mcpbeat Sign in

PDF Report Generation (Universal) Skill for Claude

by Microck

Create professional PDF reports with text, tables, and embedded images using reportlab. Works with ANY LLM provider (GPT, Gemini, Claude, etc.).

3k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
2
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
320
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository 
npx skills add https://github.com/Microck/ordinary-claude-skills --skill data-export-pdf

What comes with it

607 bytes besides the instruction
metadata.json

The instruction itself

24 sections, as written by the author

PDF Report Generation (Universal)

Overview

This skill enables you to create professional PDF reports containing analysis summaries, formatted tables, and embedded visualizations. Unlike cloud-hosted solutions, this skill uses the reportlab Python library and executes locally in your environment, making it compatible with ALL LLM providers including GPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, and Qwen.

When to Use This Skill

  • Generate analysis reports with text and tables
  • Create summary PDFs with embedded plots
  • Export formatted documentation
  • Produce publication-ready supplementary materials
  • Combine multiple analysis results into a single document

How to Use

Step 1: Import Required Libraries

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter, A4
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet, ParagraphStyle
from reportlab.lib.units import inch
from reportlab.lib import colors
from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer, Table, TableStyle, PageBreak, Image
from reportlab.lib.enums import TA_CENTER, TA_LEFT, TA_JUSTIFY
from datetime import datetime
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

Step 2: Create Basic PDF Document

# Create PDF file
pdf_filename = "analysis_report.pdf"
doc = SimpleDocTemplate(pdf_filename, pagesize=letter)
story = []  # Container for PDF elements

# Get default styles
styles = getSampleStyleSheet()
title_style = styles['Title']
heading_style = styles['Heading1']
normal_style = styles['Normal']

# Add title
story.append(Paragraph("Analysis Report", title_style))
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.2*inch))

# Add date
date_text = f"Generated: {datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')}"
story.append(Paragraph(date_text, normal_style))
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.3*inch))

# Build PDF
doc.build(story)
print(f"✅ PDF saved to: {pdf_filename}")

Step 3: Add Text Content

story = []

# Title
story.append(Paragraph("Single-Cell RNA-seq Analysis Report", title_style))
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.2*inch))

# Section heading
story.append(Paragraph("1. Overview", heading_style))
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.1*inch))

# Paragraph text
overview_text = """
This report summarizes the single-cell RNA-seq analysis performed on the dataset.
The analysis includes quality control, normalization, dimensionality reduction,
clustering, and cell type annotation.
"""
story.append(Paragraph(overview_text, normal_style))
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.2*inch))

Step 4: Add Tables

# Prepare table data
table_data = [
    ['Metric', 'Value'],  # Header
    ['Total Cells', '5,000'],
    ['Total Genes', '20,000'],
    ['Mean Genes/Cell', '2,500'],
    ['Median UMIs/Cell', '10,000']
]

# Create table
table = Table(table_data, colWidths=[2.5*inch, 2*inch])

# Style table
table.setStyle(TableStyle([
    # Header styling
    ('BACKGROUND', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.grey),
    ('TEXTCOLOR', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.whitesmoke),
    ('ALIGN', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 'CENTER'),
    ('FONTNAME', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 'Helvetica-Bold'),
    ('FONTSIZE', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 12),

    # Body styling
    ('BACKGROUND', (0, 1), (-1, -1), colors.beige),
    ('GRID', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 1, colors.black),
    ('FONTNAME', (0, 1), (-1, -1), 'Helvetica'),
    ('FONTSIZE', (0, 1), (-1, -1), 10),
]))

story.append(table)
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.3*inch))

Step 5: Embed Images/Plots

# Save matplotlib figure first
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 4))
# ... create your plot ...
plot_filename = "temp_plot.png"
fig.savefig(plot_filename, dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
plt.close(fig)

