diff -r 5b2cc88412f7 -r e098ee83b363 svv/pdf.py
--- a/svv/pdf.py	Thu Dec 23 18:20:26 2010 +0200
+++ b/svv/pdf.py	Thu Dec 23 19:56:44 2010 +0200
@@ -420,9 +420,9 @@
                 pageSize=page_size
         )
 
-    def render_string (self, elements) :
+    def render_buf (self, elements) :
         """
-            Build the document using the given list of Flowables, returning the PDF as a single str.
+            Build the document using the given list of Flowables, returning a StringIO containing the PDF.
         """
 
         buf = StringIO()
@@ -430,6 +430,19 @@
         # build
         self.build(elements, buf)
 
+        # prepare for read
+        buf.seek(0)
+
+        return buf
+
+    def render_string (self, elements) :
+        """
+            Build the document using the given list of Flowables, returning the PDF as a single str.
+        """
+        
+        # render
+        buf = self.render_buf(elements)
+
         # binary data out
         return buf.getvalue()