export web page to pdf on the fly

[eluser]paulcj2[/eluser]
I'd like my site visitors to be able to print the contents of my web pages reformatted on the fly as one page printed flyers. Here's an example on my existing procedurally coded website (soon to be converted to CI).

The web page (workshop information) is here
At the bottom of the page is a link (print flyer) to a page in which this information is converted to a flyer format.

The the page reformatted as a flyer is here

Problem is that visitors will print this page using various platforms, OSs, browsers & printers.

Is there some CI helper or other functionality that can help smooth out the kinks that all these variables cause, so that visitors can get consistently good flyer hard copy?

[eluser]Mirage[/eluser]
Generally speaking, this is a job for CSS. Perhaps a stylesheet specifically created for media/print. But just the same as goes for CSS display, browsers vary widely in their support for print and what they print isn't always what you see. You also always will have limited vertical control - browser break pages using different approaches.

The best you can do is to keep the printable version simple in it's formatting - which it seems you are doing - and to make sure (as best you can) that it doesn't exceed 792 pixels vertically. Or if you must break pages use fixed height containers which will help targeting page-breaks.

The alternative for best output is of course to create PDF's programmatically from content with something like PDFLib or one of the free libraries.

Finally - CI does not have a system library to wrap PDF functionality, but it should be easy enough to create your own wrapper around one of the many options out there.

HTH,
-m

[eluser]paulcj2[/eluser]
Many thanks. I have considered creating PDF functionality. I'll explore all your suggestions.