RE: PDF Generation Utilities
- From: "Homme, James" <james.homme@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Jamal Mazrui <empower@xxxxxxxxx>, "programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2011 06:28:11 -0400
Hi,
Is there much benefit in learning LaTeX?
-----Original Message-----
From: Jamal Mazrui [mailto:empower@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 6:26 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Homme, James
Subject: Re: PDF Generation Utilities
Indeed. I just reviewed the Pandoc documentation, and one cannot go
directly from HTML to PDF. One can go from HTML to Markdown, and then
get to PDF with additional help from a MarkdownToPDF utility that is
also included in the distribution. For that to work, moreover, a LaTeX
distribution has to be installed.
On Windows, I have successfully done this with the LaTeX distribution
available from
http://MikTeX.org
In fact, if one installs that distribution, including the pdflatex
support, EdSharp may be used to convert from Markdown to PDF, after
adding another directory to the search path, e.g.,
c:\program Files\MiKTeX 2.8\miktex\bin
Even one more configuration step is needed, telling MikTex not to prompt
whether to search for additional LaTeX support packages on the net each
time it is run. Off hand, I forget how I set that configuration option.
As a test, I converted the EdSharp manual, EdSharp.htm, to Markdown
format, EdSharp.md, and then to PDF, which I posted at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/EdSharp.pdf
I have no idea how visually acceptable the resulting PDF is.
Jamal
On 8/15/2011 3:49 PM, Homme, James wrote:
> Hi,
> According to the front page at the site, it can turn HTML into PDF, but I
> don't see that option in the documentation. I do see MarkDown to PDF. So I
> guess you could go from HTML to MarkDown, then from MarkDown to PDF.
>
> Jim
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jamal Mazrui [mailto:empower@xxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 10:59 AM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: Homme, James
> Subject: Re: PDF Generation Utilities
>
> The free Pandoc utility can convert from HTML or Markdown to PDF.
>
> http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/
>
> Jamal
>
> On 8/15/2011 8:05 AM, Homme, James wrote:
>> Hi Don,
>>
>> Thanks for this info. This sounds and looks like a great utility to work
>> with PDF. The thing I want to do is work with HTML files, and convert
>> them to PDF.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> *From:*programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] *On Behalf Of *Don Marang
>> *Sent:* Monday, August 01, 2011 10:50 PM
>> *To:* programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> *Subject:* Re: PDF Generation Utilities
>>
>> I am not sure how you plan to send the request to the Linux server or
>> how to specify more than one web page. What language are you planning to
>> make this request? Is it for a specific site or a general utility?
>>
>> In the Ubuntu repository, there is a command line utility to manipulate
>> and build pdf files. The command and package name are pdftk.
>>
>> To install, type:
>> sudo apt-get update
>> sudo apt-get install pdftk
>>
>> Reading the man page will give you some information:
>>
>> man pdftk
>>
>> I imagine you could transfer the file from the web site to the server at
>> the beginning of the script using wget, strip out the unwanted links at
>> the as desired (or convert them to bookmarks), and build the pdf file. I
>> do not know whether it would be easier to send the file back to the
>> browser computer or just notify when processing is complete. Then it can
>> present a Save As dialog and download the file from the server.
>>
>> There are probably many approaches to this problem, this is how I would
>> approach it.
>>
>> *Don Marang*
>> Vinux Software Development Coordinator - vinuxproject.org
>> <http://www.vinuxproject.org/>
>> There is just so much stuff in the world that, to me, is devoid of any
>> real substance, value, and content that I just try to make sure that I
>> am working on things that matter.
>> -- Dean Kamen
>>
>>
>> On 7/29/2011 9:53 AM, Homme, James wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> Here is what I'd like to do.
>>
>> Send an accessible HTML file to a server that has a utility running on
>> it that would then spit back a PDF document that I can print. The
>> utility may need to be fed a collection of HTML documents that it would
>> assemble into a single file to print. I would settle for code libraries
>> that can work with this stuff. I believe that the server environment
>> would be your normal Linux/Apache type server, but I need to make sure
>> of that.
>>
>> Here is the process flow.
>>
>> The customer would click a hyperlink in the current HTML file they are
>> reading.
>>
>> The utility would do some stuff to make the file look nicer, such as
>> strip navigational elements to other pages, and whatever else is
>> necessary to make it look nicer to print.
>>
>> The HTML file, I suppose, would need to communicate to the utility that
>> it is a part of a collection of files that the utility needs to get.
>>
>> The customer would then be directed to that dialog that asks if they
>> want to download or save the document.
>>
>> None of this, or as little as possible, must run on the client computer.
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> Jim
>>
>> Jim Homme,
>>
>> Usability Services,
>>
>> Phone: 412-544-1810.
>>
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