# Add image to PDF
story.append(Paragraph("2. UMAP Visualization", heading_style))
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.1*inch))
img = Image(plot_filename, width=4*inch, height=3*inch)
story.append(img)
story.append(Spacer(1, 0.2*inch))

Complete Example: Analysis Report

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter
from reportlab.lib.styles import getSampleStyleSheet
from reportlab.lib.units import inch
from reportlab.lib import colors
from reportlab.platypus import SimpleDocTemplate, Paragraph, Spacer, Table, TableStyle, Image
from datetime import datetime
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd

def create_analysis_report(adata, output_path="analysis_report.pdf"):
    """Create comprehensive PDF analysis report"""

    # Initialize PDF
    doc = SimpleDocTemplate(output_path, pagesize=letter)
    story = []
    styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

    # Title
    story.append(Paragraph("Single-Cell RNA-seq Analysis Report", styles['Title']))
    story.append(Spacer(1, 0.2*inch))
    story.append(Paragraph(f"Generated: {datetime.now().strftime('%Y-%m-%d %H:%M')}", styles['Normal']))
    story.append(Spacer(1, 0.3*inch))

    # Overview
    story.append(Paragraph("1. Dataset Overview", styles['Heading1']))
    story.append(Spacer(1, 0.1*inch))

    overview_data = [
        ['Metric', 'Value'],
        ['Total Cells', f'{adata.n_obs:,}'],
        ['Total Genes', f'{adata.n_vars:,}'],
        ['Observations', ', '.join(adata.obs.columns[:5].tolist())],
    ]

    table = Table(overview_data, colWidths=[2.5*inch, 3.5*inch])
    table.setStyle(TableStyle([
        ('BACKGROUND', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.grey),
        ('TEXTCOLOR', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.whitesmoke),
        ('ALIGN', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 'LEFT'),
        ('FONTNAME', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 'Helvetica-Bold'),
        ('GRID', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 1, colors.black),
        ('BACKGROUND', (0, 1), (-1, -1), colors.beige),
    ]))
    story.append(table)
    story.append(Spacer(1, 0.3*inch))

    # Cluster distribution
    if 'clusters' in adata.obs:
        story.append(Paragraph("2. Cluster Distribution", styles['Heading1']))
        story.append(Spacer(1, 0.1*inch))

        cluster_counts = adata.obs['clusters'].value_counts().sort_index()
        cluster_data = [['Cluster', 'Cell Count', 'Percentage']]
        total_cells = adata.n_obs

        for cluster, count in cluster_counts.items():
            percentage = (count / total_cells) * 100
            cluster_data.append([str(cluster), str(count), f'{percentage:.1f}%'])

        table = Table(cluster_data, colWidths=[1.5*inch, 1.5*inch, 1.5*inch])
        table.setStyle(TableStyle([
            ('BACKGROUND', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.grey),
            ('TEXTCOLOR', (0, 0), (-1, 0), colors.whitesmoke),
            ('ALIGN', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 'CENTER'),
            ('FONTNAME', (0, 0), (-1, 0), 'Helvetica-Bold'),
            ('GRID', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 1, colors.black),
            ('BACKGROUND', (0, 1), (-1, -1), colors.lightblue),
        ]))
        story.append(table)
        story.append(Spacer(1, 0.3*inch))

    # Visualization (if UMAP exists)
    if 'X_umap' in adata.obsm:
        story.append(Paragraph("3. UMAP Visualization", styles['Heading1']))
        story.append(Spacer(1, 0.1*inch))

        # Create UMAP plot
        fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(6, 5))
        scatter = ax.scatter(
            adata.obsm['X_umap'][:, 0],
            adata.obsm['X_umap'][:, 1],
            c=adata.obs['clusters'].astype('category').cat.codes if 'clusters' in adata.obs else 'blue',
            s=5, alpha=0.5
        )
        ax.set_xlabel('UMAP1')
        ax.set_ylabel('UMAP2')
        ax.set_title('UMAP Projection')

        plot_path = 'temp_umap.png'
        fig.savefig(plot_path, dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
        plt.close(fig)

        img = Image(plot_path, width=5*inch, height=4*inch)
        story.append(img)

