Thanks Bill and thanks to everyone who responded. An excellent gang! I
think the consensus is ...
(1) I probably don't want to go directly to PDF; I need to create
something else (something easier) and then, if I still want, convert
or print to PDF.
(2) Interim formats include HTML, XML, and LaTex, and maybe
PostScript, in order of increasing complexity/learning curve
(3) All of the above can be done with free stuff (super)
(4) Perl _is_ probably a good solution for this, as opposed to PHP or
another scripting language
My output is charts like a collection of lists or tables, not graphs
(yet), and it sort of resembles an invoice in some respects. It's
essentially data extracted from MySQL, printed out nicely. A bitmap
may be thrown in here or there, like a logo. I'm thinking that HTML &
tables may be the easiest way; LaTex I have to research more.
I just had an epiphany: Pages from iWork. Pages apparently will import
XML, and AFAIK, XML is the native format. I can do the aesthetic stuff
right in pages and either edit or create the documents in XML with
Perl. How's that?
Thx
Mike
