Posted by Good Man on 09/26/07 15:28

"Sanders Kaufman" <bucky@kaufman.net> wrote in
news:zurKi.501$sw6.419@nlpi061.nbdc.sbc.com:

> "Steve" <no.one@example.com> wrote in message
> news:uTlKi.116$n96.31@newsfe06.lga...
>> "Sanders Kaufman" <bucky@kaufman.net> wrote in message
>
>>> ... or something like it.
>>
>> please tell me you're joking, right? i'm taking about using css to
>> set margins and page orientation...not the user. but, i know the
>> above is a joke.
>
> Semi-joking.
> I think that trying to make web pages for printers is like trying to
> make radio broadcasts for television.
> Whenever someone is doing that, it's a clear sign that they don't GET
> the internet.
>
> It's totally cool to allow users to download an ALTERNATE print
> version of something.
> But if you're using PDF as a web page - you're not really making a web
> page.

Just to bud in here, I'll bring up my web application. We have a system
that parses data from text files and stores them in the database where
they can be manipulated/referenced etc etc. From time to time, clients
need hardcopies of information related to this data in the form of
professionally printable charts. So, I have a script that creates
complicated tables-based charts in XHTML, and then that file goes to
Prince (http://www.princexml.com) where the file is made into a
beautiful PDF according to stylesheets - crop marks, accurate colour,
accurate layout, accurate fonts, accurate font control, accurate printer
margins - that the web simply cannot do.

PHP being used in this instance for something entirely web unrelated...
again, PDFs have their place, and if you want to make professional
looking and printing PDFs for clients that are based on web data, why
not use PHP to make them?

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