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Writing PDF files in Java

 
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Hi All,
Sorry for double posting this thread but I figured it would be more appropriate in this category.
I was wondering if someone might be able to point me in the right direction. I need to generate PDF files from XML. These PDF files are format intensive. Does anyone know of what API I should use to achieve this. I was also wondering if anyone has used a program to take a PDF file and transform it to a Formated Object(FO) since this would save me a ton of time not writing my own style sheet myself. I'm guessing I'm going to want to use an XSL-FO style sheet to transform my xml to a PDF document.
Any help would be appreciated.
Cheers
Ryan
 
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Ryan Bailey
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Lasse,
Thanks for the quick response. I have already looked at 3/4 of the list you provided. Have you ever used any of these libs before? Would it be easier to use XSL-FO? Do you know of any software that is available to generate a FO out of a PDF file?
Regards,
Ryan
 
Lasse Koskela
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I have tried iText and Retep some two years ago, I think. iText was OK, if I remember correctly. I didn't manage to get Retep working correctly due to some environment conflicts (I was developing on a remote Linux box with not-quite-the-latest JDK version etc).
 
Lasse Koskela
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Oh, forgot the XSL-FO part...
Yes, I think it would be "easier" to generate XSL-FO docs and let the Apache FOP component blurt out the corresponding PDF files. By "easier" I mean that you don't need to be afraid of your PDF library vendor going out of business etc. because your code relies only on a W3C specification (XSL Formatting Objects). However, the XSL-FO approach carries a significant learning curve so from that point of view it's easier to use one of the non-standard Java APIs.
 
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Originally posted by Ryan Bailey:

Do you know of any software that is available to generate a FO out of a PDF file?
Regards,
Ryan


There is no such tool.
 
Ryan Bailey
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Sure there are, XSLFast and Scriptura. Just found them yesterday.
[ July 24, 2003: Message edited by: Ryan Bailey ]
 
Balaji Loganathan
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Originally posted by Ryan Bailey:
Sure there are, XSLFast and Scriptura. Just found them yesterday.


Well then I understood your question in a different sense.
 
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