Re: [groff] Groff & tbl as a report generator

[John Gardner]

*> Thanks!  I think for what I am doing, groff/tbl is a simpler solution.*

Oh I wasn't suggesting wkhtmltopdf as any alternative to groff (hell, I
prefer *roff over anything else for preparing PDF documents). Merely as a
good tool for decent HTML to PDF conversion (because there's a lot of
crappy HTML-to-PDF converters out there.

I probably could have clarified that better. =)

On 25 July 2018 at 09:13, Blake McBride <address@hidden> wrote:

> Thanks!  I think for what I am doing, groff/tbl is a simpler solution.
>
> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018 at 4:45 PM John Gardner <address@hidden>
> wrote:
>
>> Use wkhtmltopdf if you need a graphics-intensive output (such as
>> background images, colour fills and client logos embedded beside each table
>> record). This was the format an agency I worked at required be churned out
>> fast, and it had to match what was presented by the webapp. Thankfully the
>> HTML/CSS was done, I was just impressed at how closely wkhtmltopdf's PDF
>> output matched what browsers showed with HTML/CSS
>>
>> *> 1. I figured HTML was just too loosey-goosey with the layout.  I
>> wanted better control.*
>>
>> You'll need CSS for that. ;-) HTML is for content, CSS for presentation
>> and layout.
>>
>>
>> *> 2.  I figured HTML didn't deal with paging and repeating page headers,
>> column titles, and page numbers on each page.*
>>
>> It does, actually. You just need to enclose your table's headers and
>> footers with <thead> and <tfoot>, respectively.
>>
>> I've mocked up a simple demo here <http://jsfiddle.net/srh39jv2/23/>.
>> Were that table long enough to span multiple pages, the header and footer
>> rows should repeat across pages (possibly with the caption appended, I
>> can't remember...) But this should give you an idea of how the PDF is paged
>> similarly to a proper HTML/CSS print-out.
>>
>> (I hope I've not siderailed this discussion too badly, haha)
>>
>> On 25 July 2018 at 05:09, Blake McBride <address@hidden> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks.  I've seen a tool or two that converts HTML to PDF in the past
>>> but I immediately shied away from them for the following reasons.
>>>
>>> 1. I figured HTML was just too loosey-goosey with the layout.  I wanted
>>> better control.
>>>
>>> 2.  I figured HTML didn't deal with paging and repeating page headers,
>>> column titles, and page numbers on each page.
>>>
>>> Am I wrong?
>>>
>>> I have to say, groff/tbl fits the bill well.
>>>
>>> Thanks!
>>>
>>> Blake
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 24, 2018 at 1:15 PM John Gardner <address@hidden>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi Blake, great to hear! Always nice to hear another Troff success
>>>> story. =)
>>>>
>>>> I know the feeling about finding decent PDF converters. The best one I
>>>> know of is wkhtmltopdf <https://wkhtmltopdf.org/>, which uses WebKit's
>>>> rendering engine to convert an HTML/CSS-enriched webpage into  a
>>>> correctly-layered and paged PDF. Tables looked great and scaled perfectly
>>>> across pages.
>>>>
>>>> I strongly recommend wkhtmltopdf <https://wkhtmltopdf.org/> to anybody
>>>> else who finds themselves in need of a decent HTML-to-PDF converter.
>>>>
>>>> On 25 July 2018 at 03:26, Blake McBride <address@hidden> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> A few years ago I thought of a really, really good use for groff and
>>>>> tbl.
>>>>> Thought I'd share.
>>>>>
>>>>> I write (web-based) business applications.  Often I have to generate
>>>>> reports which largely mean PDF files.  In the past, I used some
>>>>> open-source
>>>>> PDF generation utilities.  They worked, but what a nightmare!  Handling
>>>>> paging and lining everything up took hours.
>>>>>
>>>>> Then, a few years ago, I thought of generating groff/tbl input instead
>>>>> and
>>>>> then calling those tools to generate the final PDF output.  This made
>>>>> my
>>>>> ability to produce reports skyrocket.  I have a deep love of troff but
>>>>> don't get to use it as much as I'd like.  Now I'll be using it all of
>>>>> the
>>>>> time.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is a great use of groff et al.   I will be using it all of the
>>>>> time
>>>>> now!
>>>>>
>>>>> Blake McBride
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>