[FX.php List] PHP question: Presenting the user with multiple
pages from each result
Dale Bengston
dbengston at tds.net
Fri Jul 3 15:33:36 MDT 2009
Hi Leo,
The font support for FPDF is ISO-8859-1. The documentation says use
utf8_decode() to work around it.
If by kerning you mean adjusting larger sizes to have tighter kerning,
or allowing kerning of individual letter pairs, I would consider that
outside the scope of an automated system. FPDF does, however, use the
letter spacing data in the font files to properly space characters. I
find it more than satisfactory, and it's pleased picky graphic
designers on several solutions I've made that feed print workflows.
FPDF is also very good at handling page breaks under a variety of
conditions involving variable data, and it's quite easy to keep track
of the current x/y coordinates after an element is written. And with
FPDI, which extends FPDF, you can draw on existing PDF templates.
There are other FPDF extensions as well for handling .EPS graphics,
several formats of bar codes, support of graphics with alpha channels,
and much more.
PDFlib is a fine product, which is widely used and well regarded.
Likewise, FPDF is a fine product, and worthy of consideration.
Dale
On Jul 2, 2009, at 4:28 PM, Leo R. Lundgren wrote:
> I see, I guess the free PDFlib option is out of the question then,
> unless its cost is justified for this project :)
>
> IMO the installation and the coding usage are two very different
> things; If both are possible then I'd choose the one that gives the
> best coding experience, but if the first one is a no-do then of
> course there's only one choice left :)
>
> It all probably boils down to what level of detail and functions one
> need. For example, does FPDF use kerning data in the fonts? Does it
> support Unicode? What about templates, querying various types of
> information from placed objects (for example textflows where you
> need to determine how much have been placed, maybe because you need
> to continue with another page) and so on. There is a myriad of
> things I think of that I need, and that's why I use PDFlib.
>
> This is off-php-topic, but when searching for a decent PDF product a
> couple of years ago I found http://www.reportlab.org/ as well. It is/
> was for Python, but I've seen some interest in Python on this list
> so I might as well mention it :) It looks good as well.
>
> In any case, the right tool for the job..
>
> -|
>
>
> 2 jul 2009 kl. 23.04 skrev Dale Bengston:
>
>> Hi Leo,
>>
>> I started using FPDF in 2001 or 2002, and I had the exact opposite
>> reaction when I compared it to PDFlib. One of the biggest
>> detractions from PDFlib is the necessity to have it compiled into
>> PHP. I rarely have control over client web server installs to the
>> extent that I can modify or mandate the way PHP is installed.
>> Another big detraction is cost: the free version of PDFlib is only
>> licensed for private or research work, which excludes its use in
>> commercial solutions like those I produce unless I pay US$995.
>>
>> The documentation for FPDF is very good. It's a nice, portable PHP
>> class like FX.php. It is extendable in many ways (like the
>> wonderful FPDI). And the price is right.
>>
>> Dale
>>
>>
>> On Jul 2, 2009, at 3:24 PM, Leo R. Lundgren wrote:
>>
>>> I can't really speak for fpdf because last time I used it was over
>>> two years ago. At that time I was evaluating FPDF and PDFlib and
>>> found that the latter was way more mature and competent. I cannot
>>> tell what shortcomings FPDF had though, it's too long since. I
>>> just know that there was no doubt about which one to choose :)
>>>
>>> In this specific case though, it sounds like what you want to do
>>> isn't that big of a deal, so I think both products will do what
>>> you need them to. And to be realistic, fpdf is the easiest to
>>> "install" since it's only a bunch of PHP files. The PDFlib
>>> extension is something you must install, and if you're on some
>>> crappy shared hosting you might run into trouble because you can't
>>> do it yourself.
>>>
>>> Regarding ease of use I don't think either one of them is hard in
>>> any way, and for a very small project it's a "whichever". It's
>>> natural that whichever you choose, you must read SOME about it. On
>>> the PDFlib side there's a cookbook at http://www.pdflib.com/en/developer/cookbook/
>>> , but I highly recommend the PDFlib tutorial which comes with the
>>> download -- it's very balanced reading both on details and "how to".
>>>
>>> Any one of them will probably do, pick something that just
>>> works[tm] :-)
>>>
>>> -|
>>>
>>> 2 jul 2009 kl. 20.24 skrev Steve Winter:
>>>
>>>> I can't speak for PDFlib, but in terms of fpdf, it's relatively
>>>> straight forward, take a look at http://www.fpdf.org/ and more
>>>> particularly the tutorials which are there and show you pretty
>>>> quickly how to create a pdf document...
>>>>
>>>> Cheers
>>>> Steve
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 2 Jul 2009, at 18:48, John Funk wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Would writing the code to make a simple label with 6 or so text
>>>>> fields a logo and 3 barcodes (jpg images) from dynamic data be
>>>>> very complicated? (I know how to make the barcode images) I am
>>>>> not sure I have the time for my learning curve with using the
>>>>> libs.
>>>>> John
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 7/2/09 12:34 PM, "Steve Winter" <steve at bluecrocodile.co.nz>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> the fpdf class I've mentioned and PDFlib which Leo mentioned
>>>>>> would have helped you do... ;-)
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Steve Winter
>>>> steve at bluecrocodile.co.nz
>>>> m: +44 77 7852 4776
>>>> 3 Calshot Court, Channel Way
>>>> Ocean Village, Southampton SO14 3GR
>>>>
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>>>
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>
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>
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