[mapserver-users] PDF output again

[Paul Ramsey]

I have thought about PDF-on-the-fly in the past, and there are a couple
of pretty major issues with "going vector":

- There will be times, fairly often, where the shear quantity of vector
data for a given map extent will make the file very, very large. So in
addition to just plan old rendering code, there probable need to be
line-thinning routines in an vector-file renderer, otherwise file-sizes
could be enormous.
- The file size of a raster-based PDF, where you just ask Mapserver for
an appropriately sized image with enough resolution to satisfy your
printer and insert it into the PDF, is not all that big with
compression. It is going to actually be difficult to tune a vector-file
renderer to beat the raster renderer on file-size. This is especially
try as you add layers, and of course if you have a raster layer like a
ortho, all bets are off: you might just as well have the full raster
solution.

In your mind, what is the benefit of "going vector" for rendering?

"Carlo A. Bertelli" wrote:

> 
> Some months ago I asked for pdf output from MapServer and a short thread
> started but nor I nor anyone known to the list came out with a solution to
> have vector graphics inside a pdf as a result of a MapServer query.
> Now, I think there is no need to extend MapServer to become a pdf server; a
> different cgi, which could accept MapServer commands without need for some
> interactive part could be produced, substituting pdflib for gd. A button or
> a link in the interface displaying the gif/png map could just call this cgi
> in a new window with the same map in a vector containing PDF.
> Just a suggestion for a hack...
> 
> Carlo
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Carlo A. Bertelli
>    Charta   servizi e sistemi per il territorio e la storia ambientale srl
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>     e-mail: bertelli at charta.acme.com      http://www.charta.acme.com
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