Matthew, <cfdocument> was designed to make it easy to print web centric content (HTML and CSS), it was never really intended for creating production ready PDFs with the kind of control that I think you'll need. You can control fonts and colors and images, but at the end of the day the feature behaves like a web browser in that it tries to layout the content which is then printed, and while it generally does a very good job you won't have the precision you seem to need.
FWIW, much of what you are asking for (adding content to existing PDFs, background images, etc.) are features planned for ColdFusion "Scorpio". In that version we maintain (and improve) the existing PF generation capabilities (<cfdocument> and <cfreport>) and add PDF manipulation functionality as well as PDF form fill/get. --- Ben -----Original Message----- From: Matthew Kuehn [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 9:55 AM To: CF-Talk Subject: Limitations of CF's PDF Generator in Creating PDFs for Printing I am trying to discover some of the limitations of ColdFusion's built-in PDF creation as it pertains to creating PDFs that will be printed commercially. I've got a potential project in which we'd like to allow an end-user to visit our site, provide text in five or six text fields, select from an assortment of images, and then have CF generate a PDF which can be printed with no further intervention from anyone. (Except for the printer, who will actually have to click a "Print" button somewhere along the line. :-) We've thought a bit about this situation, and from our experience with other dynamic PDF generation projects we've had, which have been relatively simple, have come up with this list of questions, which I would appreciate answers to, or links to answers. 1. Can CF server add content to an existing PDF? That is, if we provide a base PDF containing all of the static content, can we use CF to *precisely* place the dynamic content as mentioned above, and output a finished PDF? 2. Can CF control the resolution and color space of the final PDF? We'd need a 300ppi CMYK PDF for printing. 3. How about placing images into a PDF? I know I can create an HTML page with a JPEG image in it and the PDF will turn out fine, but how about placing a CMYK TIFF with a clipping path over a background image? Would it turn out OK, or look terrible? (I'm guessing "look terrible".) 4. What about other print-related issues such as n-up layout and registration marks? 5. Can iText solve these issues? How about another software package? I don't think we're dead-set against buying software to maket this project happen, we just want it to happen successfully, if it can happen at all in the way we've envisioned. Basically, it looks like this project is attempting to replace a designer who would be taking care of all of these issues, preflighting the document, and handing it off to the printer. The more I look into this project, the more I don't think it can be done with CF in the way they want. I've mentioned that perhaps it would be better to just build a tool to gather the dynamic content from the user, and then allow the designer access to that tool to retrieve the information, place it in the document correctly, preflight the document, and finally hand it off to the printer. It seems like there are too many variables that can't be controlled by this CF project in order to create a reliable end result. I've looked into the Java iText PDF software, but not being famliar with Java myself, and also not being completely aware of its features, I'm not sure if that's a road I should even attempt going down to solve the problems above. Should I? If you do know of any other software packages that would enable us to perform the tasks above in an automated fashion via the web, I'd be interested to hear about them. Thanks, Matthew ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Macromedia ColdFusion MX7 Upgrade to MX7 & experience time-saving features, more productivity. http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion?sdid=RVJW Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:274083 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
