What is a PDF? PDF is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. In 2008 Adobe make this a public standard. Meaning people could duplicate the standard to make documents.
The best thing for me about a PDF is the the user who downloads it will have a hard time making changes. This is good if you don't want the users to make changes and resend the document.
History
In 2007 I created my first PDF document using PDFLib. PDFLib is a free php technology that looked good as long as you didn't do any major formats to the data. At the time this was ok.
Today, we needed the PDF to look more professional and like our website.
Here is a list of our requirements
- Less then $1000
- Had to be a library
- The library had to work with Vs Intellisense.
- Good documentation.
- Had to work with .Net 3.5 and VB.net
- HTML Stream and use external CSS
Why a library? I don't want to install any 3rd party applications on the server that could cause problems. Plus I no longer need to. There are lots of ASP.net software that uses libraries.
Why work with VS Intellisense. I want to make sure the company put some effort into the library. Lots of smaller ones left it out the small details. The last thing I wanted is to purchase something and not have it supported in 6 months.
Here are a list of Vendors I came up with. I will leave the one I choose for last.
Here is a list of Vendors I looked at and tested1) ABCpdf
- Websupergoo.com
- A colleague suggested this.
- First, customer support took 3 days to answer a simple question.
- My second problem is the documentation didn't work.
- The Cost started at $329.
- It worked good for simple text, but since the documentation didn't work I didn't go to far with this product.
2) iTextSharp
- http://itextsharp.sourceforge.net/tutorial/index.html
- Open Source, meaning free
- Did the job if you wanted something basic
- I knew this would be a long term solution
- Would work for receipts if that is all you wanted it for
3) Aspose
- $2396
4) Adobe
- Have to install 3rd party software
- Could not find a cost, assuming lots of money
5) Sautin Soft
- No talk of .net 3.5
- History not ongoing ( Start October 9th, 2008 finished May 15, 2008)
- $249
What did I choose?
My Pic) Winnovative HTML to PDF Converter v5.5 Files
- http://www.expertcomponents.com/
- Full working demo with water mark
- Single App Licence $350
- Single Server Licence $1050
- Took Minutes to get a demo working
- Used complex external CSS Style Sheets
- Good Documentation
- Better value for what some of the other products said they did
- What I thought would take me a day, took me 2 hours.
