Re: creating good-looking PDF documents

[Lorenzo Donati <lorenzodonatibz@...>]

Sorry for the late reply.
Thanks to all people who had given pointers and suggestions!

Dirk Laurie wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 10:06:43PM +0200, Marc Balmer wrote:
> > Am 29.11.10 21:01, schrieb Lorenzo Donati:
> > > I'd like to create good-looking PDF documents using data obtained from
> > > Lua (parsing and processing various data sources).
> ...
> > > I'd like something which is not too difficult to learn (I don't know PDF
> > > format, but I gathered that it wouldn't be easily generated from Lua).
> ...
> > > I hope there is a better and simpler alternative.
> > > Ideally all tools should be amenable to be carried away on a portable
> > > HD
>
> All these conflicting requirements: good-looking but easy to learn,
> better but simpler ...

Yes, I know I've given a rather constraining (and maybe not too 
precisely stated) set of requirements, but since I'm exploring a new 
realm here, I didn't know exactly what to expect and hoped for some good 
suggestions from the people on the list (who were very helpful!).


> I think you have two options.
> [snip]
Thanks for the detailed possible "roadmap"!

> As for fitting onto a portable HD, heck, what sort of restriction is
> that?  I have a Verbatim that fits into my shirt pocket, plugs into 
> a USB port with no other power supply, and stores 250GB.  

Sorry, but maybe I wasn't clear enuough: I wasn't arguing about a 
portable HD having problems in storing that stuff. I usually carry a WD 
60GB HD with me and is ok. I never really thought I needed more because 
of the tools people suggested me. :-)

I will give a better explanation below.

<long_noisy_details>

I wrote: "Ideally all tools should be amenable to be carried away on a 
portable HD, since I may be needed to generate the documents on 
computers (using Windows XP as OS) different from my usual workstation, 
and _where I could not install new software_. " (emphasis added)

On those computer I'm allowed to run a program from an external HD, but 
not to install anything with an installer. So if the aforementioned 
tools had necessarily to be "installed" with an installer this would be 
impossible for me.
I could try to use the installer and install the tools on my HD when 
connected to the "foreign" computer (never tried), but then I could end 
repeating the installation every single machine I work on (or at least 
for every different account I have).

I meant that it would ideal for me having tools whose installation 
package is, say, a zip file to be unpacked and then the executables 
could be run directly (possibly after a simple configuration step like 
setting the path or some environment vars or editing a config file), or 
anything whose installation path could "survive" being changed at every 
connection of the HD to the computer (say the drive letter assigned on a 
machine is E: and on another is F: )

However all this would be "the cherry on top". I could well live by 
installing the tools only on my machine.

</long_noisy_details>

> Dirk

Best Regards,

--
Lorenzo