Formatting for printing

[theslug]

I have to pull data from a mysql server (very easy) then have it formatted on a
13CM by 20CM "Job Card".

I found a utility called html2ps which allows me to define the margins in a config file and then generate a postscript version of the webpage. From there I could use ps2pdf and get it to generate a pdf version of the file.
The user can then print the job card.

The two main things I must adhere to are:
1) the dimension 13CM by 20CM
2) the user must print the job card from their workstation.

Does anyone have any suggestions???

[brandonschnell]

a couple of things to be aware of.

black & white images & text prints best from html & html2ps -> pdf pages

keeps the pages simple and images in black & white

html2ps does a decent job with most html, but can't get fonts right in my experience.

use the html2ps config file to scale images by about 1.25 to get them the right size in relation to the rest of the page.

create a .gif or .png image of the "job card". use the gd lib to write text dynamically to the job card image using known points on the card. images allow for pixel by pixel accuracy in printing, but printing from web browsers suck. if you can't get the accuracy when printing from the web browser, slap the image into a pdf file using html2ps -> ps2pdf then print from adobe.

[Anon]

I've never used it myself, but PHP's support for PDFlib or ClibPDF my have some use for you. It ought to allow you to build the PDF directly from your MySQL data without the intervening HTML or PostSCript stages.

[brandonschnell]

yes, but both pdf packages are commercial from what i understand.