To PDF or not to PDF

TigerLilly · 11-17-2008, 06:08 PM

In one of my sites I want to make available a public domain book/article. There are several sources to retrieve the book in text and PDF formats. The text file is as most text files are UGLY. The existing PDF files are just the text file broken down by chapter (single pages). I want to take a text file and make it look pretty before it's displayed.

The question is what is the best way to render the file/text/book/article ? Save to PDF and store in my DB, save as formatted text in the DB and render with HTML or XML?

I really need help with this as I've never done anything like this before.

**Kevin** · 11-18-2008, 12:49 AM

I am not sure why a database would be involved but HTML or PDF would both be good choices. HTML will allow users to do more with it than PDF would but PDF does more to guarantee it looks right (as in looks like you intended it to) no matter what the user looks at it with.

*Jeff* · 11-18-2008, 02:56 AM

The best answer might be both.

In the past I liked to print and read, but with larger higher resolution monitors now, I'm finding myself reading more and more online from the browser. Still often I like to print pdf of some content so I can leave it on my desks for later review, read it at the dinner table

, etc. PDFs allow easy printing exactly the way you format it which is good. But HTML + CSS allows you to do better directly in the browser since you don't have the delay of the adobe reader involved which sometimes stalls browsers a bit for me.

(I've not been very impressed to date with database to both html and pdf in one step (e.g. the print this page pdf icon in many cms packages) as usually that results in a half-baked pdf that's not really formatted that nicely in the scope of pdfs.)

*Mandi* · 11-18-2008, 07:11 AM

Yeah, another vote here for both .html and .pdf choices. I also like it when the file size is put in as a little footnote to the link - I like .pdf for things I might want to print out, but I'll skip it if the file is huge.

TigerLilly · 11-18-2008, 10:09 AM

Thanks to one and all.

Looks like I'll be doing both. The current pdf is 262K which isn't all that big but there is absolutely no formatting so by the time I'm done making it pretty the pdf could be quite a bit larger. With the HTML I can create multiple pages instead of just one running sheet so that works for me on the OCD side.

Kevin, the DB came in only because that's my first calling and I always think store it in a DB if it's big. Nothing more than that.

TigerLilly · 11-19-2008, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kevin

I am not sure why a database would be involved...

I figured out why the db was involved. The document in question has 73 chapters and although most of them are only 1 paragraph I am so filled with phobias about cluttered code that I just can't have an html file that goes on and on and on and on repeating the same formating over and over and over. Thus I store the formatted text in MySQL and simply query for the text. That way I can break up the document so that the page doesn't run on forever nor is each chapter it's own page.

I know this might not be the "correct" way for "normal" web coding but after 25 years of dealing with other people's mistake ridden code that was more like New Orleans after Katrinia I simply can not deal with cluttered and or messy code.

But thanks to everyone I'm almost ready to launch this beast I've been working on for nearly a year now (but not full time).