[reportlab-users] Re: Ligatures & page count, merge cells in tables

[Henning von Bargen]

> From: Mark Summerfield <mark@trolltech.com>
> Organization: Trolltech
> To: reportlab-users@reportlab.com
> Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2004 15:39:28 +0100
> Subject: [reportlab-users] Ligatures & page count
> Reply-To: reportlab-users@reportlab.com
>
> Hi,
>
> I've just started trying out ReportLab to see if I can use it for
> various projects, but I have a few questions.
>
> 3) Is the paragraph layout algorithm one that provides optimal
> inter-word spacing like the one Knut uses in LaTex (and Jeff Kingston
> uses in lout)?

AFAIK not - the algorithm goes word by word and tries to
add the next word to the current line - if it does not fit anymore, start
the next line.
However, the results with the current algorithm are quite good,
block justification is supported.

>
> 4) Is there any auto-hyphenation?

You can download my hyphenation library from
http://deco-cow.sourceforge.net
(an "official" announcement will follow, perhaps on Sunday).
The library supports auto-hyphenation in RL Paragraphs.
Documentation is still lacking and the code needs some work as well.
But it works for me. I could generate the RL user guide with hyphenation
support
using english hyphenation pattern files from Open Office,
furthermore I can auto-hyphenate german text with a self-written algorithm
that
works by decomposing composed words (useful for germanic languages).

With auto-hyphenation, block-justified paragraphs look pretty nice.

>
> 5) When I use a textObject it always left aligns; is there a way of
> controlling its alignment? (There's drawCentredString() etc., but only
> one drawText().)

You should use Platypus instead of the low-level interface.

One question: Why do you consider using RL for your project?
I'm asking because I also tried using lout and LaTeX,
but programming a nice-looking document
based on dynamic data seems easier with RL
and that's why I'm using RL though lout and LaTeX produce
slightly better quality.

> From: Mark Elsegood <Mark.Elsegood@aba.gov.au>
> To: "'reportlab-users@reportlab.com'" <reportlab-users@reportlab.com>
> Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 11:36:37 +1000
> Subject: [reportlab-users] Merge Cells in Table
> Reply-To: reportlab-users@reportlab.com
>
> Is there any easy way, with reportlab, to merge cells within a table, or
> make text span a number of cells?

The documentation is not always up-to-date.
You CAN span cells.
Take a look at test/test_table_layout.py
and the resulting PDF.

Henning