-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Calle Hedberg wrote:
|
| Web printing is notoriously difficult, of course, due to the fact that
| HTML is so oriented towards display.
|
.....
| I presume many others have faced similar problems - anybody know of FOSS
| solutions that are simple and robust without requiring a lot of fiddling
| by users?
|
How about a lot of fiddling  by the programming staff plus some work by
the help desk?
|
| We have considered using intermediate formats like PDF (save HTML to PDF
| and then print the PDF), but it's a hassle.
|
I hate to say it, but we gave up on HTML based printing and moved to
PDF.  For our programmed apps we use the output from the apache FOP
project:  http://xml.apache.org/fop/

For our commercial apps, mainly reporting, pdf is mandatory requirement.

Having said that, PDF is a pain in the butt.  It seems every version of
Acrobat and Acrobat reader combined with every version of IE and other
browsers, yields different results on whether in-frame rendering works
reliably  or not.  Thus some users have acrobat as a helper app, and
others have it as a built-in!  So this is not really a good way to
reduce end user support calls to the help desk, unless you have a
standard desktop image that you know works!

But, that is par for course with other issues as well.  We have come to
the conclusion that the only alternative to lower  help desk calls while
still using desktop applications is to have a standard image install of
pre-tested and integrated software.

I find this interesting because that's exactly what a good linux
distribution gives you.  Many people focus on the OS, but that's just
the low level plumbing.  Of course it must work, but the value in having
a suite of inter-operable applications is often overlooked in the value
~ equation.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (GNU/Linux)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org

iD8DBQFBdQjEY+HG7UEwVGERAkibAJ9B/9QO6BF18hlo8jPufkdxXQ9SmgCgr9wl
B+adKylE2kYTJ2qq50IukDc=
=e1Hc
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----



Reply via email to