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cmeisenzahl · Oct 5, 2005, 08:51 AM

Thought some others might find this useful as well. Convert a web page to a PDF by providing the URL. It of course has problems with sites that require registration like many newspaper sites.

http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc/pdf-o-matic.php

turtle777 · Oct 5, 2005, 09:12 AM

Results are craptacular.

Why not use OS X built-in PDF generation and Safari with much better results ?

-t

ReggieX · Oct 5, 2005, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Results are craptacular.
Why not use OS X built-in PDF generation and Safari with much better results ?

You don't even need Safari for that, just Print and select Save PDF. (Or simliar, not at my Mac at the moment). Might help for people on non-Macs though.

turtle777 · Oct 5, 2005, 11:06 AM

Originally Posted by ReggieX

You don't even need Safari for that, just Print and select Save PDF. (Or simliar, not at my Mac at the moment). Might help for people on non-Macs though.

What do you mean "just print" ? How do you bring up the URL if you don't use Safari ?
And don't tell me Firefox or IE....

-t

Tesseract · Oct 5, 2005, 04:14 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

What do you mean "just print" ? How do you bring up the URL if you don't use Safari ?
And don't tell me Firefox or IE....

-t

What do you mean, "don't tell me Firefox or IE"? How do you access the Web without a browser?

You go to the Web site in your favorite browser, choose File > Print, and click the PDF button.

turtle777 · Oct 5, 2005, 04:57 PM

Originally Posted by Tesseract

What do you mean, "don't tell me Firefox or IE"? How do you access the Web without a browser?
You go to the Web site in your favorite browser, choose File > Print, and click the PDF button.

Duh, you should read the whole thread.

I was refering to ReggieX:

Originally Posted by ReggieX

You don't even need Safari for that, just Print and select Save PDF. (Or simliar, not at my Mac at the moment). Might help for people on non-Macs though.

-t

Oisín · Oct 5, 2005, 05:01 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Results are craptacular.

Indeed.

Not only does it ignore the specified character encoding, it also not-so-safely disregards whatever CSS it may happen to come across. Very useful, this.

Edit: Well, wouldn't you just know it. Just tried Safari's PDF function, and it gives me nearly the exact same result, also ignoring CSS completely. At least Safari respects the character encoding, though, and doesn't give you illegible gobbledegook.

Tesseract · Oct 5, 2005, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

Duh, you should read the whole thread.

I was refering to ReggieX

I took ReggieX's statement as meaning that PDF export is not a specific feature of Safari, but that it can be used in any app that has a print feature.

wataru · Oct 5, 2005, 05:21 PM

It's probably not ignoring CSS, it's probably using the page's specified CSS for print media. That's one of the whole points of CSS, that you can have separate rules for screen and print.

And printing to a PDF works from all browsers on OS X, not just Safari.

Oisín · Oct 6, 2005, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by wataru

It's probably not ignoring CSS, it's probably using the page's specified CSS for print media. That's one of the whole points of CSS, that you can have separate rules for screen and print.

Ah, good point. I should try making a print CSS as well. Thanks for reminding me

Cubeoid · Oct 6, 2005, 05:50 AM

I'd like to point out that the title of the thead is sliightly flawed and can lead somebody into confussion. A url is a universal resource locator, how a locator can become a document sure beats me.

shabbasuraj · Oct 6, 2005, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Cubeoid

I'd like to point out that the title of the thead is sliightly flawed and can lead somebody into confussion. A url is a universal resource locator, how a locator can become a document sure beats me.

ya man

turtle777 · Oct 6, 2005, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by Tesseract

I took ReggieX's statement as meaning that PDF export is not a specific feature of Safari, but that it can be used in any app that has a print feature.

ReggieX's statement doesn't make sense.
I already said that the PDF feature is built into OS X. I never alluded that it works only with Safari. But since we are talking about URLs, for most people, it will be Safari.

Anyways, I still don't get ReggieX's statement...

-t

cmeisenzahl · Oct 6, 2005, 08:42 AM

Because I'm on a PC at work.

ReggieX · Oct 6, 2005, 01:21 PM

Originally Posted by turtle777

What do you mean "just print" ? How do you bring up the URL if you don't use Safari ?
And don't tell me Firefox or IE....

Use Firefox, IE, or Opera. Printing to PDF has been a part of OS X for along time, so all applications that can print will have the option. It doesn't matter what browser you use. My wording wasn't the greatest in my first reply.