Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Programming Discussion : Nice Printer.. Good boy!!

[jtrovato]

I want to be able to print nice documents without all the other crap (lack for a better word) that comes along with IE and Netscape.

The documents will be all different lengths containing information from a MySQL database.

I want to know what would be the easiest way to print nice docs without the headache of building new binaries with PHP PDFlib.

Thank you all out there for the the help

John

[Acronym BOY]

I think you misunderstand how the web is to be used as a communication medium.

...you don't understand the original purpose of HTML. It's a markup language. It's for giving a document structure. For making it clear to human and computer readers alike that such-and-such within a document is a title, such-and-such is a category name, such-and-such is a certain type of data... HTML was never designed to become directly involved in determining how a document looks at all...

For-print (or PDF) publishing is all about perfection. The margins must be perfect, the fonts must be perfect, it should look as good as possible on a specific size paper, etc. It takes a skilled craftsman to get it right.

Good HTML is a completely different beast. It's a zen thing. It should flow so that it is readable and pleasing no matter if it is being viewed at 240x120 or 1600x1200.

And it's this lack of control that makes typography a joke. Typographers have absolute control over the positioning and appearance of their type. Web designers don't, and shouldn't demand it.

The "zen" of web design is understanding that HTML means that all clients will (should) be able to view your page, not that they will all be able to view your page as you view it or as you intended for them to view it.

If you want to play typographer, xhtml is not the way to do it.

[jtrovato]

Yes I understand that. This is why people create ways around the limitations of the WEB. I’m sure I’m not the only one that needs this feature

[Acronym BOY]

Originally posted by jtrovato
Yes I understand that. This is why people create ways around the limitations of the WEB. I’m sure I’m not the only one that needs this feature

Its not a limitation. Its the way it is designed to work to be universally accessible by those with disabilities, by cell phones, by PDAs, by your refrigerator, for search engines to better spider your site with, etc etc etc.

If you do want to play typographer, go PDF. Dont try to buck the system. Standards are good. If everyone followed them, the web woudl be a much better place. But following standards is asking too much of people.

[jtrovato]

This is true....

I have tried 2 different PDF apps.

pdflib
R&OS

No luck, it's just me too lazy to compile code.

John