REQ: Recommendations, replacement for abcPdf

I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is free).
We can afford to pay for this.

Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point the
parser gave up parsing to the ]. 2) The hyperlinks are rendered
with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to support a very
narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add style information.

Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream pdf
documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and styled?

Re: Recommendations, replacement for abcPdf

abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all HTML
supported by IE (including styles).

Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
AddHtml().



"mark4asp" wrote in message
news:478e2d0b$0$20490$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
> I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is free).
> We can afford to pay for this.
>
> Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
> which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
> abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point the
> parser gave up parsing to the ]. 2) The hyperlinks are rendered
> with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to support a very
> narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add style information.
>
> Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream pdf
> documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and styled?

Re: Recommendations, replacement for abcPdf

Scott Roberts wrote:

> abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all
> HTML supported by IE (including styles).
>
> Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
> AddHtml().
>
>
>
> "mark4asp" wrote in message
> news:478e2d0b$0$20490$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
> > I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is
> > free). We can afford to pay for this.
> >
> > Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
> > which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
> > abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point
> > the parser gave up parsing to the ]. 2) The hyperlinks are
> > rendered with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to
> > support a very narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add
> > style information.
> >
> > Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream
> > pdf documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and
> > styled?

I am using AddHtml(). The html comes from a column in a DataTable. It
is not a complete document (e.g. It has no tag). Sometimes this
will be only a few lines long, other times it is pages long.

There are several sections added to the PDF document before this last
section. So, in total I have 1 images 6 titles, 1 rectangle and 7
distinct items to text to add. The last item of text contains html
which is why I use AddHtml().

The pdf is usually downloaded by the client or opened in Acrobat reader
- it is not rendered by the browser using the acrobat browser component.

Scott, have you used iTextSharp? -does it work? What about this:
http://www.winnovative-software.com/buy.aspx instead?

Re: Recommendations, replacement for abcPdf

iTextSharp is pretty good, but its a simple api for wrting pdf. its does not
have a html to pdf convertor, nor does it support nested tables (last time I
used iTextSharp I had to rewrite the table rending to support this).

html to pdf is difficult. most of the the engines that do this, call IE to
render, then supply a print driver that IE calls to produce the pdf. they
then harvest the output of the printer driver.

check your html in IE and do a print preview to see how it will render.

-- bruce (sqlwork.com)


"mark4asp" wrote:

> Scott Roberts wrote:
>
> > abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all
> > HTML supported by IE (including styles).
> >
> > Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
> > AddHtml().
> >
> >
> >
> > "mark4asp" wrote in message
> > news:478e2d0b$0$20490$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
> > > I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is
> > > free). We can afford to pay for this.
> > >
> > > Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
> > > which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
> > > abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point
> > > the parser gave up parsing to the ]. 2) The hyperlinks are
> > > rendered with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to
> > > support a very narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add
> > > style information.
> > >
> > > Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream
> > > pdf documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and
> > > styled?
>
> I am using AddHtml(). The html comes from a column in a DataTable. It
> is not a complete document (e.g. It has no tag). Sometimes this
> will be only a few lines long, other times it is pages long.
>
> There are several sections added to the PDF document before this last
> section. So, in total I have 1 images 6 titles, 1 rectangle and 7
> distinct items to text to add. The last item of text contains html
> which is why I use AddHtml().
>
> The pdf is usually downloaded by the client or opened in Acrobat reader
> - it is not rendered by the browser using the acrobat browser component.
>
> Scott, have you used iTextSharp? -does it work? What about this:
> http://www.winnovative-software.com/buy.aspx instead?
>
>
>
>

Re: Recommendations, replacement for abcPdf

"mark4asp" wrote in message
news:00e09677$0$359$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
> Scott Roberts wrote:
>
>> abcpdf actually uses the IE HTML engine (via COM), so it supports all
>> HTML supported by IE (including styles).
>>
>> Be sure you are using AddImageHtml() (or AddImageUrl()) instead of
>> AddHtml().
>>
>>
>>
>> "mark4asp" wrote in message
>> news:478e2d0b$0$20490$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com...
>> > I'm looking for a replacement for webSupergoo's abcPdf (which is
>> > free). We can afford to pay for this.
>> >
>> > Here are my problems with abcPdf. The pdf document created uses data
>> > which has hyperlinks in it. 1) When the hyperlink has an underscore,
>> > abcPdf parsing breaks and half the url is displayed [from the point
>> > the parser gave up parsing to the ]. 2) The hyperlinks are
>> > rendered with underlines which I don't want. abcPdf seems to
>> > support a very narrow subset of html and doesn't allow me to add
>> > style information.
>> >
>> > Can anyone recommend me a component which will allow me to stream
>> > pdf documents to clients; with the html properly rendered and
>> > styled?
>
> I am using AddHtml(). The html comes from a column in a DataTable. It
> is not a complete document (e.g. It has no tag). Sometimes this
> will be only a few lines long, other times it is pages long.
>
> There are several sections added to the PDF document before this last
> section. So, in total I have 1 images 6 titles, 1 rectangle and 7
> distinct items to text to add. The last item of text contains html
> which is why I use AddHtml().
>
> The pdf is usually downloaded by the client or opened in Acrobat reader
> - it is not rendered by the browser using the acrobat browser component.
>
> Scott, have you used iTextSharp? -does it work? What about this:
> http://www.winnovative-software.com/buy.aspx instead?
>

So what you've really got is partial HTML that needs to be appended to an
existing PDF?

You might try AddImageHtml() and see what you get. If it complains because
your HTML is not well-formed, you might try wrapping the HTML with a
"" tag (and other necessary HTML tags) to make it well-formed then
pass the well-formed HTML to AddImageHtml().

I have not used any of the other PDF tools. ABCpdf has done everything I
need so far (although I'll admit that our demands are not that great).