eml_to_pdf

Convert .eml (email) files to PDF using only Python.

The converted PDF files will be saved in the specified output directory. The output filenames are formatted as: YYYY-MM-DD_subject[-counter].pdf, where:

• The date prefix is taken from the email's sent date.
• The email subject is taken from the email headers.
• Should there be any duplicate filenames, then a counter will be added.
• The extension is changed to .pdf

For example, some_file.eml with subject "My Email" sent on March 15, 2024 will become 2024-03-15_My_Email.pdf.

Features

• Converts email body (plain text if there is no HTML body)
• Tries to filter potential security or privacy issues.
• Preserves formatting, character encodings, embedded images.
• Preserves email metadata (From, To, Subject, Date)
• Lists attachments.

Purpose

This tool allows you to convert email files (.eml format) into PDF documents, making them easier to archive, share, and view without requiring an email client.

Based on various libraries but NOT on a full rendering engine like WebKit or Gecko. python-pdfkit and wkhtmltopdf are deprecated libraries

Dependencies

• Python 3.11+
• weasyprint - a visual rendering engine for HTML and CSS that can export to PDF.
• python-markdown - for HTML'izing plain text.
• hurry.filesize - return human readable filesizes.
• beautifulsoup4 - HTML sanitization.

Installation

Clone or download this repo and use pip to install this package:

pip install .

Users of Arch linux or derived distro's like Manjora can use AUR package eml_to_pdf.

Usage

usage: eml_to_pdf.py [-h] [-d] [-n number] [-p size] [-v] input_dir output_dir

Convert EML files to PDF

positional arguments:
  input_dir             Directory containing EML files
  output_dir            Directory for PDF output

options:
  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.
  -d, --debug_html      Write intermediate html file next to pdf's.
  -n number, --number-of-procs number
                        Number of parallel processes. Defaults to the number
                        of available logical CPU's to eml_to_pdf.
  -p size, --page size  a3 a4 a5 b4 b5 letter legal or ledger with or without
                        'landscape', for example: 'a4 landscape' or 'a3'
                        including quotes. Defaults to 'a4', implying portrait.
  --unsafe              Don't sanitize HTML from potentially unsafe elements
                        such as remote images, scripts, etc. This may expose
                        sensitive user information.
  -v, --verbose         Show a lot of verbose debugging info. Forces number
                        of procs to 1.

Example below renders all .eml files in ./emails to a4 landscape oriented pdf's in ./pdf:

python eml-to-pdf.py -p 'a4 landscape' ./emails ./pdfs

Input file: Meeting Notes.eml (sent 2024-03-20) Output file: 2024-03-20_Meeting_Notes.pdf

Security

HTML Sanitization

Emails can contain HTML which can contain stuff you don't expect or want.

In the best case your emails contain clean HTML.

In common cases they will contain intentional tracking of end users using forged remote sources for images and other resources. This is a common practice in marketing or mass mailing solutions.

eml_to_pdf tries to keep the formatting in your mails ánd clean up potentially malicious content using custom filtering of tags, remote images, remote stylesheets, etc.

We try to cleanup. We can't give you a 100% guarantee. If you're very worried, please cleanup your mails yourself.

MD5 sums of attachments

eml_to_pdf lists attachments with their md5sums. You can use these md5sums for your convenience. They give a very strong indication that files are not altered. They will not be usable as proof in courts of law. They are not intended to be.

Issues

We've tested eml_to_pdf with a couple of cases with embedded images, tables, unicode or specific encodings. Refer to tests for example emails.

Please open an issue ticket if you have a mail where conversion results are not usable. Describe what you think your message contains and the output you expect. Attach verbose eml_to_pdf output of only this eml file and attach the eml file itself. We're not promising a solution, but we can have a look.

Please cleanup any attachments you add of things you don't want to share with the world.

License

eml_to_pdf code is published under the MIT license.

Licenses for dependencies:

• weasyprint: BSD-3
• python-markdown: BSD-3
• hurry.filesize: ZPL 2.1
• beautifulsoup4: MIT