    # Build PDF
    doc.build(story)
    print(f"✅ PDF report saved to: {output_path}")

    return output_path

# Usage
create_analysis_report(adata, "my_analysis_report.pdf")

Best Practices

  • Page Size: Use letter (US) or A4 (international) for standard documents
  • Margins: SimpleDocTemplate has default margins (1 inch); adjust with leftMargin, rightMargin, etc.
  • Images: Save matplotlib figures at 150-300 DPI for good quality
  • Tables: Keep column counts reasonable (4-6 columns max for readability)
  • File Cleanup: Delete temporary image files after PDF creation
  • Memory: For large documents, build in sections to manage memory

Advanced Features

Custom Page Header/Footer

from reportlab.lib.pagesizes import letter
from reportlab.pdfgen import canvas

def add_header_footer(canvas_obj, doc):
    canvas_obj.saveState()
    # Header
    canvas_obj.setFont('Helvetica', 9)
    canvas_obj.drawString(inch, letter[1] - 0.5*inch, "Analysis Report")
    # Footer
    canvas_obj.drawString(inch, 0.5*inch, f"Page {doc.page}")
    canvas_obj.restoreState()

doc = SimpleDocTemplate(pdf_filename, pagesize=letter)
doc.build(story, onFirstPage=add_header_footer, onLaterPages=add_header_footer)

Multi-Column Layout

from reportlab.platypus import Frame, PageTemplate

frame1 = Frame(doc.leftMargin, doc.bottomMargin, doc.width/2-6, doc.height, id='col1')
frame2 = Frame(doc.leftMargin+doc.width/2+6, doc.bottomMargin, doc.width/2-6, doc.height, id='col2')

doc.addPageTemplates([PageTemplate(id='TwoCol', frames=[frame1, frame2])])

Color-Coded Tables

# Highlight significant results
for i, row in enumerate(deg_results):
    if row['qvalue'] < 0.05:
        table.setStyle(TableStyle([
            ('BACKGROUND', (0, i+1), (-1, i+1), colors.yellow)
        ]))

Common Use Cases

QC Report

qc_metrics = {
    'Total Cells': adata.n_obs,
    'Median Genes/Cell': int(adata.obs['n_genes'].median()),
    'Median UMIs/Cell': int(adata.obs['n_counts'].median()),
    'Mean Mito %': f"{adata.obs['percent_mito'].mean():.2f}%"
}

table_data = [['Metric', 'Value']] + [[k, str(v)] for k, v in qc_metrics.items()]
# ... create table as shown above

DEG Summary Table

# Top 10 upregulated genes
top_genes = deg_df.nlargest(10, 'log2FC')[['gene', 'log2FC', 'qvalue']]
table_data = [['Gene', 'log2FC', 'Q-value']]
for _, row in top_genes.iterrows():
    table_data.append([row['gene'], f"{row['log2FC']:.2f}", f"{row['qvalue']:.2e}"])

Troubleshooting

Issue: "reportlab not found"

Solution:

import subprocess
subprocess.check_call(['pip', 'install', 'reportlab'])

Issue: "Image not found"

Solution: Ensure image path is correct and file exists before adding to PDF:

import os
if os.path.exists(plot_filename):
    img = Image(plot_filename, width=4*inch, height=3*inch)
    story.append(img)

Issue: "Table exceeds page width"

Solution: Reduce column widths or font size:

table = Table(data, colWidths=[1.5*inch, 1.5*inch, 2*inch])
table.setStyle(TableStyle([('FONTSIZE', (0, 0), (-1, -1), 8)]))

