wxcode-users

[wxCode-users] Using wxPdfDocument to export a simple GDI generated documents to PDF

[Peter G. <pet...@gm...>]

Hello,

I'm maintaining an MFC application, and I'd like to be able to export
some simple GDI generated documents to PDF. I see that wxPdfDocument
has the capability of reading a Windows metafile (which essentially
consists of a series of GDI function calls and their parameters):

http://wxcode.sourceforge.net/docs/wxpdfdoc/classwx_pdf_document.html
: See "bool wxPdfDocument::Image"

It ought to be possible for me to serialise my document as a windows
Metafile using some MFC facility, perhaps to a temp directory, and
subsequently open that file using bool wxPdfDocument::Image.

Is this practical, sensible and possible? How tightly coupled is
wxPdfDocument to WxWidgets? The only other way that I can find of
doing this entails purchasing an extremely overpriced licence for a
commercial library.

Regards,
Peter Geoghegan

Re: [wxCode-users] Using wxPdfDocument to export a simple GDI generated documents to PDF

[Ulrich T. <ulr...@gm...>]

Hi Peter,

> I'm maintaining an MFC application, and I'd like to be able to export
> some simple GDI generated documents to PDF. I see that wxPdfDocument
> has the capability of reading a Windows metafile (which essentially
> consists of a series of GDI function calls and their parameters):

wxPdfDocument's support of WMF files is limited. Not all GDI commands 
are supported. Especially font support is lacking.

> It ought to be possible for me to serialise my document as a windows
> Metafile using some MFC facility, perhaps to a temp directory, and
> subsequently open that file using bool wxPdfDocument::Image.
> 
> Is this practical, sensible and possible? How tightly coupled is
> wxPdfDocument to WxWidgets?

wxPdfDocument makes intensive use of the wxWidgets core library (for 
handling file streams, GIF images, stream compression and so on), so you 
can't use it without the wxWidgets library itself. Of course you could 
create a stand-alone command line utility which could perform the WMF to 
PDF conversion task and call this utility via system call 
(CreateProcess) from your own application.

> The only other way that I can find of doing this entails purchasing 
> an extremely overpriced licence for a commercial library.

There exist low cost solutions for WMF to PDF conversion. You might even 
consider to use an open source solution like ImageMagick.

Regards,

Ulrich

Re: [wxCode-users] Using wxPdfDocument to export a simple GDI generated documents to PDF

[Peter G. <pet...@gm...>]

Ulrich,


Thanks for your help, and thanks for getting back to me.

> wxPdfDocument's support of WMF files is limited. Not all GDI commands
> are supported. Especially font support is lacking.

I saw that, but thought it was unlikely to matter - I'm just using
TextOut and DrawLine. We're talking about very simple documents.

>> The only other way that I can find of doing this entails purchasing
>> an extremely overpriced licence for a commercial library.
>
> There exist low cost solutions for WMF to PDF conversion. You might even
> consider to use an open source solution like ImageMagick.


I couldn't find any that I'd consider low cost - perhaps we have
different definitions of low cost. I would consider perhaps €200 or
€300 an acceptable amount to pay. I can find plenty of utilities (as
oppose to libraries) that do it though.

I could find this, but it seems fairly crappy:
http://www.soft-album.com/Development/Components-Libraries/Image-to-PDF-Dynamic-Link-Library-6428-Review.html
. I'd like to have source code, and they are suspiciously reticent
about whether or not they provide it.

ImageMagick looks good, but I'm not sure I want to use such a
monolithic library - I already use FreeImage+.

So, looks like I'll be using some commercial library (there is
something about these commercial library sites that puts me
off.....they have the look of snake oil salesmen).

Regards,
Peter Geoghegan

Re: [wxCode-users] Using wxPdfDocument to export a simple GDI generated documents to PDF

[Ulrich T. <ulr...@gm...>]

Peter,

>> wxPdfDocument's support of WMF files is limited. Not all GDI commands
>> are supported. Especially font support is lacking.
> 
> I saw that, but thought it was unlikely to matter - I'm just using
> TextOut and DrawLine. We're talking about very simple documents.

Unfortunately TextOut is one of the GDI commands currently *not* 
supported by wxPdfDocument. Better WMF support is on my to-do list, but 
with relatively low priority.

>> There exist low cost solutions for WMF to PDF conversion. You might even
>> consider to use an open source solution like ImageMagick.
> 
> I couldn't find any that I'd consider low cost - perhaps we have
> different definitions of low cost. I would consider perhaps €200 or
> €300 an acceptable amount to pay. I can find plenty of utilities (as
> oppose to libraries) that do it though.

We have about the same definition of low cost, but you are right I had 
utilities in mind.

> I could find this, but it seems fairly crappy:
> http://www.soft-album.com/Development/Components-Libraries/Image-to-PDF-Dynamic-Link-Library-6428-Review.html
> . I'd like to have source code, and they are suspiciously reticent
> about whether or not they provide it.

As I understand it they only provide the DLL. No source code.

> ImageMagick looks good, but I'm not sure I want to use such a
> monolithic library - I already use FreeImage+.
> 
> So, looks like I'll be using some commercial library (there is
> something about these commercial library sites that puts me
> off.....they have the look of snake oil salesmen).

Well, that's one of the reasons I started to develop wxPdfDocument. ;-)

Regards,

Ulrich