docbook: Thread: DB to PDF?

Question for you all... anyone have any great solutions for doing DocBook
into PDF?  I've got a DB4.1 SGML file that comes out quite nicely into
HTML.  But I would also like to take it to PDF.  I went to freshmeat,
searched on "DocBook" and then tried the different tools... I can't get
"sgml2x" to install correctly... and I *did* get sgmltools-lite to install,
but it couldn't render the PDF correctly (jadetex seemed to have all sorts of
TeX errors).

Any suggestions for tools to use?

Thanks,
Dan

-- 
Dan York, Director of Training        ####@####.####
Ph: +1-613-751-4401  Mobile: +1-613-263-4312 Fax: +1-613-564-7739 
e-smith, inc. 150 Metcalfe St., Suite 1500, Ottawa,ON K2P 1P1 Canada
http://www.e-smith.com/            open source, open mind

On Jan 11,  4:23pm, Dan York wrote:
> Subject: DB to PDF?
>
> Question for you all... anyone have any great solutions for doing
DocBook
> into PDF?  I've got a DB4.1 SGML file that comes out quite nicely into
> HTML.  But I would also like to take it to PDF.  I went to freshmeat,
> searched on "DocBook" and then tried the different tools... I can't
> get "sgml2x" to install correctly... and I *did* get sgmltools-lite
> to install, but it couldn't render the PDF correctly (jadetex seemed
> to have all sorts of TeX errors).
>
> Any suggestions for tools to use?

Well, what do you think about the quality of some of the DocBook
docs on the LDP we've published to PDF? I know some people may not
care for what we've produced (quality-wise), but I think it's "decent".

I, too, abandoned the jadeTeX route for a variety of reasons...mostly
my lack of control over where things get installed!

Documents to examine, include the LDP Author Guide :

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/linux-doc-project/LDP-Author-Guide/

or the "DocBook Install mini-HOWTO"
 http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/other-formats/pdf/DocBook-Install.pdf

(make sure you examine page 1, the title page). Both were created from
DocBook SGML.  If you like the output, then the steps are:

- {open}jade produces a single-file (nochunks) HTML using available
  DSSSL styles (not the "print" style(s) but those for HTML).

- HTML is filtered via a perl script/library I put together to
  produce a title file and body file AND clean-up a bunch of
  "problems" that htmldoc has when producing PDF/Postscript.

- Output is sent thru htmldoc to produce PDF and Postscript.

I can send you more info and the perl script/library.

lmk,

-- 
Greg Ferguson     - s/w engr / mtlhd         | gferg at sgi.com
SGI Tech Pubs     - http://techpubs.sgi.com/ |
Linux Doc Project - http://www.linuxdoc.org/ | gferg at metalab.unc.edu

On 11 Jan 2001 16:23:43 -0500, Dan York wrote:
> 
> Question for you all... anyone have any great solutions for doing DocBook
> into PDF?  I've got a DB4.1 SGML file that comes out quite nicely into
> HTML.  But I would also like to take it to PDF.  I went to freshmeat,
> searched on "DocBook" and then tried the different tools... I can't get
> "sgml2x" to install correctly... and I *did* get sgmltools-lite to install,
> but it couldn't render the PDF correctly (jadetex seemed to have all sorts of
> TeX errors).

htmldoc seems to make very nice pdf/ps files from the HTML.  Just do a
google search for htmldoc, and you should be able to find it quickly.
BTW, it's GPL, which can be hard to see from the website.

    Greg

Greg,

> I can send you more info and the perl script/library.

Very interesting!  Yes, I'd certainly love to see more info 
and the perl script/library.

Thanks,
Dan

-- 
Dan York, Director of Training        ####@####.####
Ph: +1-613-751-4401  Mobile: +1-613-263-4312 Fax: +1-613-564-7739 
e-smith, inc. 150 Metcalfe St., Suite 1500, Ottawa,ON K2P 1P1 Canada
http://www.e-smith.com/            open source, open mind

Dan York wrote:
> 
> Greg,
> 
> > I can send you more info and the perl script/library.
> 
> Very interesting!  Yes, I'd certainly love to see more info
> and the perl script/library.

Sounds like something that should be in the LAG.  Cc me with the
information please.

-Mark

-- 
Mark Komarinski - Senior Systems Engineer - VA Linux Systems
(cell)  978-697-2228
(email) ####@####.####

Actually, Greg, can you or Poet post the Perl library to some part of the
linuxdoc web site? I think that our DocBook -> PDF via htmldoc solution is
robust enough that other folks/orgs might want to try emulating it... I
know that when I took a look at the htmldoc mailing list a few months back
there were a number of people that could have benefited from the jump start
that we could offer.

Hmm, or maybe it could go on Freshmeat as a 0.1 release.

Dan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dan Scott -- DB2 ID (App. Dev. Team)
Notes: Daniel Scott/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA
Email: ####@####.####
Phone: (416) 448-3170
Fax: (416) 448-4414

On Jan 11,  5:18pm, ####@####.#### wrote:
> Subject: Re: DB to PDF?
> Actually, Greg, can you or Poet post the Perl library to some part
> of the linuxdoc web site? I think that our DocBook -> PDF via
> htmldoc solution is robust enough that other folks/orgs might
> want to try emulating it... I know that when I took a look at
> the htmldoc mailing list a few months back there were a number
> of people that could have benefited from the jump start
> that we could offer.
>
> Hmm, or maybe it could go on Freshmeat as a 0.1 release.

I can package it up, but I don't intend to support it as a
general-purpose solution. It goes hand-in-hand with the
DSSSL stylesheet(s); including our ldp.dsl.

Obviously, I maintain it for use within the LDP publishing
environment...

I'll send the pointer to the package. I'll need to put together
a README and a stripped-down wrapper.

Like you said, it might be a good starting point for others...

r,



-- 
Greg Ferguson     - s/w engr / mtlhd         | gferg at sgi.com
SGI Tech Pubs     - http://techpubs.sgi.com/ |
Linux Doc Project - http://www.linuxdoc.org/ | gferg at metalab.unc.edu

On Jan 11,  5:12pm, Mark Komarinski wrote:
> Subject: Re: DB to PDF?
> Dan York wrote:
> >
> > Greg,
> >
> > > I can send you more info and the perl script/library.
> >
> > Very interesting!  Yes, I'd certainly love to see more info
> > and the perl script/library.
>
> Sounds like something that should be in the LAG.  Cc me with the
> information please.

http://www.linuxdoc.org/authors/tools/ldp_print.tar.gz

Gzip'ed tar file contains:

   README - instructions, caveats, etc.

   fix_print_html.lib - perl lib that splits the file; performs fixes on
                        the HTML.

   ldp_print - main driver; takes single-file HTML representation
               of a DocBook SGML (or XML) instance as input.

You can grab this file to test; and of course you need htmldoc
(see the README):

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/HOWTO/mini/other-formats/html_single/DocBook-Install.html

--

I'll add a reference to the package in the "resources" section of
the main author's page (http://www.linuxdoc.org/authors/).

r,

-- 
Greg Ferguson     - s/w engr / mtlhd         | gferg at sgi.com
SGI Tech Pubs     - http://techpubs.sgi.com/ |
Linux Doc Project - http://www.linuxdoc.org/ | gferg at metalab.unc.edu