I am trying to remove columns (or adjust table properties, like font size even) in tables in my pdf output so that the table displays well. I am using multiqc 1.33. Currently, some tables look terrible because it shows all the columns. I have tried using a config file to remove columns from the table (i.e. table_columns_visible), but it only works for the html output and not the pdf. How can I adjust table properties in my pdf, like removing columns, or changing font size, or splitting the table into two tables?
To be honest, PDF generation is pretty horrible in MultiQC and I’ve been toying with the idea of removing support entirely for years now.
table_columns_visible won’t work here because it uses Javascript to hide the columns (allowing the user to show them again). PDF generation uses --template simple which removes all Javascript, so all columns will be visible.
It may be possible to achieve what you want if I update that template to check for hidden status on a column and strip it from the HTML entirely. I see you made an issue already, so I’ll add a note there.
I’m curious to what your use case is for PDF reports? Why do you need PDF vs the self-contained HTML?
I am writing an automatic report creation pipeline for our Sequencing Core, but the director wants both html and pdf reports. I think because pdfs can’t be altered easily? Not exactly sure.
Hah, we went through the same process in my old sequencing core about 10 years ago. In the end I managed to convince the leadership that emailed HTML files are equally editable / traceable (as in, both can be edited, both would be stored by the email system and traceable). I guess I don’t need to convince you, but maybe worth pointing out that anyone with a copy of Inkscape can open and edit a PDF report with trivial effort.
MultiQC HTML reports have significantly better functionality (interactivity) and are just as safe.
Linking to the relevant GitHub issue for future me:
I’ll mark this forum post as answered if that’s ok, as I don’t think that there’s anything else I can do to help here beyond the feature addition.
(as in, both can be edited, both would be stored by the email system and traceable). I guess I don’t need to convince you, but maybe worth pointing out that anyone with a copy of Inkscape can open and edit a PDF report with trivial effort.