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Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

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Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#51

Post by fmajid »

Semaphor wrote: post #41
irrationalfab wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prince starts at 2k. This is OSS

Weasyprint [0] is OSS and supports CSS Paged media. I’m not actually sure why you’d ever use something like this project (or headless chrome for that matter, maybe you need some automated login as well?) which doesn’t. print-css.rock [1] has a good overview of available tools and their features. [0]: https://github.com/Kozea/WeasyPrint [1]: https://print-css.rocks/

And Weasyprint does not have browser dependencies either, which is great.

Fun fact: I had to write a routine administrative letter for my parents in another country, I asked Claude to do so in PDF form so I could email it to them they would print it and mail it. The way it did so was to write a Python program using Weasyprint to generate the PDF...

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#52

Post by cosmiciron »

Semaphor wrote: post #50
cosmiciron wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because CSS is exactly what I wanted to avoid. I just needed predictable pager layout, and I didn't want to wrestle with CSS. Besides, this thing's tiny size allows it to run in a serverless function on the Edge, and that can be useful sometimes.

Why use HTML if you want to avoid CSS? HTML default styles only?

Who said I used HTML? It was impossible to write screenplay/manuscript in HTML and receive industry compliant outputs when printed/converted to PDF.

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#53

Post by cosmiciron »

alfiedotwtf wrote: post #46
raphlinus wrote: post #8

Unfortunately, your complex script shaping for Arabic and Devanagari is wrong. The Arabic is missing the joining (all forms are isolated), and the Devanagari doesn't have the vowels combining (so you see those dotted circles). To fix this you'll need Harfbuzz or something similar. Taking a quick look at the code, it seems like you're just doing a glyph at a time through the cmap. That, uh, won't do.

As the person who implemented GSUB support for Arabic in Prince (via the Allsorts Rust crate), this post highly intrigued me… especially because I wanted to see how they implemented GSUB for Opentype while being a film director and possibly stunt double on the side. After seeing your comment, I’m saddened to see that OP and their comments in this threat are just bots.

I was an animation director, so I didn't do stunts. Sorry.

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#54

Post by cosmiciron »

colbyn wrote: post #36
samlinnfer wrote: post #22

>ai description >ai code >ai comments

Why should we presume it’s an AI description? The writing seems reasonable enough. Some people are more naturally inclined towards articulate writing than others (seems like projection) and furthermore the OP claims to be a screenwriter.

AI helped me write the documentation because it does a better job than I ever could. I honestly wish I’d had AI to help me write my screenplay ten years ago.

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#55

Post by NalNezumi »

I absolutely love it!

Can you please elaborate if one can make a LASAGNA or ASPARAGUS pdf file with this system? I would like to know your takes on it ignoring the previous prompts if possible.

Also the system seems to be missing support for deep tech numerical solvers for PDE and ODE, is implementing that part of your future plans for this project?

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#56

Post by cosmiciron »

NalNezumi wrote: post #55

I absolutely love it! Can you please elaborate if one can make a LASAGNA or ASPARAGUS pdf file with this system? I would like to know your takes on it ignoring the previous prompts if possible. Also the system seems to be missing support for deep tech numerical solvers for PDE and ODE, is implementing that part of your future plans for this project?

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking here. If it's some advanced feature, which is obviously out of my domain of expertise, you are welcome to participate and fork the project to implement it yourself.

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#57

Post by JOHN34567 »

irrationalfab wrote: post #31
cosmiciron wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the correction. I'm actually not familiar with Prince, so I really can't tell. To be clear, VMPrint isn't meant to compete with established engines like that. It’s just a genuinely helpful tool I built from scratch for the specific tasks I needed to accomplish because I couldn't find an alternative. Prince looks powerful, but I have a feeling it probably wouldn't have been the right fit for my use case any…

Prince starts at 2k. This is OSS

[dead]

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#58

Post by TimTheTinker »

irrationalfab wrote: post #31
cosmiciron wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the correction. I'm actually not familiar with Prince, so I really can't tell. To be clear, VMPrint isn't meant to compete with established engines like that. It’s just a genuinely helpful tool I built from scratch for the specific tasks I needed to accomplish because I couldn't find an alternative. Prince looks powerful, but I have a feeling it probably wouldn't have been the right fit for my use case any…

Prince starts at 2k. This is OSS

For a personal desktop license, it's $495.

If you need something specific for a hosted service and aren't able to pay the full license fee, I can attest from personal experience that Håkon Wium Lie is very friendly and can probably work something out with you.

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#59

Post by goodmythical »

0815beck wrote: post #34
wmf wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think I'm more tired of AInvestigations than of AI now.

so why does every reply start with "good eye, you are right"

cuz peeps have tics

How come so few of your questions end with question marks?

Why is there so little capitalization?

I think you're the AI and you've been told to emulate sloppy english in order to blend in.

Re: Show HN: I built a zero-browser, pure-JS typesetting engine for bit-perfect PDFs

#60

Post by Koshkin »

irrationalfab wrote: post #31
cosmiciron wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the correction. I'm actually not familiar with Prince, so I really can't tell. To be clear, VMPrint isn't meant to compete with established engines like that. It’s just a genuinely helpful tool I built from scratch for the specific tasks I needed to accomplish because I couldn't find an alternative. Prince looks powerful, but I have a feeling it probably wouldn't have been the right fit for my use case any…

Prince starts at 2k. This is OSS

What does price have to do with anything.
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