[reportlab-users] Vector graphic embedding

[Jason Craig]

Tim Roberts wrote:

> Jason Craig wrote:

>   

>> So, if I'm interpreting what I have found correctly, if I wish to

>> embed an already created vector graphic (say, in PS or PDF form) into

>> my PDF document, there is no easy way to do this beyond purchasing a

>> £15,000 software license and using PageCatcher?  It seems absurd that

>> Reportlab supports all the PDF functions to draw all the pieces of my

>> vector graphic but cannot actually draw it in my document.

>>     

>

> Does it?  Please remember that ReportLab is *not* a free desktop

> publishing program.  ReportLab is a Python-friendly wrapper around the

> complicated PDF document standard.  In many (most?) cases, there is a

> nearly 1-to-1 correspondence between ReportLab calls and low-level PDF

> constructs.

>

> The PDF format does not immediately support nesting Postscript and PDF

> subdocuments in a PDF.  Instead, the Postscript or PDF documents have to

> be cracked, analyzed, scaled, and inserted into the PDF stream.  That's

> a non-trivial amount of processing, and it's neither surprising nor

> absurd that the ReportLab folks would reserve that for paying customers.

>

> Bitmapped graphics have direct support in the PDF standard, so the free

> ReportLab products do it.

>

>   

Calm down chief, not a direct attack at you (although you seem to have 
took it that way) nor at ReportLab even; if anything its Adobe I am 
railing on. ReportLab is a useful tool, and yes, I do realize it is not 
a desktop publishing environment. If I could easily and quickly create 
6,500 customizable PDFs for 6,500 different franchises with a desktop 
publishing tool, I might just do that. However, ReportLab, a programming 
tool, allows me to do it programmatically, which means automated, which 
means fast. And yes, it does seem absurd that a document standard that 
purports to "build on the PostScript page description language by 
layering a document structure and interactive navigation features on 
PostScript’s underlying imaging model" (and therefore also a tool that 
has 1-to-1 correspondence with its low-level contructs) does not allow 
said PostScript to be embedded into said document structure, since all 
the framework for translating, scaling, rotating, and drawing the vector 
graphics that seem to be so important to the format is already there.

regards,
--Jason