____ ____ _____ _ ____ ___ ____
| _ \| _ \| ___| _ _ / \ | _ \_ _| |___ \
| |_) | | | | |_ (_) (_) / _ \ | |_) | | __) |
| __/| |_| | _| _ _ / ___ \| __/| | / __/
|_| |____/|_| (_) (_) /_/ \_\_| |___| |_____|
There seem to be a growing plethora of Perl modules for creating and
manipulating PDF files.
This module is 'The Next Generation' of Text::PDF::API which initially
provided a nice API around the Text::PDF::* modules created by Martin Hosken.
FEATURES
. Works with more than one PDF file open at once
. It presents a object-oriented API to the user
. Supports the 14 base PDF Core Fonts
. Supports the Microsoft Webfonts via an optional module
. Supports TrueType fonts
. Supports Adobe-Type1 Fonts (pfb/pfa/afm)
. Supports native Embedding of bitmap images (jpeg,ppm,png)
. Supports modification of existing pdfs
and import/cloning of pages
UN-FEATURES (which will one day be fixed)
. Documentation is currently rather sparse
. This is beta code in development which works
for my apps, your milage may vary :)
REQUIREMENTS
This module set requires you to have installed the following other perl modules:
Module Required for
------------------------------------------------------
Compress::Zlib - Compression of PDF object streams
Text::PDF-0.19 - Low-level Pdf-Object Handling
Font::TTF-0.28 - Truetype Handling
NOTES
For Type1 font support to work correctly you have to have a postscript font file,
either binary (pfb) or ascii (pfa) format and an adobe font metrics file (afm).
Thanks.
INSTALLATION (on Unix)
Installation is as per the standard module installation approach:
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install
INSTALLATION (on Windows: ActiveState Perl, or IndigoPerl, and NMAKE)
Another way to install as a traditional Perl module, using
"perl Makefile.PL" and Microsoft's NMAKE, included with
MS DevStudio. Here's what one user has to say on this subject:
nmake works nicely, and the installation process looks the same
as on other platforms.
My understanding is that nmake.exe is available for free from
Redmond. In fact I downloaded it just a few minutes ago,
following the suggestion found on the IndigoPerl home page:
Installing CPAN modules requires that you have Microsoft
DevStudio or nmake.exe installed. If you are installing
modules that contain xs files, then you need DevStudio,
otherwise you only need nmake.exe. You can download
nmake from [the url below].
Run the self-extracting exe and copy nmake.exe to the perl\bin
directory.
[the URL is:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/vc15/Patch/1.52/W95/EN-US/Nmake15.exe
]
Nmake15.exe expands to nmake.exe (64K) and Nmake.Err (5k) - a text
file. I copied both to C:\perl\bin, then renamed nmake.exe to
make.exe and now I can pretend to be on Unix:
H:\devperl\some-module>perl Makefile.PL
Writing Makefile for some-module
H:\devperl\some-module>make all test
H:\devperl\some-module>make install
...
CONTACT
There is a mailing-list available:
Post message: perl-text-pdf-modules@yahoogroups.com
Subscribe: perl-text-pdf-modules-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Unsubscribe: perl-text-pdf-modules-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Archive: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/perl-text-pdf-modules
List owner: perl-text-pdf-modules-owner@yahoogroups.com
DOWNLOAD SITE
Primary: http://pdfapi2.sf.net/
Alternative: http://penguin.at0.net/~fredo/files/
CPAN: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/CPAN/authors/id/A/AR/AREIBENS/
Linked: http://freshmeat.net/projects/pdf-api2/
COPYRIGHTS & LICENSING
This module is copyrighted by Alfred Reibenschuh and can be used under
perl's "Artistic License" which has been included in this archive.