[nona]

I looked at HexaPDF several years ago, and really liked what I saw.

However, my only major issue with it was the difficulty (back then) for laying out PDFs. Most people I worked with found it a lot easier to layout in HTML/CSS and converting to PDF from there; so we went that way.

If I were to look for a way to manipulate existing PDFs I'd definitely use HexaPDF. I'll re-evaluate its (more recently) improved layout capabilities again and consider it for my next project. And I also think the dual-licensing model is fair.

Congrats on the 10-year/1.0 milestone.

[gettalong]

Thanks!

I agree that laying out PDFs could be made easier by using a declarative mechanism instead of coding. However, I'm still not sure what the best way would be to do that. Using HTML/CSS for this and doing it right would entail implementing something like PrinceXML...

With the current layout model you have the possibility to implement price layouts, like the one needed by Swiss QR bills (see https://x.com/_gettalong/status/1748823670368117154), or just define the general layout and let HexaPDF decide the final position (see https://hexapdf.gettalong.org/examples/pdfa.html).

If you have any ideas, how laying out PDFs could be made simpler, I'm all ears!

[arresin]

How did you go from HTML to PDF?