John, Looks good. This dovetails with the next elements of our development. Right now we implement content management and print-on-demand in an intranet, and CSS2 works just fine for this. The next step of course is to allow people to email brochures to clients, and a PDF would one way to go.
An issue we wrestle with is the human side of this -- how do you assure yourself that users are printing the right version of the document. The XHTML is generated on the fly, and in most case people won't save a web archive. (And I suppose could embed a hash and some JavaScript that would go back to the server to validate the document). The PDF is a little trickier: does the PDF JavaScript API let me do something similar, and is this API implemented in iText? I'll have to investigate. Thanks for the tip! >Bill, > >Have you ever used iText to build a PDF document? It's a free java PDF >library... > >We're using it on a project right now.... > >http://www.lowagie.com/iText/ > >/John > >Bill Conlon wrote: > >>Well, I've done a lot of thinking about this issue over the years, and >>I've come to the conclusion that it is very hard to integrate with PDF >>via Acrobat. Adobe has done a good job of emasculating the APIs so you >>can get close but not exactly where you want to get. >> >>So there are two alternatives. >> >>1. Generate pdfs on the server from some source document that gets built >>from your form. This can use any of the perl modules that involve >>ps2pdf: Word to ps, HTML to ps, Excel to ps, etc. While I've explored >>these avenues, I haven't actually implemented a system using these. >> >>2. Build HTML or XHTML (my preference) with CSS2 styles to control >>accurate display on print and screen. This works for me, and is easier >>to integrate with web apps. The advantage is that once you get your page >>looking the way you want it via CSS2, you can use your Witango bag of >>tricks to build the output. >> >> >> >>>I have asked this before, but am still having a devil of a time >>>trying to figure out how to get started. >>> >>>I would like to take pre-existing PDF files of, let's say. business >>>cards ot letterheads, with the art already in the PDF file, and have >>>the user fill out an HTML form to input name, address, etc. >>> >>>The PDF would need to have font info embedded and be tighty controled >>>by character length, etc (I could do this in the form). >>> >>>I was all over google trying to find exactly how to do this. I found >>>some very primitive stuff written in ASP and also found some programs >>>related to "html2pdf". Has anyone done this with Witango? Any >>>examples or info on what I need to get started? This is not for >>>commercial use but internal. >>> >>>Any help would be greatly appreciated. >>> >>>Thanks >>>-- >>>________________________________________________________________________ >>>TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Go to http://www.witango.com/developer/maillist.taf >>> >>> >>> >> >> >>Bill Conlon >> >>To the Point >>345 California Avenue Suite 2 >>Palo Alto, CA 94306 >> >>office: 650.327.2175 >>fax: 650.329.8335 >>mobile: 650.906.9929 >>e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] >>web: http://www.tothept.com >> >> >>________________________________________________________________________ >>TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Go to http://www.witango.com/developer/maillist.taf >> >> >> > >________________________________________________________________________ >TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Go to http://www.witango.com/developer/maillist.taf > Bill Conlon To the Point 345 California Avenue Suite 2 Palo Alto, CA 94306 office: 650.327.2175 fax: 650.329.8335 mobile: 650.906.9929 e-mail: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] web: http://www.tothept.com ________________________________________________________________________ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Go to http://www.witango.com/developer/maillist.taf
