Version 2.0.0, 2022-06-01

[MartinThoma]

What's Changed

The 2.0.0 release of PyPDF2 includes three core changes:

1. Dropping support for Python 3.5 and older.
2. Introducing type annotations.
3. Interface changes, mostly to have PEP8-compliant names

We introduced a deprecation process
that hopefully helps users to avoid unexpected breaking changes.

Breaking Changes (DEP)

• PyPDF2 2.0 requires Python 3.6+. Python 2.7 and 3.5 support were dropped.
• PdfFileReader: The "warndest" parameter was removed
• PdfFileReader and PdfFileMerger no longer have the overwriteWarnings
  parameter. The new behavior is overwriteWarnings=False.
• merger: OutlinesObject was removed without replacement.
• merger.py ➔ _merger.py: You must import PdfFileMerger from PyPDF2 directly.
• utils:
  • ConvertFunctionsToVirtualList was removed
  • formatWarning was removed
  • isInt(obj): Use instance(obj, int) instead
  • u_(s): Use s directly
  • chr_(c): Use chr(c) instead
  • barray(b): Use bytearray(b) instead
  • isBytes(b): Use instance(b, type(bytes())) instead
  • xrange_fn: Use range instead
  • string_type: Use str instead
  • isString(s): Use instance(s, str) instead
  • _basestring: Use str instead
  • All Exceptions are now in PyPDF2.errors:
    • PageSizeNotDefinedError
    • PdfReadError
    • PdfReadWarning
    • PyPdfError
• PyPDF2.pdf (the pdf module) no longer exists. The contents were moved with
  the library. You should most likely import directly from PyPDF2 instead.
  The RectangleObject is in PyPDF2.generic.
• The Resources, Scripts, and Tests will no longer be part of the distribution
  files on PyPI. This should have little to no impact on most people. The
  Tests are renamed to tests, the Resources are renamed to resources.
  Both are still in the git repository. The Scripts are now in
  https://github.com/py-pdf/cpdf. Sample_Code was moved to the docs.

For a full list of deprecated functions, please see the changelog of version
1.28.0.

New Features (ENH)

• Improve space setting for text extraction (ENH: Improve space setting for text extraction #922)
• Allow setting the decryption password in PdfReader.init (ENH: Allow setting the decryption password in PdfReader.__init__ #920)
• Add Page.add_transformation (MAINT: Add add_transformation method #883)

Bug Fixes (BUG)

• Fix error adding transformation to page without /Contents (BUG: Fix error adding transformation to page without /Contents #908)

Robustness (ROB)

• Cope with invalid length in streams (ROB : cope with invalid length in streams #861)

Documentation (DOC)

• Fix style of 1.25 and 1.27 patch notes (DOC: Fix style of 1.25 and 1.27 patch notes #927)
• Transformation (DOC: Transformation #907)

Developer Experience (DEV)

• Create flake8 config file (DEV: Create flake8 config file #916)
• Use relative imports (DEV: Use relative imports #875)

Maintenance (MAINT)

• Use Python 3.6 language features (MAINT: Use Python 3.6 language features #849)
• Add wrapper function for PendingDeprecationWarnings (MAINT: Add wrapper function for PendingDeprecationWarnings #928)
• Use new PEP8 compliant names (MAINT: Use new PEP8 compliant names #884)
• Explicitly represent transformation matrix (MAINT: Explicitly represent transformation matrix #878)
• Inline PAGE_RANGE_HELP string (MAINT: Inline PAGE_RANGE_HELP string #874)
• Remove unnecessary generics imports (MAINT: Remove unnecessary generics imports #873)
• Remove star imports (Remove star imports #865)
• merger.py ➔ _merger.py (Move merger module #864)
• Type annotations for all functions/methods (MAINT: Add type annotations #854)
• Add initial type support with mypy (MAINT: Add initial type support #853)

Testing (TST)

• Regression test for xmp_metadata converter (TST: XMP metadata #923)
• Checkout submodule sample-files for benchmark
• Add text extracting performance benchmark
• Use new PyPDF2 API in benchmark (TST: Use new PyPDF2 API in benchmark #902)
• Make test suite fail for uncaught warnings (TST: Fail test suite for uncaught warnings #892)
• Remove -OO testrun from CI (TST: Remove -OO testrun from CI #901)
• Improve tests for convert_to_int (TST: Improve tests for convert_to_int #899)

Full Changelog: 1.28.4...2.0.0

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This discussion was created from the release Version 2.0.0, 2022-06-01.

[MartinThoma]

The 2.0.0 version now heavily modified the API of PyPDF2 after it was stable for a long time. You might feel that this release didn't bring that many improvements for you, as a user. I feel you.

PyPDF2 had a lot of improvements since April 2022. This change strives to improve the situation for new users, not for people who just want to keep their current code running. In order to make both happy, we were very careful in communicating those changes. If you need more time with adding them to your project, I recommend to use dependency pinning.

The PyPDF2 2.1.0 release will have massive improvements in text extraction. @pubpub-zz is making great progress there, but we have several PRs in the pipeline:

• Improve Text Extraction #881
• ExtractText2 #929
• WIP: support font CMAP to translate chars with TJ operator #858
• Advanced text extraction #464
• Updated extractText() #397

Good things are to come - stay tuned :-)