Technical Notes

  • Library: Uses reportlab (pure Python, widely supported)
  • Execution: Runs locally in the agent's sandbox
  • Compatibility: Works with ALL LLM providers (GPT, Gemini, Claude, DeepSeek, Qwen, etc.)
  • File Size: Text-heavy PDFs are small (<1MB); image-heavy PDFs can be 5-20MB
  • Performance: Typical report generation takes 1-3 seconds

References

  • reportlab documentation: https://www.reportlab.com/docs/reportlab-userguide.pdf
  • reportlab platypus guide: https://www.reportlab.com/software/opensource/rl-toolkit/guide/

Other skills for the same job

different authors, same section of the catalogue
DOCX
by anthropics
vendor ×16

Comprehensive document creation, editing, and analysis with support for tracked changes, comments, formatting preservation, and text extraction. When Claude needs to work with professional documents (.docx files) for: (1) Creating new documents, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with tracked changes, (4) Adding comments, or any other document tasks

7k tokens
PDF
by anthropics
vendor ×16

Comprehensive PDF manipulation toolkit for extracting text and tables, creating new PDFs, merging/splitting documents, and handling forms. When Claude needs to fill in a PDF form or programmatically process, generate, or analyze PDF documents at scale.

13k tokens scripts
PPTX
by JayZeeDesign
×15

Presentation creation, editing, and analysis. When Claude needs to work with presentations (.pptx files) for: (1) Creating new presentations, (2) Modifying or editing content, (3) Working with layouts, (4) Adding comments or speaker notes, or any other presentation tasks

308k tokens scripts
Canvas Design
by anthropics
vendor ×13

Create beautiful visual art in .png and .pdf documents using design philosophy. You should use this skill when the user asks to create a poster, piece of art, design, or other static piece. Create original visual designs, never copying existing artists' work to avoid copyright violations.

1388k tokens
PDF
by anthropics
vendor ×10

Use this skill whenever the user wants to do anything with PDF files. This includes reading or extracting text/tables from PDFs, combining or merging multiple PDFs into one, splitting PDFs apart, rotating pages, adding watermarks, creating new PDFs, filling PDF forms, encrypting/decrypting PDFs, extracting images, and OCR on scanned PDFs to make them searchable. If the user mentions a .pdf file or asks to produce one, use this skill.

15k tokens scripts
DOCX
by w95
×6

Use this skill whenever the user wants to create, read, edit, or manipulate Word documents (.docx files). Triggers include: any mention of 'Word doc', 'word document', '.docx', or requests to produce professional documents with formatting like tables of contents, headings, page numbers, or letterheads. Also use when extracting or reorganizing content from .docx files, inserting or replacing images in documents, performing find-and-replace in Word files, working with tracked changes or comments, or converting content into a polished Word document. If the user asks for a 'report', 'memo', 'letter', 'template', or similar deliverable as a Word or .docx file, use this skill. Do NOT use for PDFs, spreadsheets, Google Docs, or general coding tasks unrelated to document generation.

5k tokens
PPTX
by w95
×4

Use this skill any time a .pptx file is involved in any way — as input, output, or both. This includes: creating slide decks, pitch decks, or presentations; reading, parsing, or extracting text from any .pptx file (even if the extracted content will be used elsewhere, like in an email or summary); editing, modifying, or updating existing presentations; combining or splitting slide files; working with templates, layouts, speaker notes, or comments. Trigger whenever the user mentions \"deck,\" \"slides,\" \"presentation,\" or references a .pptx filename, regardless of what they plan to do with the content afterward. If a .pptx file needs to be opened, created, or touched, use this skill.

2k tokens
Obsidian Markdown
by ZhanlinCui
×3

Create and edit Obsidian Flavored Markdown with wikilinks, embeds, callouts, properties, and other Obsidian-specific syntax. Use when working with .md files in Obsidian, or when the user mentions wikilinks, callouts, frontmatter, tags, embeds, or Obsidian notes.

3k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take microck/data-export-pdf from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.