Options for server-side rich text rendering & printing?

[ChrisN]

I have a requirement to generate and print good-looking customised
correspondence.

I would like to be able to use mark-up for formatting, ie as a MS Word
or HTML document.

However Word doesn't seem to be an option because of various problems
including print dialog boxes and licensing.

Is there an engine that will render HTML and print it? I can't
imaging that invoking IE rendering engine using COM will be very
reliable because of possible reentrancy issues, print dialogs etc.

Is server-side PDF rendering / printing an option?

Any pointers on this would be very welcome.

Thanks,

ChrisN
Kew, Surrey, UK

 

[Rad [Visual C# MVP]]

I have a requirement to generate and print good-looking customised
correspondence.

I would like to be able to use mark-up for formatting, ie as a MS Word
or HTML document.

However Word doesn't seem to be an option because of various problems
including print dialog boxes and licensing.

Is there an engine that will render HTML and print it? I can't
imaging that invoking IE rendering engine using COM will be very
reliable because of possible reentrancy issues, print dialogs etc.

Is server-side PDF rendering / printing an option?

Any pointers on this would be very welcome.

Thanks,

ChrisN
Kew, Surrey, UK

You can use a veriety of server side PDF solutions. If you have Visual
Studio 2005 you can get pretty good results with tools like Crytal Reports,
XtraReports, etc