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Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

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Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#21

Post by dbond »

knkella wrote: post #20
dbond wrote: post #15

It is tedious to layout a PDF but actual pain points are handling variable sized images and amounts of text, try formatting recipes to a PDF... Your demo video explains the features but not how it can solve anything that is a major problem to me. The concept here in designing a template to be filled later is a brilliant idea, but I think its the delivery of the product that may pose the biggest problem. PDF generatio…

Thanks. Do you think by using an HTML template that can be filled in later is a better idea than visual designer?

The visual designer is great, it adds back in the ability for the designer to alter the template without the developer having to change any code. If this was a standalone product the template format would most likely need to be a proprietary format anyway for some basic piracy protection.

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#22

Post by knkella »

dbond wrote: post #21
knkella wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks. Do you think by using an HTML template that can be filled in later is a better idea than visual designer?

The visual designer is great, it adds back in the ability for the designer to alter the template without the developer having to change any code. If this was a standalone product the template format would most likely need to be a proprietary format anyway for some basic piracy protection.

Thanks we will start looking for its uses as a stand alone product.

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#23

Post by ashokvarma2 »

knkella wrote: post #17
ashokvarma2 wrote: post #11

Its a terribly painful. I have tried every single one of the options. I am still finding it extremely difficult to get it working. Once I managed to get it to print to pdf, then started the bigger problem 'Paging'. Paging is quite painful. I am writing my own code to split tables to fit into pages. If you can solve this problem. I would gladly pay.

We are looking into dynamic layout where tables can be split. It would be great to work along side you. Can I have your contact?

Oh man, if you can solve it for me, I will be eternally grateful. You can email me at ashok (at) reportgarden (dot) com

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#24

Post by usladha »

ashokvarma2 wrote: post #12
subsection1h wrote: post #8

It is tedious to code the layout and design of the PDF using code libraries such as FPDF, Prawn etc. I recently used Prince[1] to generate a PDF version of a web-based book. The PDF needed to be suitable for professional printing (crop marks, bleed, trim, etc.). Prince was the only solution I could find that came even close to being adequate for the job, and it exceeded my expectations. Creating the HTML for Prince w…

PrinceXML doesn't support a lot of the Html5 and CSS3. Canvas support doesnt exist, so I cant print charts.

I havent tried charts with princexml, but flying-saucer has capability to do custom rendering. So if you want, you can use a service to get image of your chart and then render that in the pdf as image.

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#26

Post by gee_totes »

jdietrich wrote: post #6

Not amongst the kind of people who read HN. You might get some traction with semi-skilled PHP developers, but they rarely have much of a budget to work with and will generally use whatever is the cheapest acceptable solution.

This comment is wrong. PHP is a total mess when it comes to pdf generation, even skilled developers have to resort to things like TCPDF.

This service would provide a good alternative, and regardless of what the developer is making, the price of the service would be far lower than paying the dev for the amount of time they spent futzing around with PDFs in PHP.

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#27

Post by gee_totes »

knkella wrote: post #16
gee_totes wrote: post #3

Can I send a URL to the API and it will return a PDF? That is something I would use for sure.

Yes it will. Can we talk more about it?

So I could send it www.google.com and it would return a .pdf of google.com, exactly as it would look in the browser?

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#28

Post by knkella »

gee_totes wrote: post #27
knkella wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it will. Can we talk more about it?

So I could send it www.google.com and it would return a .pdf of google.com, exactly as it would look in the browser?

Sorry I must have misunderstood. That is what HTML2PDF engines do. We generate PDFs using our own templates.

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#29

Post by knkella »

usladha wrote: post #24
ashokvarma2 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PrinceXML doesn't support a lot of the Html5 and CSS3. Canvas support doesnt exist, so I cant print charts.

I havent tried charts with princexml, but flying-saucer has capability to do custom rendering. So if you want, you can use a service to get image of your chart and then render that in the pdf as image.

Our service has built in charts support. Check out Pagify and let me if it is something you will use?

Re: Ask HN: Is PDF generation a real pain for developers?

#30

Post by gee_totes »

knkella wrote: post #28
gee_totes wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I could send it www.google.com and it would return a .pdf of google.com, exactly as it would look in the browser?

Sorry I must have misunderstood. That is what HTML2PDF engines do. We generate PDFs using our own templates.

Yeah, sorry if I wasn't clear. I'm looking for a service that will do HTML2PDF from an API call.

HTML2PDFAAS, as I like to call it :)

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