Re: Abiword -> PDF

From: David Bear (David.Bear@asu.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 15 2003 - 12:12:16 EDT

  • Next message: Jacobo Myerston: "abicocoa"

    On Tue, Jul 15, 2003 at 10:14:35AM -0400, Phil Thompson wrote:
    >
    >
    > a. free!
    > b. cross-platform!
    > c. XML default file format, makes #2 "easy"
    >

    both abiword and openoffice have the advantage of natively using XML.
    Ergo, what you should probably look are are XML solutions. There are
    xml-ps-pdf conversion solutions buy you need an xslt -- an xml
    stylesheet. There are also xlm formatting objects. These are two
    different approaches to accomplishing the same thing. The key goal is
    to take whatever dtd (either abiwords' or openoffices') and map
    elements to formatting options. You might want to spend some time
    looking around OASIS. They are the xml group that produced docbook
    (and xml) and most tons of other stuff.

    >
    > Finally, if you think OpenOffice is a better candidate for making this happen, please let me know. I prefer the lean and mean aspect of AbiWord but would pick anything free (that works well) over a Microsoft or Corel Office solution.

    Corel's solutions IS an xml editor overlay for wordperfect. I've used
    it but found that its hard to get support for it from the 'free
    sources', ie newsgroups, mailing lists, etc. Doesn't seem that anyone
    knows much about it. (I've tried to compile a docbook dtd for it have
    never been able to get it to work)

    >
    > Please provide any help or advice you can! If I can make this work I will help eliminate the need for Microsoft Office in over 100 offices around the nation. (I also might be able to eliminate the need for Adobe Acrobat Writer if I can get #4 working smoothly.)

    with unix systems, its almost trivial to create a print queue that
    converts postscript output to pdf. just google around for ps to pdf
    conversion solutions. I wrote one that uses ghostscript, that takes
    postscript or text, and converts it to pdf, then mails it to whoever
    printed it.

    running a ps to pdf converter at the printqueue level will reduce your
    complexity. All your application has to do is produce ps.

    -- 
    David Bear
    phone: 	480-965-8257
    fax: 	480-965-9189
    College of Public Programs/ASU
    Wilson Hall 232
    Tempe, AZ 85287-0803
     "Beware the IP portfolio, everyone will be suspect of trespassing"
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