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Ways to generate pages optimized for printing

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 6:12 am
by jazzigor
Hi experts,

I'm searching for the best way to generate printable reports for some data. Example 1: a billing system that should generate a one-page printable invoice with a given design. Example 2: a medical report that spans several pages, each with a pre-defined design, too.

Right now I'm seeing two solutions:
a) use pre-built PDF form and generate a FDF file from the input data to fill in the blank fields.
b) use normal HTML and prepare a CSS with fixed sizes and positioning expressed in inches or centimeters instead of pixels and percentages.

What do you folks think about these to solutions? Do you have more ideas?

Regards,
Igor

Re: Ways to generate pages optimized for printing

Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 12:23 pm
by Christopher
Either of those will work fine. PDF will give you more precise control and graphic options -- if you need them. HTML is simpler to implement and change.