On Tue, 28 Sep 1999, chas wrote:
Perhaps I'm missing the point but, for the barcodes, why not just generate GIFs ? Then you could link them into webpages or wherever. Faster, no plugins, leaves you open to choose another format for the actual reports. Well, the problem with GIFs is, that you cannot control which page layout the browser will use to print the image. Additionally, for a modern 24pin matrix printer, the resolution would have to be 360x180 dpi or so. (That's another thing you cannot express with an image/html: that the resolution of the image is X dpi, not some browser default.)
As for reports, PDF is good for all of the reasons outlined by Evan. However, with MSIE 4+ and absolute positioning, you CAN generate a report with layout as precise and as good as any PDF document - easier and quicker to do too (I'm assuming your html and css are ok). Stylesheets and the MSIE Client SDK are your friends. For the reports, I'm assuming you control the end browser and this is not for public access where some mong will be using Netscape 1.x Still doesn't solve the problem: For real form printing with dot matrix printers one usually want to print ASCII and not bitmaps.
Andreas -- Andreas Kostyrka | andreas@mtg.co.at phone: +43/1/7070750 | phone: +43/676/4091256 MTG Handelsges.m.b.H. | fax: +43/1/7065299 Raiffeisenstr. 16/9 | 2320 Zwoelfaxing AUSTRIA