how to write pdf format from cobol? 1

[IMJJ2]

Does anyone know if there is a way to write a pdf file directly from a cobol program?

 

[PHV]

With the PDFwriter virtual printer ?

Hope This Helps, PH.
Want to get great answers to your Tek-Tips questions? Have a look at FAQ219-2884 or FAQ222-2244

 

[fredericofonseca]

As you didn't mention what OS it is hard to give you options.

So.

Windows
Any PDF virtual printer
and
PDFLIB from

http://www.pdflib.com

Maybe others.

Unix
PDFLIB from

http://www.pdflib.com

OS400
GZIP400 from

http://www.gzip400.com/

Native AS/400 Report Converters and Native PCL to PDF Converter from

http://www.rjssoft.com/

There are others, and other OS's.

All can be either called directly from COBOL, or you print to them, or print to a file and then call the convertion program.

Regards

Frederico Fonseca
SysSoft Integrated Ltd

http://www.syssoft-int.com

 

[k5tm]

A COBOL callable wrapper for PDFlib is available in the download section of

http://www.liant.com

.

Just use our search box on the main page to find it.

Tom Morrison

http://www.liant.com

 

[IMJJ2]

Sorry this was my first time. The operating system is OpenVMS on an Alpha server. The language is DEC-COBOL using FMS for the screen design utility. I want to be able to write directly from COBOL to a PDF format. The second best would be to write to an HTML type format.

 

[k5tm]

Probably your best bet is PDFlib ( from

http://www.pdflib.com

) which is available for OpenVMS/Alpha. Instead of using WRITE statements, you would CALL various routines in the PDFlib utility. The concept of PDF is page layout, not printing lines, so you have to adjust your thinking somewhat. I have found, though, that converting a program that prints a report to one that produces the same report using PDFlib is straightforward. PDFlib does not claim to have bindings for DEC-COBOL, so you might have some 'auxiliary' work to do to use the C bindings from DEC-COBOL.

Tom Morrison

http://www.liant.com