Igor, & others, Thanks for the info/links/leads.
To be honest, I would rather just use a toolkit than create one. That is not accurate, more accurately: I would rather *create* the toolkit than use it ...* if I had the time*. Unfortunately for me, I do not have the time. So, if there is *only a possibility* that I can generate PDFs that meet my standards with pango/athens/cairo, then I should probably redirect my efforts. Previously I used ReportLab in Python to generate my reports. See the following sample that was generated by code crafted back around 2002/2003: http://ac.functional-analyst.com/fa-reports.php?table=2003-02-28/fa_reports&s=BDOG. ReportLab allowed for simple mark-ups in the text (e.g. <b> ... </b>) and for that version of report, I wrote code that allowed me to use XMLs to define my document components & flow ordering/control. I guess ReportLab's new PLUS version uses XML to give one full control of the document layout. Of course, I want something more attractive than that sample, in this day and age. Color, floating text & image boxes. The reports must meet the standards of today. Perhaps something more like http://debrispublishing.com/images/stories/Reports/2011/06-2011/ECA_2011-06-15_REPORT.pdf. But going further than that, in terms of charts, color usage, footnoting the tables, etc. See Standard & Poor's stock reports -- at that quality. The ideal toolkit would have some nice chart making abilities so that we don't have to invest 2 man months in creating a chart-making suite. These reports will be generated weekly for about 9000 companies/funds. The process must be automated. Ideally the report generation would be integrated with my data processing engine, which is in Pharo. Perhaps I will check out PDF4smalltalk. Once I can get my software talking to my DB (soon i hope), I can push my data into the DB and use Python or any other toolset for report generation... *if* I cannot do it in smalltalk. Any leads that anyone can offer are greatly appreciated! (and of course you need to use Cog VM with NativeBoost and Cairo > library installed on your OS). > I will have to poke around and learn what NativeBoost is... and which VMs were built with it. The pango stuff is mostly done by Fernando, so i think he can tell you more. > Anyways, if you don't fear to make your hands a bit dirty, we can make > it, for sure. > How dirty? Thanks again for all of the responses. -Cam
