Saving Reports as Print Display Output: PDF, PS

Reference:

The PDF HOLD and SAVE formats enable you to produce fully formatted PDF output (for example, headings, footings, and titles), correctly aligned on the physical pages. PDF format also supports StyleSheets that contain drill-down parameters and links to arbitrary URLs and embedded GIF images in report, page, and sort headings and footings.

For details about PDF format, see the Creating Reports With WebFOCUS Language manual.

When you create PDF output:

PS (PostScript format), a print-oriented page description language, is most often used to send a report directly to a printer. While used less frequently as an online display format, you can display PS report output on your monitor before printing it. For details, see Choosing a Display Format in the Creating Reports With WebFOCUS Language manual.

With the exception of drill-downs, all of the report formatting features that are supported for PDF are also supported for PostScript output.

For more information about PS format, see Choosing a Display Format in the Creating Reports With WebFOCUS Language manual.


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Reference: Required Software Configuration for PDF Report Display

You need Adobe Acrobat Reader Version 5.0 or higher in order to display the PDF output in your browser. The appearance of the report in your browser looks precisely as it would when printed. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is an Internet standard that is available for Windows, UNIX, and Macintosh.

Note: You can view PDF reports with the full version of Adobe® Acrobat® product (that you can purchase), or with Acrobat Reader, which is free.

When creating a PDF HOLD file, the output is saved on the PC and can be viewed without using your browser. Acrobat Reader can be used directly.

If you did not install Adobe Acrobat Reader when you installed Developer Studio, it is available for download from http://www.adobe.com. This download is free of charge.

Acrobat Reader is used as a plug-in to your browser. You can view PDF-formatted reports with no additional setup or configuration.

Acrobat Reader is required only to display the PDF output. No third-party products are required to produce the PDF output.


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Reference: StyleSheet Features in PDF

All StyleSheet features that are supported for PostScript behave identically for PDF, unless otherwise noted in this section. The output produced by PDF is identical to that produced by PostScript (subject to font availability).

PostScript fonts are used and can be scaled to any point size. The fonts that are supported are Courier (fixed width), Times (proportional width), and Helvetica (proportional width). The font styles that can be used are Normal (default), Bold, Italic, Underline, and combinations of these. Note that the font style Outline, which is available for PostScript, is not available for PDF. Also, the support for ISO Latin font encoding that is present in PostScript is not available for PDF.

The following StyleSheet features are not supported with PDF (HTML only):


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Reference: Support for Drill-Downs in PDF Files

PDF supports the creation of hyperlinks (drill downs). You can create a hyperlink to drill down to or from a PDF report, to drill down to a graph, or link to a webpage.

When you drill down from one report to another report, do not use the following characters:

Note: PDF does not support drill downs when sorting across column.


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Reference: Differences Between PDF and HTML Formats

The following are the differences between PDF and HTML formats:

PDF

HTML


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