discuss: My PDF output of my Howto document is suboptimal

"Saqib Ali" ####@####.#### schrieb am 02.03.06 17:23:43:
> 
> One easy way to convert to PDF is to first convert to HTML + cool CSS see:
> < http://validate.sf.net >
> and then output to PDF using Adobe Acrobat or HTMLDOC.
> 

OK, maybe it is easy. I'll buy that. But I can't think that it is "right". Trying to get a "print" version through an "online" one, must be fundamentally wrong. Surely, you will get some nice result. But it will be of the quality you get when you print a HTML document.

My point is that you will inevitably loose some semantics in the transition from DocBook to HTML. Then, when you will try to transform HTML to PDF, the semantics you lost must bring some deterioration in the quality - you transform from a presentational markup (HTML), not from a structural one (DocBook), to a print medium. OK, both (HTML and DocBook) are SGML, but that's where similarities end.

So this beats all arguments for DocBook: why should I write in DocBook then, in a structural markup, when I can get away with a presentational one (and a bad one at that, like HTML, not even a good one, like TeX)? We could just as well throw away DocBook and all other structural markup. Use Dreamweaver! :shock:

Use HTML and be happy? Well, for me: no way! :-))

-- 
Regards

Chris Karakas
http://www.karakas-online.de