chris48178
First Post
I am just starting to begin playing with ETHelper. I was curious if anyone has tried or investigated the possibility of exporting the E-Tools characters to an Adobe PDF doc.
E-Tools and PDF
- Thread starter chris48178
- Start date
Fast Learner
First Post
You would simply use eTools' standard printing system, but choose a PDF print driver like Adobe PDFWriter or 995's print driver. Pretty much like any other PDF.
Jay Lofstead
First Post
Having built a system that takes an XML document and makes PDF files (among other things), it is possible to do it without the acrobat distiller (although it is extremely painful for the non-programmer). The short of it, if I haven't lost you already, is to convert the XML into XSLFO using an XSLT and then render the XSLFO using something like FOP. The problem is that you have to write a completely new character sheet from scratch (the layout and such of XSLFO is radically different from how the default XSLT works). Once that file is generated, you could render it into a pdf file.
Lots of work, but it can also be done for free (if you are technical enough to hack your way through it). Let me know if you want any more of the gory details. I haven't done this for e-tools myself since I don't really need pdf files. I'd be happy to be a consultant and help people along if they really want to do it.
Lots of work, but it can also be done for free (if you are technical enough to hack your way through it). Let me know if you want any more of the gory details. I haven't done this for e-tools myself since I don't really need pdf files. I'd be happy to be a consultant and help people along if they really want to do it.
chris48178
First Post
I bring this up becauce of my experience with PCGen. The PDFs tha PCGen produce are so much cleaner and better looking. I figured it could work the same for E-Tools.
I, however am not a programmer, but am a fast learner. I work in the IT field as a career, but seldom use more than the distiller to create PDFs, then add form fields.
I would be interested in tackleing a project like this. I am curious if the ETHelper community would this a project like this would be worth-while? Please reply with your opinions. Especially anyone with Adobe programming experience.
I, however am not a programmer, but am a fast learner. I work in the IT field as a career, but seldom use more than the distiller to create PDFs, then add form fields.
I would be interested in tackleing a project like this. I am curious if the ETHelper community would this a project like this would be worth-while? Please reply with your opinions. Especially anyone with Adobe programming experience.
Jay Lofstead
First Post
The short of it--lots of work.
PCGen has already integrated all of the tools necessary and done the big portion of the work (building the pdf output transform).
To do this for E-Tools, you will have to configure the tools (not too hard) and build the transform for the page (a lot of work).
The transform needs to be something that will convert the XML file of the character into a properly format XSLFO document (which is quite different and a LOT more detailed than HTML). Building this transform to make a nice character sheet I know from personal experience is a LOT of work.
I a reasonably happy with what I have and can tweak it enough to get what I need out of it (such as the monk unarmed attack bonuses). Getting into a PDF document just doesn't get me enough to be willing to go through the pain myself. I'll be happy to consult, answer questions, and help in those sort of ways. Unfortunately, I am too busy with school to really think about doing it myself right now.
PCGen has already integrated all of the tools necessary and done the big portion of the work (building the pdf output transform).
To do this for E-Tools, you will have to configure the tools (not too hard) and build the transform for the page (a lot of work).
The transform needs to be something that will convert the XML file of the character into a properly format XSLFO document (which is quite different and a LOT more detailed than HTML). Building this transform to make a nice character sheet I know from personal experience is a LOT of work.
I a reasonably happy with what I have and can tweak it enough to get what I need out of it (such as the monk unarmed attack bonuses). Getting into a PDF document just doesn't get me enough to be willing to go through the pain myself. I'll be happy to consult, answer questions, and help in those sort of ways. Unfortunately, I am too busy with school to really think about doing it myself right now.
chris48178
First Post
I am beginning to agree with you. After little page setup, I have gotten the output sheets to look like what I want.
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