PDF Writers?

Saqib Ali asks: "I am looking for for some OpenSource PDF Writers/Creator. I found one, here. It can basically create PDFs out of common software Like OfficeSuite, Visio, Project or any other Windows Application that uses the Windows Printers. I know OpenOffice can also export to PDF. I am working on a project (fat client) where I need to dynamically create PDF reports from data stored in MySQL DB. I know I can use PHP to create PDFs, and also Apache's Cocoon (you can find an example document, here). Of course, I would like to investigate other OpenSource PDF writers as well. Do you know of any other PDF writers, that I can utilize or learn from by looking at the source-code?"

Comments

TeX!

[larry bagina]

if you want pdfs that don't look like goatse's asshole after being ham-slammed, the only choice is (La)TeX. There are 3 options:

1. use PDFLaTeX, which produces PDF files rather than DVI files.
2. use (La)TeX to produce DVI files, convert to postscript (dvips), then convert to pdf
3. use (La)Tex to produce DVI files, then use dvipdfm to convert to PDF.

dvipdfm is well documented and FREE, so you should be able to see how to create a PDF file. Of course, the PDF file format is also well documented by Adobe. That's the best source of information on writing pdf files.