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Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

htmldocs.com

41–50 of 94 posts

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#41
post #39

What is the pricing like, e.g., per-template created, per-PDF rendered, or per-API call? I don't see any pricing info on the public site.

Pricing info is in a modal under the user dropdown, it's currently based on a monthly credit system. If there's another pricing model you'd prefer, let me know!

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#42
post #29

See also native CSS support for paged media: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-page-3/ When I looked into it several years ago, browser support for some critical features wasn't there yet. Not sure whether this has improved. In principle, this would be a great alternative to proprietary PDF rendering libraries which require you to design your document completely in (e.g. Java) code, and to the typical LaTeX approach. You rea…

I dunno about that. For simple stuff, sure HTML and CSS is great, but when I want something print-perfect I use LaTeX. A simple table in LaTeX is no harder than in HTML, assuming the same level of knowledge in the tool. But then when you throw in a simple requirement like "left margins on even pages and right margins on odd pages need to be larger", HTML becomes hell to work in. HTML and CSS, even with a media query…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#43
post #29

See also native CSS support for paged media: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-page-3/ When I looked into it several years ago, browser support for some critical features wasn't there yet. Not sure whether this has improved. In principle, this would be a great alternative to proprietary PDF rendering libraries which require you to design your document completely in (e.g. Java) code, and to the typical LaTeX approach. You rea…

I dunno about that. For simple stuff, sure HTML and CSS is great, but when I want something print-perfect I use LaTeX. A simple table in LaTeX is no harder than in HTML, assuming the same level of knowledge in the tool. But then when you throw in a simple requirement like "left margins on even pages and right margins on odd pages need to be larger", HTML becomes hell to work in. HTML and CSS, even with a media query…

I think in the long term, HTML/CSS will win out once there's better support for CSS Paged Module Level 3, and you'll be able to achieve that requirement with just

    @page :left {
        margin-left: 20mm;
        margin-right: 10mm;
    }
    
    @page :right {
        margin-left: 10mm;
        margin-right: 20mm;
    }

instead of needing to install/import different LaTeX packages. I think for most of my current use-cases level 2 has been sufficient but I can see if I can include Paged.js polyfill support by default so there's more support for customizability on that front.

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#45
post #29

See also native CSS support for paged media: https://www.w3.org/TR/css-page-3/ When I looked into it several years ago, browser support for some critical features wasn't there yet. Not sure whether this has improved. In principle, this would be a great alternative to proprietary PDF rendering libraries which require you to design your document completely in (e.g. Java) code, and to the typical LaTeX approach. You rea…

I dunno about that. For simple stuff, sure HTML and CSS is great, but when I want something print-perfect I use LaTeX. A simple table in LaTeX is no harder than in HTML, assuming the same level of knowledge in the tool. But then when you throw in a simple requirement like "left margins on even pages and right margins on odd pages need to be larger", HTML becomes hell to work in. HTML and CSS, even with a media query…

In CSS you can directly target even or odd or some other arithmetic sequence.

    :nth-of-type(2n+1)

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#46
post #39

What is the pricing like, e.g., per-template created, per-PDF rendered, or per-API call? I don't see any pricing info on the public site.

Pricing info is in a modal under the user dropdown, it's currently based on a monthly credit system. If there's another pricing model you'd prefer, let me know!

My feedback is that I was ready to move on after I searched for pricing, and it appears that it's not shown anywhere unless I sign up. I'll give it a try because it looks interesting and I'm looking for something similar.

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#47
This might be great, and it might not. It's hard to tell as a lot of the documentation is missing, or has broken links. It would be really nice if the docs were more complete, and didn't require a sign-up to kick the types. Is it fundamentally better than, say Apache FOP? Multi-page tables with overflow/keep together control is hard. Does this do it better? I can't tell as all the templates seem to be single page.

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno about that. For simple stuff, sure HTML and CSS is great, but when I want something print-perfect I use LaTeX. A simple table in LaTeX is no harder than in HTML, assuming the same level of knowledge in the tool. But then when you throw in a simple requirement like "left margins on even pages and right margins on odd pages need to be larger", HTML becomes hell to work in. HTML and CSS, even with a media query…

I think in the long term, HTML/CSS will win out once there's better support for CSS Paged Module Level 3, and you'll be able to achieve that requirement with just @page :left { margin-left: 20mm; margin-right: 10mm; } @page :right { margin-left: 10mm; margin-right: 20mm; } instead of needing to install/import different LaTeX packages. I think for most of my current use-cases level 2 has been sufficient but I can see…

@Page { size: A4; margin: 20mm 10mm 10mm 25mm; } Do my print specifics (hidden-print class etc), everyone can optimize it for his local layout, every browser supports "print to pdf", done.

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#49
I've used flying saucer pdf[1] for this in the past, but the missing piece always seems to be a descent WYSIWYG template editor. Either open source or paid.

Any suggestions on a web solution that allows non-devs to make great templates would be appreciated.

Historically I've built something simple with Tiny and added a preview button to render, but that super clunky.

[1] https://github.com/flyingsaucerproject/flyingsaucer

Re: Show HN: Htmldocs – Typeset and generate pdfs with HTML/CSS

#50
Trying to login with google I get this error:

> htmldocs.com has not completed the Google verification process. The app is currently being tested, and can only be accessed by developer-approved testers. If you think you should have access, contact the developer.

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