I’ve written several PDF generator projects, using both TCPDF and an rsvg tool called svg2pdf. I didn’t feel each one warranted it’s own project entry here though, so they’ll be aggregated here until such time I actually manage to get my academic worksheet generator to minimum viable product status. In which case the worksheet generator will have it’s own project entry.
Advertising Contract Generator
This project collects contact information; additional terms and conditions; and advertising rate settings. It then produces a printable, multipage contract with rates and conditions included. After it was developed, it was subsequently integrated with Ad Order Entry. This uses the mentioned SVG to PDF conversion with PDFtk to join the individual pages.
The information collection form.
Heading of a contact created by the generator.
Print Listings Generator
The listings generator creates multiple single-page PDFs that can be laid out in InDesign. It actually has several different listing types, but they’re all pretty similar. It uses a grid layout and allows for reserving spaces for standard ad placements. Premium listings typically include a photo and some more prominent sizing and styling. This project now uses TCPDF because TCPDF is capable of specifying colors in CMYK colorspace, so text uses only black ink and other colors can be limited to fewer plates. This is important with an old offset printing press as RGB black becomes a mixture of all four ink colors in print, and can make fine text completely unreadable if the plates don’t match up perfectly. The listings generator is written in PHP on CakePHP 1.3.
This advertising proof shows the difference between a standard listing and a premium listing created for dining.
