---
title: Post it generator
description: Prototype for web-to-print postit
categories:
    - Web
    - Print
    - SI17
git: https://git.xpub.nl/kamo/postit-gen
cover: susi.jpg
cover_alt: fake sushi
date: 08/03/2022
---

## POST-IT GENERATOR

~~TO AUGMENT OUR PRODUCTIVITY HERE IS A SCRIPT THAT~~  
Generate post-it blocks from markdown files.

### Install

Clone the repo

`git clone https://git.xpub.nl/kamo/postit-gen.git`

Move to the cloned folder

`cd postit-gen`

Create a virtual environment

`python3 -m venv venv`

and activate it

`. venv/bin/activate`

Then you can install the repo

`pip3 install -e .`

### How to use

The package offers two scripts: `template.py` and `generate.py`.

`template.py` generate a template folder with a markdown file that can be used as a starting point for formatting the contents.

`python3 template.py -f test`

Will generate a `test` folder, with the markdown template for the contents.

The `contents.md` file has these properties:

-   `title`, the title of the block
-   `folder`, the base folder in which the files are
-   `page_width`, the width of the page for the printing
-   `page_height`, the height of the page for the printing
-   `post_width`, the width of the post-it for the printing
-   `post_height`, the height of the post-it for the printing
-   `margin`, the margin for the page
-   `unit`, the measure unit in which the measures are expressed, default is _mm_
-   `background`, the color of the post-its. Accept all the format CSS specs accept. Default is _white_.
-   `contents`, a list of contents to put in the post-it block. Each entry is a post-it.

All these parameters are formatted in [YAML](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/YAML).

After setting all the parameters to match your needs, you can fill the contents. ATM you can insert text and images, in the form of a list.

```yaml
contents:
    - A flat with no floors
    - Hello, where are you, what can you see from there?
    - type: image
      src: game.png
```

Usually each entry of the list will be considered as a string. If you want to insert an image you will need to provide a `type: image`, and a `src: <filename>`.

In this way:

```yaml
contents:
    - type: image
      src: <filename>
```

Once you inserted your contents, you can run the `generate.py` script, specifying the working folder from which you want to take the contents.

`python3 generate.py -f test`

It will take the contents inside the `test` folder and will generate a ready-to-print HTML file, serving it with a simple http-server at `http://localhost:8000/test`. Opening that link you can preview your post-it blocks. Each entry of the `contents` list is now a page in the document (in the print mode!)

TODO: link css file in the template to work directly on the preview.