viewer.view(viewOptions) method to convert each page of the RTF document into separate PNG image files

The Python code to render RTF as PNG shown below demonstrates how seamlessly Viewer APIs can be integrated into your projects. It loads an RTF file, configures rendering options, and generates high-quality image outputs in sequence. You can use these generated PNG images for web previews, thumbnails, reporting dashboards, or digital archiving. The rendering process ensures that each output image retains text clarity, margins, and layout consistency, making it ideal for both personal and enterprise-level applications. This short Python script efficiently performs the entire rendering process. The {0} placeholder in the output filename automatically appends the page number, producing files like output_1.png, output_2.png, and so forth.

Code to Render RTF as PNG using Python

In conclusion, Viewer library provides a simple, reliable, and developer-friendly approach to render RTF to PNG in Python. It ensures accurate page rendering while preserving formatting, colors, and embedded objects. This functionality proves extremely useful when you need to convert RTF files into images for display within web pages, content management systems, or secure document sharing environments. By automating the conversion process through Python, you can build efficient workflows that handle bulk document rendering, image generation, or file archiving seamlessly.

For more insights on converting RTF files into visual formats, you may also find our guide on render RTF to image using Python helpful. It provides additional details and examples to help you understand different rendering options available in APIs.