[mapserver-dev] pdf output development?

[Brent Fraser]

To those interested in PDF output:

  I've integrated my scale/placement enhancements into Thomas Bonfort's Cairo rendering to produce:
http://139.142.13.163/Download/Mapserver/topo_cairo_082H04.pdf

The PDF is meant to (eventually) emulate a Canadian 1:50,000 topographic map sheet.  While the scale is 1:50k when printed, it's lacking quite a few layers yet.  It will open in Inkscape, although performance is slow...

  I'm impressed with the Cairo rendering and Thomas' implementation.

Brent

>>>> Brent Fraser <bfraser at geoanalytic.com> 01/06/09 5:31 PM >>>
> Hi All,
> 
>   I've been investigating some enhancements to make the pdf output more suitable for printed map production.  So far, aside from some minor bug fixes, I've coded a few new FORMATOPTIONS in my local copy of mappdf.c to allow more user control over the placement and scale of the map on the page:
> 
>   OUTPUTFORMAT
>     NAME pdf
>     MIMETYPE "application/x-pdf"
>     DRIVER pdf
>     FORMATOPTION "PAGE_WIDTH=612"           # (font points)  8.5 inches wide (72 points per inch)
>     FORMATOPTION "PAGE_HEIGHT=792"          # (font points)  11 inches tall
>     FORMATOPTION "MAP_MARGIN_LEFT=144"      # (font points)  2 inches to the right
>     FORMATOPTION "MAP_MARGIN_BOTTOM=144"    # (font points)  2 inches up from the bottom of the page
>     FORMATOPTION "SCALEDENOM=50000"         # 1:50,000 scale when printed
>   END
> 
> Here's a sample of the output (using the HARU pdf library): http://139.142.13.163/Download/Mapserver/topo2_enh_scale3.pdf
> 
> And I've been able to compile Thomas Bonfort's Cairo-based work on Windows XP/VC++ to produce: http://139.142.13.163/Download/Mapserver/topo2_cairo.pdf (note that my modifications for scale and placement have not been applied to this).
> 
> It seems like there's been a renewed interest in pdf output lately, so I'm wondering how to proceed with development.  Should we allow a choice of PDF renderers (Cairo, PDFlib-lite, Haru) at compile-time/run-time?  Re-implement PDFlib/Haru following "plugin" method of the Cairo implementation?  Leave them separate for now and see how much PDF-output interest there is in the Mapserver user community?
> 
> Opinions welcome...
> 
> Thanks!
> Brent Fraser
>